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One glaring problem I see with this is that anyone who has ever had hives (which my family has) knows how quickly Varroa mites can spread (the #1 killer of bees
by partiallypro 8y ago
One glaring problem I see with this is that anyone who has ever had hives (which my family has) knows how quickly Varroa mites can spread (the #1 killer of bees.) If all the bees are in a single location, that could wipe out every hive there. Would make more sense to me if you made sanctuaries that were spread on ~1 acre plots around a wide area (thinking several cities/town in a clustered area.)
Anyone with more expertise is free to correct me, but I feel like clustering bees on single plots, even 124 acres (which seems big, but is not really that big,) really has some risk if your end goal is to preserve the species.
- beardicus 8y agoSpreading bees out would not make a difference here. All hives have some level of varroa nowadays. The level depends on management techniques and not so much proximity to other hives with mites. Spreading hives out into 1 acre plots wouldn't do much when bees are foraging miles away from the hive, and would make it more difficult to visit each hive for maintenance.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- lostlogin 8y agoThere are worse diseases too - like American foul brood. The cure (by law) here in New Zealand is to pour petrol in the hive then burn it, even if it is in just one cell. It goes through an apiary fast, as bees rob out dead hives. The dream scenario is to have apiarys completly isolated from one another, but we are so overstocked here that this isn’t possible.