What's everyone doing now?

[Ravenseye]

I have supers on that have capped and un-capped honey. I don't plan to harvest until late August or even September depending on the flow. What are people doing now to control Varroa? Sugar? Anything else? Most of the solutions require no honey supers on the hive. What's a good approach between now and the harvest?

[jeannie]

I use fog with mineral oil. It has worked well for us this summer and for several other beekeeps that I know. I'm not going to feed until much later and I'm leavving my supers on with both capped and uncapped until later Sept. like yu. I'm afraid to pull any until we see how the fall flow will be. Some of my new swarms from this year don't have any honey in the super just the bottom so I want to keep it for them. But I have been thinking about using candy for the winter if needed.

[George Fergusson]

What are people doing now to control Varroa?

Have you been counting mites? Do you have a problem? Obviously, if you don't have a mite problem you don't have to do anything. If you do have a mite problem, you'd best address it sooner rather than later. For the past 2 years I've controlled my varroa with a single late fall oxalic acid dribble treatment. For that to work you need to have relatively low mite populations come late summer when the hive is raising the bees that will carry the hive through the winter. You don't want them being fed on by varroa or they won't be long-lived enough to make it to spring. I haven't done any "official" mite counts this year yet but my cursory examinations of bottom boards and randomly opening drone brood indicate I don't have a mite population to worry about now.

The main flow here in the Northeast is about over, or will be in a week or 2. I'll be pulling my supers soon. If you've got mites to deal with, I'd pull your supers and treat with whatever suits you. I'd probably pull the supers anyways- if you leave them on over the late summer dearth, you might just find them empty come September You can always put them back on and hope for a fall crop of Goldenrod and Aster.

[Aspera]

George,

Just out of curiosity, what is considered late fall by a Maine beekeeper? I am contemplating doing something similar in Pennsylvania.

[George Fergusson]

George,

Just out of curiosity, what is considered late fall by a Maine beekeeper? I am contemplating doing something similar in Pennsylvania.

Around here it's mid to late November. Due to the warmer than usual fall, last year it was almost Thanksgiving before I got around to it. The goal is to wait long enough for the hives to be broodless, or nearly so and you want it cool enough so the bees are loosely clustered. The temperature was in the upper 30's if I recall rightly.

Late October could work here if it was a normally year. In recent years the weather has been unseasonably warm in the fall and the bees have kept rearing brood much later than they normally would. Still, I think they key more on the amount of daylight than they do the temperature.

[Jeffzhear]

"What's everybody doing now?".....I'm fixin on heading out and fogging many of my hives today. The NYS inspector confirmed two weeks ago that I have a high varroa count in some hives and so I am going to attempt to fix that problem thanks to the kind folks that have coached me in the FMGO threads.

Later this afternoon, I am going to prime and put one coat of exterior latex on 7 boxes I finished yesterday.

Oh, and blueberries are coming in, and one of my yards has 9 mature and fully loaded bushes...so I'll pick a few quarts of those...which reminds me to put containers in the bee-mobile...

[spunky]

I am brand new, my first year

I will be sugar dusting next week; this week I will taking some frames of comb honey, for rent, from the girls.


Put together 3 more mediums and frames, in case on my next inspection the girls are enfuego


I had another thread on my mite count which was zero, but with only 3 hives I am sugar dusting anyway.

[Axtmann]

I remove the honey this following week and place a Thymol strip in each hive. A second strip will follow in approx 20 days. And than one OA evaporation the end of November or beginning of December depends on the brood in my hives. That’s all for the season 2007.

It’s much easier than blowing oil and Thymol in the colonies week after week. The result is ok for me; I lost no colonies to the mites the last few years.

[loggermike]

If I had a big mite load, I wouldn't waste time fogging.Get something on there with a quick knock down.Fgmo has been pretty much discredited as an effective treatment.OK start throwing tomatoes at me.

[Barry Digman]

I went to look at 3 hives that are here in town to see if the recent cooler weather and rain had helped. When I got there, Goober and his brother Goob were cutting down a tree on the other side of the fence. Goober was manning the chainsaw, Goob was holding a rope tied midway up the trunk of the tree. The tree was leaning away from Goob, and toward the power lines and my hives which sit againt the fence.

As the tree started to fall, Goober yelled for Goob to pull harder 'cuz it was falling the wrong way. For some reason, Goob couldn't hold a 40ft tree with his rope, and got dragged across the gravel and into another chain link fence. The tree hit the lines but didn't tear them down, crumpled the fence, but missed the hives. Goober and Goob were a little put out that I just stood and watched instead of grabbing the rope.

I'm not the sharpest tool, but my instincts tell me not to tie myself to falling trees, or even to try to hold onto moving things that outweigh me by 1,000 lbs. Especially when barbed wire, bees, and electricity are involved.

Anyway, to answer the question "what are you doing"...
I'm laughing and waiting for the bees to calm down so I can pop the tops and see how things look.

[carbide]

I do pretty much the same as George. If I don't have too high of a mite count during the summer I treat my hives with a late fall, early winter treatment of oxalic acid. I don't use the dribble method however, I use the evaporation method. This has worked out fine for me for the past 2 years.

This past fall a friend of mine gave me a couple of formic acid pads to try and they have worked out well also. I have had very few mites in any of my hives this year in either the oxalic acid treated hives or the formic acid treated hives. If I did have, or still develop a problem with the mites before my normal fall treatment, I will treat with a sugar dusting.

[Ravenseye]

I'm pretty interested in the formic acid approach this year. Any thoughts in that regard especially relative to alternative approaches such as oxalic, natural (menthols), etc.?

[Dan Williamson]

I've never worried about it. I've never contemplated any treatment until the supers were harvested.

I just haven't had the varroa issues that some people have had to deal with.

[loggermike]

>>For some reason, Goob couldn't hold a 40ft tree..
Too funny.I watched a guy pull a tree onto his pickup once..I remember thinking the rope looked a bit short.
I guess Goober never heard of wedges....
Back to bees: We are seeing a few mites spot checking hives with sticky boards- haven't found any major infestations yet, but from now till winter we will be watching closely.

[peggjam]

I went to look at 3 hives that are here in town to see if the recent cooler weather and rain had helped. When I got there, Goober and his brother Goob were cutting down a tree on the other side of the fence. Goober was manning the chainsaw, Goob was holding a rope tied midway up the trunk of the tree. The tree was leaning away from Goob, and toward the power lines and my hives which sit againt the fence.

As the tree started to fall, Goober yelled for Goob to pull harder 'cuz it was falling the wrong way. For some reason, Goob couldn't hold a 40ft tree with his rope, and got dragged across the gravel and into another chain link fence. The tree hit the lines but didn't tear them down, crumpled the fence, but missed the hives. Goober and Goob were a little put out that I just stood and watched instead of grabbing the rope.

I'm not the sharpest tool, but my instincts tell me not to tie myself to falling trees, or even to try to hold onto moving things that outweigh me by 1,000 lbs. Especially when barbed wire, bees, and electricity are involved.

Anyway, to answer the question "what are you doing"...
I'm laughing and waiting for the bees to calm down so I can pop the tops and see how things look.

.....dang rednecks, shouldn't oughta give them no chainsaws....I'm just sitting here drinking an adult beverage, and wondering why I haven't got alot of mites this year, anybody else notice this?

[Ravenseye]

PJ...I think your mites came to visit me. I'll send them back if you want!

Clink...cheers!!!