Cowboy Scott

Bull wrote:
Teramiacan, antibootic ? I get small bags at farmand ranch and mix with 1 bag of powdered suger to medicate them ?
if there weak or sick , early in the season and in the fall ?
just dont sprinkle on the larva .

Not to disagree with this method, but thats what I was hoping to get away from was traditional medicating. I am trying to think organic in raising them. I have found a couple of organic site since this post, just haven't had time to digest them yet. I just have a hard time putting something in their hive that I couldn't eat myself or feed to my children.

As this is my first year with Bee's I have what might be to some a stupid question, but then again I am known for those so here it goes.
I am aware that Veroa Mites are a common pest of the bee's.
I also know that chicken, turkeys, and guinea fowl are great gleemers of tick sized critters. So would anyone know if having these type of bird help or make any difference with these mites? Or none at all?
Would it help to keep them close to each other? just wondering as most of what I read is on treating them and not on how they get to the bees in the first place.

Thank you, very well spoken.

paul wheaton wrote:
If you said that to Sepp Holzer, he would probably slap you silly.

Based on his teachings, I would say that you could measure on the dollar value alone.  In fact, measure your organic, first rate product against the cheapest crap you can find and you should still come out dollars ahead.  By far.

Think about it:  plant once and harvest year after year without any further effort other than the harvest.  Doing the harvest on your own land has to be way easier than going to the store. 

Yesterday Sepp was exasperated about all these American fools who still go to the grocery store and spend obscene amounts of money for horrible food when they could have first class food from home for damn near free.

We are not at all unfamiliar with more needs than money, having a large family.
But some things we have lately discovered like making our own bread. The King Author Whole wheat flour is all our local stores carry in our small city, but at nearly 5$ a 5lb bag, it is still very close to the day old bread store prices, here how.
First of all I cook sourdough breads, so only flour and some salt and water (potato water for starter) and extra's like Honey (which we have to buy till our bee's get up and going) is from what I have read the better bread to make and eat simply because the wild yeast once mixed with the ingredients actually eats and weakens the gluten in the wheat, thereby making it better for your body to digest.
Second my loaves weight about 2 lbs (and yes, it is lite and fluffy bread) and the store weight about 16 ounces now, they just dropped from 20oz loaf.
And third, if you can read all the ingredients on a store bought loaf, your my hero, and yes I learned to speak using phonics, but these ingredients just defy me at times.

So in the end the one Item I see is your labor, so not only is Sepp right about the worthless store food, but the labor we put into our own food is what is supposed to happen to keep us moving and fit till the day we lay down in the earth.
I can only see what our society calls progress as going backward. The real progress is raising as much food as you can where you live, teaching your children to do the same, and reaping the benefit of knowing you did you best to stay as healthy as you could and taught others to do the same

I got to read this article on Raising Chickens and saw that you got some not to nice reply which really made me want to read the article, seeing as everything I have seen on youtube from Paul Wheaton has been great.
I read through it, and I have so say after raising a considerable amount of bird over several years, not only do I agree on your ideas of raising them, but did my best to practice them without knowing it.
We at one time had 45-50 standard bronze turkeys, 55-60 buff orpington chickens, and about 35-40 muscovey ducks, which we still have.
And right now I do the practice of letting them out in the morning and putting them up and night because of....you guessed it 'yotes as the locals here in NC call them.
I think it only right to let them roam during the day, BUT ( I know big but) there is always someone here at the house since we Home school.
I would love to do the divided pens, but the money for them seems to be out of reach most of the time. Now here in NC, I did have to keep turkeys in some what of a pen as I cannot let them run free due to laws, but then again we would turn them loose for hours while we were outside to watch them.
I did have a couple of dog that did their job, but they grew old and I have not replaced them as of yet, so was glad to see that mentioned as even what a good breed is for that purpose.
I have also stood watch with my firearms and have had to scare the daylights out of stray dogs that people let roam, as my bird never left my property even when the flock was that big, can't explain it either, they just didn't.

Honestly the only reason I could see someone getting mad was if they didn't really want to care for their birds in a manner so as to promote the ANIMALS health, thereby promoting ours though their harvest.
Yes, they are work. Don't buy them if you don't want the work. But there just isn't anything close you can buy in the store come thanksgiving than a pastured Turkey. My friends keep asking if I am going to raise them again, and we are looking into it. I know this is long for my first post to your forum, but I really respect what you have been doing and was a little upset that some would say what they said. I guess I took it personal after finding out I had been doing it a lot like you were suggesting.