my mistakes

[John Buckner]

I haven't kept bees since the mites wiped them out in the 80s. This spring I thought I'd give it another shot.
I purchased all new equipment and two, 3lb packages from Brushy Mt. and one Italian split and two Russian splits from other sources. All five colonies were sterted on foundation only. I read in Georges Pink Pages where it said ,"Hence, you CONTINUOUSLY FEED BEES 1:1 SUGAR SYRUP from the day you start the colony until about Septemner". Well, I did this and the bees,(after drawing out two brood chambers) kept filling the brood chambers with sugar water and caused one package and two of the splits to swarm because the queen had very little room left to lay eggs. I may be wrong but the frames showed a perfect brood pattern only the cells were filled with sugar water.

I used SBBs on all five colonies and started 24 hr. mite checks once a week with plastic inserts coated with Pam. When the mite count got to 64 in hive # 3 I started the FGMO fogging with cords. I used Penreco FGMO I ordered from R.M. Stevenson Company, ( rmsteveco@aol.com) and made up the cord emulsion per Dr Rodriguezs'instructions. I used mop cords that were 22" X 3/16" and placed 2 in each hive every two weeks and fogged through the screens with my Burgess propane fogger once each week. After each fogging I would put the plastic insert in and count the mite drop 24 hrs. later. The mite counts stayed about the same until August. The mite count in colony #3 jumped to 186 in 24 hrs. and the other colonies had increased also.
I removed all supers and installed Apistan, (2 in each brood box)and shop towls soaked in Menthol and Canola oil on top of the bars of the uper brood chamber. When I checked the plastic inserts 24 hrs later There were too many mites to count.
Colony #3 went queenless so I combined what was left with the next weakest colony.

Now, here is where I believe I went wrong.
#1,I only used about half the amount of cords recomended.
#2, I should have left the plastic inserts inplace and fogged through the enterance.
By not doing this, most of the fog bounced off and what little fog that got into the hive dissipated before it did much good.

I have removed all medication and stated feeding sugar water 2:1 and I have made up a new batch of cords using the new method of adding 100 gr. of Thymol dissolved in 50 mls. of ethyl alcohol.

Now I have some questions. When should I start back with the new cords and fogging?
When should I stop? Does Thymol leave any bad taste in the honey or wax?

I will appreciate any comments,criticism or advice on this subject.
Most of all I appreciate the selfless dedication and hard work of Dr. Rodriguez. Not many men would bother unless there was a buck in it for them.

[Dr. Pedro Rodriguez]

Hello folks.
Good morning from a cold, breezy Spain. Not much to do here with my bees due to the weather. It may be good after all. It will give me a rest after my great tour through New England, Missouri and Michigan. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your kindness and hospitality.
John Buckner: thank you so very much for your kind words about my work. Your gratitude and that of houndreds of others like you is my reward and the thought that beekeeping is the beneficiary of the efforts of people like you.
John, you are precisely correct in your recopilation of what you think contributed to your lack of success with your colonies.
To your thoughts, I would like to add that you should have used 2:1 sugar water solution BY WEIGHT! and you should have installed honey supers for the bees to store your "food supplies."
In the first place, 1:1 sugar water solution resulted in "imitation" of a nectar flow inciting the queen to lay relentlessly until all the cells were filled with brood. The colony felt crowded and the bees did what is natural to them, swarmed. Remedy: you should have fed sugar water in 2:1 ratio by weight and added supers even though you may have thought they were not needed because as you have stated, the bees filled the brood frames with food.
Secondly: you point out in retrospect the procedure that you followed, (not enough cords; fogging with a screen bottom board without a shield under the screen to prevent the fog from escaping to the outside). All of these points are great because they will give you insight for your future success without doubt. I tend to think that you would have achieved total success with your FGMO treatment if you had not missed these important factors. Loss of one of the queens may have not have anything to do with treatment of disease. It may have been due to accidentally trapping the queen between frames and killing it. This may happen to the best of beekeepers, especially in large bee populations.
A sudden jump in mite populations may be due to several factors, among which might be inconsistency in treatments, mites brought into your colonies from weak, mite infested colonies elsewhere, and most probably use of a chemical product to which the mites in your colonies may have had resistance.
There is a quite positive outcome from your experience, you have identified the areas that may have contributed to your loses which will definitely lead you to success next year.
I am in the process of assaying the data from this year's work which I hope to reveal soon. In my efforts to improve the use of FGMO, I have once more made improvements for its application which will be pleasing and welcome for their merits, best of all because they may be readily incorported into practice next season.
Best regards and God bless.
Dr. Rodriguez

[BEEn Stung]

I am new here but I sure don't think you should have waited untill the mite count go to 64. I started at 0 (zero) and have almost no mites.

[John Buckner]

Hi Folks.

Thanks for your kind comments and advice.

I should have made myself clearer on the swarming issue. As I said, I started out from scratch this Spring so I had no drawn comb. When the bees started drawing out #9 and #2 frames of the first brood box, I added a second box of foundation. They came up and drew out the foundation to the #9 and #2 frames. This is when I put on a super of foundation. The bees,in three of the five hives never started to draw on the supers and swarmed a week or so later. I guess they had already made up there minds to swarm.

Today I took a 24 hr. mite count and #1 through #5 had 3,2,12,6 and 13 respectfully.
I replaced the plastic inserts and put four 22" mop cords of new thymol formula on top of the bars of each hive. I also fogged each hive through the front with the inserts in place. I am feeding 2:1 sugar and front is restricted to 4". Hope I get it right this time!

Kindest regards,
John Buckner

[Michael Bush]

When you are feeding constantly you are in danger of a honey bound brood nest. You need to check and if there is no room for the queen to lay (open cells within the bounds of capped honey that surround the brood nest) then you need to pull some of the honey out and add some empty (preferably drawn) comb or foundation. So she has somewhere to lay all the time.

My guess is that was the cause of the swarming.

Sometimes, no matter what you do, they swarm anyway. It's what bees do. But usually you could have headed it off if you knew what to look for and what to do.

[Branman]

MB, is this a problem during late fall/early winter? My hive seems to be filling the brood nest now, but I thought it was just winter preparations. Once again thanks in advance,

Brandon

[Michael Bush]

Right now the queen is cutting back or stopping all together and the brood nest will fill with honey. That is normal for this time of year. Yes, spring and summer is when I would be concerned about it. I have seen them swarm in late August, but that's about the latest I've ever seen.