lending honey boxes

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349
449
Bay of Plenty
Experience
Commercial
question for the day
I'm not looking for answers as I know my answer but am interested in others' thoughts, here goes
beek A: has had no AFB for 10yrs+, his friend beek B: wants to borrow honey supers from beek A as he has a contract to supply honey but things are tight financially and cant buy or afford any new gear, this contract will really help him out of a tight spot.
the beeks are friends and beek B has had a little bit of AFB but nothing in the last 2yrs.
What do you do?
 

Alastair

Founder Member
Platinum
8,753
9,966
Auckland
Experience
Semi Commercial
Being way to kind of a guy I would probably help him out with the boxes although I wouldn't feel that great about it.

In the scenario you describe there is probably a very small risk only. I might stipulate that my boxes are not to be used at sites that had AFB, and the hives would also need to be AFB checked at the time of harvest.

Given all that, the risk would be tiny. But there is always a risk.
 
445
327
Mid Canterbury
Experience
Semi Commercial
question for the day
I'm not looking for answers as I know my answer but am interested in others' thoughts, here goes
beek A: has had no AFB for 10yrs+, his friend beek B: wants to borrow honey supers from beek A as he has a contract to supply honey but things are tight financially and cant buy or afford any new gear, this contract will really help him out of a tight spot.
the beeks are friends and beek B has had a little bit of AFB but nothing in the last 2yrs.
What do you do?
Beek A has to go with his gut feeling. Where did Beek B have the AFB? Was it apiary specific? If so, the answer may lie in the question.
 
1,030
748
Christchurch
Experience
Hobbyist
Honestly… I would lend B the gear, but I would not want it back. Beek B can have the risk, I don’t want it back.

When B is back on his feet, he can repay with replacement gear when he can.

I’m happy with the financial risk, but AFB would ruin me.
 
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Reactions: NickWallingford
445
327
Mid Canterbury
Experience
Semi Commercial
Maybe request supers don't come back as wets.

In the past I have helped out lending honey supers, but there was zero AFB in the area. Also I wasn't coming up for retirement. When I have sold gear the last few years I have been pretty confident that it was AFB free.
 
8,865
5,295
maungaturoto
Experience
Commercial
another thing to consider.
frames get mixed up during extraction so your not going to get your gear back. also what condition the gear comes back in is another story.

in my experience when people are suffering finically and borrow major items, odds of you ever getting it back are slim. there is usually other reasons for why they are in the bad position they are in.
 
3,578
6,706
Hawkes Bay
Experience
Commercial
You would be hard pressed to find an apiary site around here that wasn't red zoned so around here anyway the chances at least some of your gear would come back infected unless you had absolute confidence in your friends beekeeping abilities.
I think I would go with the lending the gear but not wanting it back scenario. These days I don't even trust my own ability let alone anybody else's.
 
1
0
Ashburton
Experience
Commercial
I am in Mid-Canterbury and would certainly not supply gear to another beek who was desperate for boxes.
We are constantly being advised of AFB within two ks of our sites.
There are other options when you might be desperate to supply bees with extra room.
I can recall decades back a very large firm I worked for taped cardboard boxes onto the top of very full hives, worked marvellously and to remove we pulled a steel wire thru to break the seal from the box beneath, sounds rough but we got the results.
Boxes were all escaped, bit hard to blow bees in a cardboard box!
 


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