I as of right now i have 19 hives 3 from last year 8 from swarms {all mine but one i think}3 i bought from yale apiaries and 5 splits.
All the swarms are strong builders the splits where slow to take off but are doing good now and hopefuly will be ready for winter buy OCT.
All my bee's are chemical free and the nucs i got where from treatment free bee keepers so my beeyard is chemical free .
I'm a organic gardener so i want my bee's that way also .
Right now 2 of the hives that were from last year have high mite counts and DWV and a lot of crawlers and they are throwing out alot of weak bee's so i'm quessing they will fail . A feel crapie knowing i could save the hives by treating with apiguard but i want strong bee's and i want to do it right.
I have SBB and used drone frames and the two hives that are weak swarmed so they had a brood breaks and one was queen less for 2 month so it realy had no eggs for awhile and still had a mite overload. Now the one hive that is doing well from the year before is looking strong so i quess i should breed off that hive next year if she's doing well come spring. The rest are this year hives all are doing well low mite counts and should do well this winter. My plan is to allways build new hives every year out off my strongests hives come spring .
Any advice on my endeavor would be cool I'm a thrid year bee keeper and the frist year i failed two hive both died so real i'm only second year bee keeper with 19 hives and i made queens and have 12 acres for my bee's. I want to build a better bee.
All the swarms are strong builders the splits where slow to take off but are doing good now and hopefuly will be ready for winter buy OCT.
All my bee's are chemical free and the nucs i got where from treatment free bee keepers so my beeyard is chemical free .
I'm a organic gardener so i want my bee's that way also .
Right now 2 of the hives that were from last year have high mite counts and DWV and a lot of crawlers and they are throwing out alot of weak bee's so i'm quessing they will fail . A feel crapie knowing i could save the hives by treating with apiguard but i want strong bee's and i want to do it right.
I have SBB and used drone frames and the two hives that are weak swarmed so they had a brood breaks and one was queen less for 2 month so it realy had no eggs for awhile and still had a mite overload. Now the one hive that is doing well from the year before is looking strong so i quess i should breed off that hive next year if she's doing well come spring. The rest are this year hives all are doing well low mite counts and should do well this winter. My plan is to allways build new hives every year out off my strongests hives come spring .
Any advice on my endeavor would be cool I'm a thrid year bee keeper and the frist year i failed two hive both died so real i'm only second year bee keeper with 19 hives and i made queens and have 12 acres for my bee's. I want to build a better bee.