Tag Archives: future survey

2015 Survey Q & A – Prep worksheet for Future Survey?

Posted on April 25, 2015 | 1 comment

Q – If it is possible to have check sheet of info that beekeepers should gather, it would be easier than teasing things like months of mite counts out of log sheets…
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A – There are so many different styles to keeping bees that a checklist might not be of use but certainly more information of when to do what might help. Will see what can be developed.

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2015 Survey Q & A – Can’t pick Just One

Posted on April 25, 2015 | Leave a comment

Q – On the first page or two, you asked questions that should have been check boxes rather than radio buttons. You asked for the MAJOR source of information when getting started. I couldn’t really pick ONE, but I had to randomly pick one of the most important (books, magazines, etc). But equally important were internet web sites, club meetings, and mentors. There was a second question that suffered from this same problem, either right before or right after the above question, but I can’t remember now what it was.
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A – You are correct on these two questions at the beginning of the survey. We will likely want to adjust this to multiple choice in the next version. Thank you for taking time to send us comments.

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2015 Survey Q & A – Great Tool

Posted on April 24, 2015 | Leave a comment

Q- Please keep me informed of surveys such as this. What a great tool you’ve created for collecting data.
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A – I will be posting the results in May and they will be on the orsba.org wesite and in the BeeLine. If you don’t see them drop me a line.

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2015 Survey Q & A – Question for Treatment Results

Posted on April 3, 2015 | Leave a comment

Q- You may want to design a question that addresses treatments that worked, but worked too late. I treated with OA, after I was down to 1 hive, having watched 4 others die out even before winter. I didn’t recognize how bad the mite problem was until too late, and then finally got a vaporizer to treat, but only had one hive remaining. That one became very strong going into the winter, even though it was late fall.
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A-Thank you for completing a survey. You had a comment on our adding a question on treatments that worked but were used too late.  That is a good idea. Unfortunately we have a constraint on the number of questions we feel we can cover and yet get data. We do have the question on what was used and when it was used –that question will get to your comment – partially at least. As we look at our full data base we will certainly take your comment under consideration – for another year. Appreciate your interest and comment.

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2015 Survey Q & A – Ambiguous Questions

Posted on April 2, 2015 | Leave a comment

Q- First, thank you for conducting the survey. 2nd, please take a look at your questions. They can be ambiguous, maybe some clarification of the question might be helpful. For example, “what measures did you do for sanitation”… Well we didn’t intentionally disrupt the brood cycle, but the hive swarmed. So the brood cycle was disrupted, but we didn’t “do” that. Many of the questions were left up to interpretation.

Another example, During the peak of 2014 I had _ colonies. What was the peak of 2014? The peak production point of the hives? The point at which I had the most number of hives? (the answer could be different based on interpretation.

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A-Thank you for taking time to complete a survey.  Also appreciate your comments on our question phrasing. We did NOT intentionally make them ambiguous but you are certainly correct that the wording sometimes is not as clear and concise as it needs to be to help us develop useful data.

We assume on sanitation that the bees know best – the bees swarmed –  so the question was intentionally designed to determine what you the beekeeper did – did you intentionally disrupt the brood cycle?

In my experience many beekeepers are pretty sloppy with basic sanitation – and I think our survey will demonstrate that. Should that perhaps be a focus of our educational effort ?— in point of fact I am part of a committee writing a fact sheet on bee bio-security (the “new” term for sanitation).
The peak question …..During the peak of 2014 I had _ colonies…. was perfectly clear to us but our placement of the the word peak in the sentence did not adequately convey what was our intended purpose with the question. As you point out did we mean peak production or peak of numbers??? Both are valid interpretations – we could have phrased it more simply – What was peak colony number in 2014? _____.
Next time!!!
Thank you for helping make our NEXT version more clearly worded with your comments on this version. That was very useful feedback. Appreciate it.

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2015 Survey Q & A – Choice Restrictions

Posted on April 2, 2015 | Leave a comment

Q-I would have liked to choose multiple answers about where I learn how to beekeep.
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A-Thank you for filling our a survey.  You asked about our survey question of allowing only one response for where you learned how to beekeep. Our PUB committee debated the wording of this survey question and elected to ask about the major source of information so we used the wording majority of information. I recognize it would not allow multiple answers and that may have been the better option in the survey instrument. Appreciate your responses – we will certainly discuss making a change on this question in a future survey.

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2015 Survey Q & A – Hive Placement

Posted on April 1, 2015 | Leave a comment

Q-(The survey) seemed very thorough. Maybe you’d want to know if hives were in sun or shade, sheltered, etc.
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A-Thank you for sending us your information on overwintering success. You commented on the last page that perhaps we would like information on “if hives were in sun or shade, sheltered, etc.” We did not include that question but we do know hives in sunny, well air-drained locations with good hive ventilation have an advantage in combating varroa mites and are generally healthier than those in heavy shaded sites. We have elected to focus on other factors with our survey although the check box on site selection does attempt to get at obtaining this information.

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