# Quiney Honey and Bee Contributes to the SBGMI



## James Lee (Apr 29, 2020)

We are grateful for Mr. Quiney's contributions to the Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of MI. He has recently compiled a post with beneficial and helpful reading on the road to sustainability. He is not a "treatment free" beekeeper, but he is desirous of achieving an end that successfully manages the mites without chemicals. @Litsinger has remarked on Mr. Quiney in the past I believe, particularly in his presentation using negotiation as a foil with the Bee Laborers Union - he really is a swell guy and a genuine person to boot.

You can see the post here if you are in Michigan and want to follow the Guild on FB.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainablebeekeepersguild/posts/906400536729890/


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## Ambrose (May 9, 2019)

As a guy that doesn't FB, is there another way to ready the post? Thanks.


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## James Lee (Apr 29, 2020)

Ambrose said:


> As a guy that doesn't FB, is there another way to ready the post? Thanks.


First the video he posted - 
*"A 2020 Vision - taking winter survival from 1/2 to 2/3 by negotiating a common sense compromise"*





And the text of his post:


As I muse about what I should post my thoughts go all over the place. I think a good place to start is to think about where you want to end up, i knew that in the beginning (2008), and it was simple. I didn't want to buy bees (packages or nucs) and I didn't accept that it was inevitable.

My enterprise has been built on a total of 5 packages since 2008 - the last 2 bought in 2012 if memory serves, and I entered winter this year with 91 colonies. My approach has been additive and non-conventional.

Mel Disselkoen's brood break philosophy has been added to Michael Palmer's nuc practices and piled on top of that is Mobus's theories and beliefs on the importance of a warm insulated broodnest. Layered on top of that big sustainability pie is a topping of the Dutch Drone Brood method to control mites in the summer, and a side of Mite resistant stock to (hopefully) allow the bees to control some of the mites themselves. I nearly forgot to include in the recipe Michigans other infuencer - Meghan Milbrath. Meghan's epidemiological approach and math - the math states that 9 generations of unbroken mite cycles will take down a colony. Her epidemiology theory, as I understand it, says that it makes no sense to introduce foreign viruses into your apiary in the spring in the carried by purchased bees. 

Your overwintered bees are vulnerable to the viruses that come in, and your purchased bees are vulnerable to the viruses that your overwintered bees may carry.

I have eaten from the sustainability pie for so long that I forget how different it is from what is conventionally taught. Most of what I have posted is readily available online with a google search. I'll link three references to start with. Bernhard Mobus was a german prisoner of war with a physics background and he wrote a few pieces that ended up in the ABJ. I am going to start with him because its -4F this morning in Hudson, WI, and I want you to believe in the power of insulation in our Northern Climate.

https://scientificbeekeeping.com/.../Mobus-1998-brood...
https://scientificbeekeeping.com/.../Mobus-1998-winter...
An overview of the whole process can be seen on this video from my youtube channel. Its 36 minutes long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKs1dp9gIwU


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