Treat with Apiguard? Where do supers go?

[Robin Bee]

As a first year beekeeper, I have two hives, 6 hive bodies for each hive. I did not get honey this year, but the comb is built out in boxes 5 and 6 and are full of capped honey/sugar water. The inner cover is between boxes 4 and 5 with theory the bees will hopefully move down the food down to brood boxes as I stopped feeding mid-August. I will be treating withi Apiguard tomorrow. My question is, what do I do with the supers? It was suggested I set them up in the bee yard near the hives so the bees have a food source. I think that would only encourage robbing. Do I knock the bees off and store the supers in the house i.e., bathtub? until I am done treating? I have typically used a top feeder but have two front end feeders to supplement the bees during the later half of the 14 day treatment periods, if necessary. I do not want to leave the honey supers in the bee yard but it has been suggested by an long time beekeeper.

[Hobie]

If you leave the supers on, you risk ending up with honey and comb that smell like Apiguard. My personal opinion... and others more experienced than I (I'm only a 2-1/2 year beekeeper) may disagree... is that I would remove any of the supers of capped honey that you intend to extract. Also, if you had planned on removing any to freeze and feed back to them later, remove those as well. If the honey is for the bees, I'd leave it on. If there is any left over in the spring, it should have aired out. Keep in mind that I do not sell my honey commercially, so I don't worry so much about it being totally pristine.

You could put the supers out in the yard, but I would put them well away from the hives, as it may start a frenzy. If you plan on removing #5 & 6, this may be a faster way to empty them. I've had bees refuse to move down honey from upper boxes like they ae "supposed to." I suppose you could store them in the bathtub, but a month is a long time to go without a bath! :D :D

The Apiguard aplication gets a little trickier, though. The Apiguard should be set immediately on top of the brood chamber. So, say your brood chambers are Boxes 1-3. Then you need to add a spacer of some sort between 3 and 4 to set the tray. The Apiguard works by the workers dragging it through the brood nest, so I usually put a piece of duct tape over the little entrance in the spacer to prevent the bees from taking a short-cut out. I leave ventilation at the top, however, because I think that having ventilation is more important than the few bees that will tote the stuff up through the honey supers and out.

The first year I put Apiguard on, the smell was very strong, and the bees seemed to hate it . (Guess that's the point, though!) I got worried and un-blocked the spacer hole, thinking I was going to gas them to death. They probably would have been fine either way.

[ScadsOBees]

I would try to take off the supers and store them while you are treating. Then when done treating give them back those supers and let them winter on whatever they need.

That way you can also re-distribute the stores to the lighter hives as well.

It works but I don't like open feeding capped honey if I can help it...it makes a really big swarm, they fight a lot, and they chew the daylights out of the comb.

Rick

[Robin Bee]

Well we moved the supers off (2 each) to the side of the apiary yard and stacked them on top of an empty hive box (all four). The are stacked so just a little of the lip of the box sticks out at the top so the bees can easily go in and out. The theory is that the bees will hopefully carry the stored honey/sugar water (as I have fed all year up to early August) to the remaining brood boxes (4 each on hive), and will ultimately clean out the supers. We reduced the entrance, the mouse guard has been on so that remained, and applied the Apiguard to the top (4th) brood box. The bottom board was inserted. The bees seem to be fairly calm and are making their way back to the hives. I'll see how the Apiguard is affecting the bees tomorrow.

[John Jones]

I attended the Bee Club meeting last night and the guess speaker was from UGA Bee Lab. He said they have been using Airguard with very good results. They run screen bottom board, one deep, queen excluder, medium. He said they do not pull the super as they do not sell the honey. Everything is fine. He also said they do not even but the board on the screen bottom board. I ordered some Apiguard and am going to try some.

John Jones
Stone Mountain, Georgia

For all of you that do not kow what UGA is (University of Georgia).