# What's your secret?



## wadehump (Sep 30, 2007)

All of my 28 hives are mutt swarms , cutouts or splits. All are foundationless. I have 2 beekeepers within 2 miles of me 1 is a good friend with 1 hive that i gave him the other is not a friend but i do know him dont know what his management style is as he will not let the bee inspector near his hives for a look. I do NOT treat at all my bees swarm as i do not practice swarm management but do catch some of my swarms with nuc traps. I harvest some honey to sell to buy more equipment and give away to friends and family.


----------



## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I don't have any secrets, I tell everything on Beesource!

My main philosophy is just to keep bees as though disease doesn't exist. It does of course, but I find that colonies suffering from disease aren't the ones I want to breed from anyway because they don't produce honey. I never breed from a hive that has not survived at least one winter here. The rest is just increasing from the good producers. And it's not even just from the survivors, it's just breeding from the hives which have the traits I want, good honey production, gentle, etc.

My location is nothing special, kind of a poor area, no big commercial beekeepers here. I'm not isolated, there are other small beekeepers around, feral hives in trees and such. The weather is not that great, down to -20 in the winter and up to 115 in the summer. I started with average northern California stock, but I have added some nearly treatment-free stock along the way.

The only philosophy I follow is my own. I do what works. I try to quit doing what doesn't work.


----------

