Treatment Free Blues.

[RiodeLobo]

Well it finally happened, the price has finally had to be paid. I lost 2 hives (25%) to mites this fall. Another 2 are in the danger zone (I think, no test as of yet). We will see how many make the winter.

[BeeCurious]

Are you keeping nucs?

Is it any particular breed that you're loosing in your infested hives?

[RiodeLobo]

No, no nucs this year as my queens never came (but that is another discussion). I lost a carni and italian hive.

[Andrew Dewey]

Tomorrow I go to a Russian yard about an hour and a half drive from my home. When I was there earlier in the week I was not happy with what I saw but I was pulling honey supers (all empty) and not intending to do full inspections. From my quick visit the other day, one of six looks like they have a decent population. The others, well that is what my examinations will reveal. This yard is located on an organic farm and was inspected several years ago by our state Apiarist. At that time Varroa was not too bad - but several of the hives tested positive for Nosema (strain not specified) and there were observations of chalk brood, dwv, sac brood and shb (not many).

I will be armed with entrance reducers, mouse guards and sugar syrup in one gallon paint cans. My gut tells me I'll be lucky to have three colonies make it through winter.

I do know that whatever the over wintering experience is I will need to visit this yard more frequently and have a plan in place for dealing with swarming. At this point I like the idea of if I find queen cells, cutting all but 2 of the cells, removing the current queen and creating a nuc with her.