Well I am back home and the conference was incredibly helpful.
I had so much fun and met wonderful people.
I took alot of pictures and just downloaded them into my existing photo bucket album so if you want to check them out and see what Michael Bush looks like you can check out the link.
Erik Osterland is the editor of a Swedish bee magazine and travels extensively speaking at treatment free conferences.
He was a real sweetheart and the way he speaks when he gives presentations is poignant, he did alot of work with Brother Adam at the Buckfast Abbey and is a wealth of information.
I ate breakfast with him this morning and he asked me about my hives so I showed him the pictures I had stored in my camera.
He likes what I have done with the design of the hives and gardens and asked if he could print them in his magazine.
I was honored of course and he took the card from my camera and downloaded the pictures to his computer and told me he was writing an article and will include my pictures.
He said he was impressed with what I was doing as a first year beekeeper.
I am still in shock over it and I just cannot tell you what a lovely man he is, I really enjoyed our conversations this weekend.
Michael Palmer gave a talk on splits and using that as a way to build your apiary rather than ordering packages from down south that are not acclimated to our environment.
He does not treat his hives, allows the weak to die and builds up off the strong.
Its not for the faint of heart but that is what everyone is doing.
The less hives you have the harder it is to risk them all but its the only way to get survivor stock.
That is one of the biggest recommendations they all gave and agreed on, find someone in your own area who is breeding stock and selling overwintered nucs or at least their spring splits.
Buying packages from down south are not going to do well here long term.
That is not a cure all but is the first step. All of the presenters had at least this in common- they all lost 50-75 percent of their hives when they quit treating their colonies.
Of course that is a huge temporary set back but its what they were prepared to do to weed out the weak and build off the strong.
They are all up to hundreds of hives now some have several hundred hives and they are all surviving without treatments.
It took around 4 years for their stock to develop to where they could exist without any treatments.
Although there are some who say small cell comb does not make a difference, Jennifer Berry just did her own study and she claims she did not find any difference in the survival of her hives that were on large small or small cell.
However,all of these presenters are doing small cell regression and they claim that is an essential piece to the puzzle and they would not have been successful without implementing it in conjuction with being treatment free.
All of the experts agreed that it was a combination of several things that worked for all of them and until they did all components they were not successful.
Small cell regression to natural comb, zero chemicals including all natural treatments like essential oils and powdered sugar shakes, making splits and building their survivor stock, no artificial feeding unless its a true emergency and buying nucs that are fit for your climate.
They discussed queen lineage and breeding but I need to check my notes before I comment on that.
Basically they allow their bees to function with minimal interference.
For the feeding, they feel that if the bees cannot build up on their own and get through the winter then those are not genetics they want in their stock.
For splits though Michael Palmer suggests only feeding them honey frames and not sugar syrup since the sugar kills the microbes in the gut and around the hive.
If you don't have any honey then your only choice is to feed them sugar syrup if you want to feed.
This is where some will just stop feeding and if they make it through the winter then fine if not they start again.
You have to do what is right for you though.
From what I could tell they all feed their splits frames of honey, so they do feed splits but not colonies that are built up, at least not this time of year anyway.
Being that this is your first year and don't have a whole lot of stock built up you may want to feed them this year and not next year if they all make it through the winter.
If possible freeze a bunch of honey frames that you can use to get them started in spring so you won't have to use sugar or you can use them in emergencies or to make splits.
Michael Palmer makes a 5 frame split and puts 2 frames of honey in each of them.
There are so many ways to keep bees and you can do whatever is right for you. I don't want you to feel that you are doing anything wrong when I pass on this type of information, I am just sharing what I learned and you can take what you want from it.
I learned so much that I am still sorting it all out in my head but I am so thrilled that I went to this conference.
Aside from the information I got I met so many wonderful beekeepers there, the people were so friendly and welcoming.
You just sat down at a table during meals and see who you ended up eating with and that is how I got to know so many other beeks.
I met Chris Harp, the "bee doctor" from New York.
Erik Osterland- Swedish beekeeper, researcher and editor.
Michael Bush- some say he is the "Godfather of Beekeeping" and is well respected. He sat next to me during presentations and heckeld the other speakers, (in a good way) and I found him to be very entertaining.
Sam Comfort- I already knew him but he is a knowledgeable and interesting young man, very unique.
Michael Palmer- who is breeding some of the best northern queens and survivor stock right now
Dee Lusby- leading the way in small cell regression (and defending it adamantly) man is she funny. Not at all what you expect from reading about her.
She tells you like it is.
I already knew Dean and Ramona who put this whole thing together but it was nice to see them again and it was amazing to have this many people with the same interests hanging out together and talking and learning from eachother.
We exchange alot of numbers and addresses today and we all made alot of new friends.
They are already working on next year's conference so you may want to consider attending.
http://s679.photobucket.com/albums/vv153/natalierosepeterson/?start=all
I don't want to seem arrogant by ignoring some of the advice of older beeks, but already several things I was told not to do (but many folks online had done) have worked out fine. 
A dream that has been a long time coming..... 
