SBB

[banjojohnboy]

Happy Thanksgiving from TN. I have 2 hives , one from swarm i caught last year, and one caught this year. The 2yrs. before that I bought swarms from an area beekeeper. I fed till they quit, medicated with everything, that fall(patties, menthol, apistan. Neither lived thru the winter. Didn't do anything but feed these. Didn't give them even an aspirin last fall. That hive lived and made 5 shallows this summer. I took 3 and 1/2 and left them 1 and 1/2(they filled the half on up so they have 2. I am now a firm believer in hands off. I told her my lazy ways would pay off some day. But I am going to try SBB next summer. It seems to be the best non interfering way to help them. I am a strong believer in feeding(already got a bunch of sugar on sale). These bees are really non aggressive too. I have horses in the field( electric around the hives) and i don't know if they are used to things because of that but i can run a weedeater in front of them. I'll let you know if they survive the winter, I may have just got lucky. Does anyone else think SBB and feeding are the best payback?

[Michael Bush]

The best hands off approach I've found is either small cell foundation, small cell comb or natural sized comb, but not the large cell "standard" foundation.

Other than that, I don't treat them at all now that they are regressed. I do treat some that aren't regressed yet with the Oxalic acid vapor for the mites. But that's it.

I've had bees for three decades and have never used fumidil or checkmite and only used Apistan for three years of that time and only used Terrimycin for the first two years of that time.

I guess I'm a "hands off" kind of guy. Certainly when it comes to antibiotics and poisons.