Help is needed here about mites

[paulnewbee1]

My first try at this hope I doing thing right so far.

I put in two hive a week and half hive #1 is doing well so far ate lots of suger water they have some brood and pollen building comb no signs of trouble. Had frame feeders took out tonight. put a can 1 qt that came with the pac. until I get a top feeder any Ideas which is the best had many bee dead I had a float in the feeder did not help but only lost a few in this hive.

Hive # 2 had many dead bees in suger the seem like they are tired or somthing. They ate very little suger saw some black bugs on the bottom of hive floor. What do you think?

I went to a meeting Monday the speacker said somthing about Oxalic acid Have any of you all heard of this stuff,he said he has had lgood luck with it they have been using it in Canda and overseas.
and safer then all the other stuff.

any help would be great Thanks in advance

Paul J

[Michael Bush]

>Hive # 2 had many dead bees in suger the seem like they are tired or somthing. They ate very little suger saw some black bugs on the bottom of hive floor. What do you think?

Could be a lot of different things. A failure to thrive, a weak hive, Sounds like it might be SHB on the bottom. Could have been pesticides. I'd need more detail. Are there a lot of dead bees in front.

>I went to a meeting Monday the speacker said somthing about Oxalic acid Have any of you all heard of this stuff

Try a search on Oxalic acid if you want to read about it. There have been MANY long discussions.

>he said he has had lgood luck with it they have been using it in Canda and overseas.

Good luck with it for what? A hive that fails to thrive? Oxalic acid is a treatment for Varroa. Have you done any kind of assesment for varroa? A 24 hour natural mite drop? A sugar roll? Uncapped some drone brood? If not, then you are blindly treating for something that probably isn't even the problem.

[paulnewbee1]

MB said Uncapped some drone brood? A 24 hour natural mite drop? A sugar roll? Uncapped some drone brood? If not, then you are blindly treating for something that probably isn't even the problem.

Uncapped some drone brood? did not test for Varroa
Uncapped some drone brood? I uncapped a few cell did not see any thing

Are there a lot of dead bees in front. No not in the hive just in the frame feeder there was about a 100 or so in the suger water they ate very little suger this week I filled it on sat

Thanks Paul

[Michael Bush]

>I uncapped a few cell did not see any thing

Then varroa is probably not your problem.

>No not in the hive just in the frame feeder there was about a 100 or so in the suger water

Not unusual in a frame feeder.

>they ate very little suger this week I filled it on sat

The bugs on the bottom worry me more. They sound like SHB.

How strong is the hive?

[Ravenseye]

OK, well it sounds like you're drowning bees in the feeder. Let's eliminate one thing at a time. Pull the frame feeder and go with a different kind. Top feeder, front feeder, pail feeder....something other than the frame feeder unless you find what the problem is with your drowning bees.

Now, with the frame feeder gone, do you have other problems? You need to look for what might be wrong. Michael Bush is right in that you need to monitor for mites before you decide to treat them. Oxalic acid is used to treat mites, particularly Varroa. Clearly, if you decide to treat a problem that you don't have then you won't solve the problem that you do have.

My thoughts are that you you might have a feeder problem and maybe an issue with your queen. You should be seeing eggs, brood and workers bringing in pollen and nectar. If they seem listless and there's no brood, then you need to think about getting a new queen. You may not even have one.

Finally, if you fix your feeder and your queen you may still have pests. Beekeeping is not about one thing at a time. It's about a colony of many. Look at everything to see what is right and wrong. Perhaps comparing the differences between your strong colony and your weak one will help you out.

[paulnewbee1]

I would think it might be a shb I am going to clean the bottom board and get something to treat them. one of those bottom traps and fill it with veg oil. I got lots to learn. Its like a chese game make a move and get into trouble.

I took out the feeder and ordered a top feeder from Manns.

It would be nice if Lapps & Dadant would be open on sat. You would think you could make money.

[tony350i]

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h319/tony350i/Pic_0001.jpg


I use plastic paint cans that have lids,
Make some Holes in the lid and the vac-hum does the rest.
As you can see it’s home made and I haven’t lost a single bee this way and is very cheap.

Regards Tony

[Aspera]

My first try at this hope I doing thing right so far.

Hive # 2 had many dead bees in suger the seem like they are tired or somthing. They ate very little suger saw some black bugs on the bottom of hive floor. What do you think?

Paul J

Could you describe the "bugs" that you are seeing? There are some good images of common pest available online. Perhaps you could take a look at these, and also do a sugar roll/shake. Varroa is so common right now that I wouldn't want you to leave the forum thinking they might not be a contributing factor here.