The Old Folks Home

[CapricornFarm]

I hope it works!

Mareks has been very hard on you

X2

 

[MrsMistyReal]

I planted herbs yesterday....View attachment 1246180

What types of herbs? I was thinking of doing oregano, rosemary, dill,

 

[Kusanar]

I seriously considering it. I have 8 or 9 Buff Orpington hens that will be 3 in March and so far are proving to be resistant to whatever vicious strain of Marek's I have on the property. My big concern is that BO's are noted to be one of the breeds that are more susceptible to Marek's. There are 5 surviving Welsummer hens and if I decide to cross breed I will probably cross them with one of my bantam cockerels. They are magnificent layers, those Wellies and so far the hens have been fairly resistant to the 'crud' that killed off so many of the roosters and BO hens.

I'm still hoping to down breed as far as size of the bird is concerned and planning to pickup a few Orscheln bantam chicks with the hopes of getting smaller birds out of my OEGB cross hens.

Geek is a nice cockerel, medium sized, I don't know what his heritage is though as he doesn't look like my OEGB cross boys that have bantam cochin in them. He is predominately brown with black penciling on his breast feathering. Maybe red sexlink crossed with OEGB. I truly doubt if our Amish neighbor who I bought the eggs from even knows.

So yes, I am still planning to cross breed. Just uncertain as of now what I'm going with. Everything depends on who survives this breeding season. Then next year I am planning to add Egyptian Fayoumi's to the flock to do the serious breeding for resistance.

Reading you talking about your fight with Mareks reminds me about a friend was telling me that a guy has been intensively breeding honey bees to resist mites. He apparently has a queen that the mites don't bother and the workers will actually check each other for mites and remove and kill any that they find. Apparently they also stand guard at the door of the hive and check each bee for mites as they enter.

Pretty neat stuff you can do with thoughtful breeding.

 

[chickadoodles]

I planted herbs yesterday....View attachment 1246180

What kind did you plant?

So far the herbs I planted are just dill, parsley and basil.
My other herbs are in my Fedco order I'm waiting on.

 

[bruceha2000]

Reading you talking about your fight with Mareks reminds me about a friend was telling me that a guy has been intensively breeding honey bees to resist mites. He apparently has a queen that the mites don't bother and the workers will actually check each other for mites and remove and kill any that they find. Apparently they also stand guard at the door of the hive and check each bee for mites as they enter.

Pretty neat stuff you can do with thoughtful breeding.

Wow, what a boon that would be! I gather those mites are the biggest difficulty with raising bees now.

 

[ronott1]

Wow, what a boon that would be! I gather those mites are the biggest difficulty with raising bees now.

It might be a combination of factors killing the bees though. There is also a concern with pesticides killing them too. It might be that one makes them weak and the other kills them.

 

[Kusanar]

Wow, what a boon that would be! I gather those mites are the biggest difficulty with raising bees now.

It might be a combination of factors killing the bees though. There is also a concern with pesticides killing them too. It might be that one makes them weak and the other kills them.

The pesticides certainly aren't helping matters, but, even if bee keepers could stop applying pesticides (miteicides) to their hives to kill the mites that would help some anyway. You also can't treat for mites while you have a Super on the hive because you don't want the bees taking the treatment into the hive with the honey you will be eating, so you can only really treat in the winter since they aren't producing then anyway.

 

[ronott1]

The pesticides certainly aren't helping matters, but, even if bee keepers could stop applying pesticides (miteicides) to their hives to kill the mites that would help some anyway. You also can't treat for mites while you have a Super on the hive because you don't want the bees taking the treatment into the hive with the honey you will be eating, so you can only really treat in the winter since they aren't producing then anyway.

Each year at UC Davis there is a Bee conference. Campus is doing a lot of research to save bees.

I hope they can get it all figured out soon!

 

[Kusanar]

Each year at UC Davis there is a Bee conference. Campus is doing a lot of research to save bees.

I hope they can get it all figured out soon!

And idiots quit destroying massive numbers of hives and bees for fun...

 

[CapricornFarm]

What types of herbs? I was thinking of doing oregano, rosemary, dill,

Not feeling great now, just resting in bed . But i will list when i go downstairs later. Dill, oregano, i forget what else. You can sure smell the dill!