I'm approaching my 5th winter with bees. The first two autumns ('08 & '09) I fed thymolated syrup to the few hives that I had and I did a few sugar dustings.
No thymol was used after October '09
I may have done some sugar dusting in 2010 but I'm not certain. I believe I would have, but I overlooked doing them. Comb suspected to contain thymol syrup have been culled out.
2011: No treatments... went into winter with eight colonies and seven made it to spring.
I don't practice any drone management for mites.
Would my colonies be considered treatment free at this point?
In what sense? Do you want to know if they are considered treatment free by this forum's standards?
The purpose is to define the topic. Everyone keeps their hives however they like and no one is setting rules as to how anyone can keep their bees. The Treatment-Free Beekeeping Forum is not a standard or a certification program or a benchmark. It is a forum with the purpose of discussing how to keep bees without helping them cope with disease.
From what I know, no one on beesource Certifys whether your colony is Treatment Free or not. Beesource is not a certifying agency or body, likethe Organic Farmers Association is to organic farmers.
In my opinion you're treatment free. If you're using queens that haven't been treated, all the other bees in the hive have been replaced a long time ago. Why not.
IMO with you going treatment free, & doing a good job of it. It would probably benefit you most to raise you're own queens since you have good genetics in you're yard already.
If you are going to buy queens try to buy queens that are local to you or that have the same general climate as you do.
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