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Slipping Bark from Elm or slippery elm works amazing. Easy to light, always cool smoke. And the smoke isn't harsh.

Purdue is doing a ton of research on the bees they have. 125 colonies. They have not treated for mites in 7 or 8 years. They have losses. The bees make a good honey crop and generally shut down at...

It takes a frame of honey to raise a frame of brood.

I think there is a balance. Place bees on honey in the season somewhere in the midwest and pollinate almonds in winter. Chasing pollination 2/3 of the year would be much more difficult.

Clay and all the staff in Frankfort, KY are great to deal with.

I suggest Putting a sticky board and apivar strip in the one with the most mites and see how many more drop in first 24 hours.

Fed a ton of pro sweet 77 in Cali this month. I believe it came from Dadant. Prefer hfcs 55 for weight, but it was available close by.

Washington State University is Steve Sheppard. I think Sue Cobey is on the coast in Washington. WSU is in Pullman, WA.

For us its a Minimum of 3 treatments with amitraz.
I think there is hope with oxalic dissolved in glycerine.
Thinking 2 amitraz treatments with a "dry" paper towel with the oxalic mix in between.

If you have access to a vaporizer, use it. The acid vapor should run out any rodents. Install mouse guard after.

Mike, I have a Caspian marked blue from fall 2016. She is in a box in California. Dark bees.

I am excited about resistant stock. I am equally interested in his research on oxalic dissolved in glycerin that he describes in his other article in the January issue.

Early season honey is always dryer here in the hardwoods of Indiana.

Some young queens are still laying. The older queens that produced a crop are shut down. For the most part.

We use 55 here, straight, this time of year.

Stressed beans produce more nectar. Hot plus drought equals short plants here.
Last year the beans sat in water and were stressed and stunted. Nectar production in late July was excellent.

AGREED w scorpion.
Solid is way to go.

I would be hesitant to treat anything large or small during mating. I don't think it is a good idea to mess with the "smell" of the hive.
This comes from my mentor, commercial for 45 years.

Agree about mesh in veil. Hate it for seeing anything in the hive. I keep mine in the truck in case someone wanders up and is curious.

i doubt you poisoned them. The strips are slow release. Just get in and take all out except what is needed based on the number of brood frames. Id go back in a week and see how the brood looks. See...

The apivar is to stay in about 6 weeks and is a slow/low release. You are likely seeing mites that were under the capped brood. If there were 3 mites in a single capped brood cell, you only need 100...

I think the key is to check to see if the treatment is working. Use one of the many mite counting methods before treatment, and then during treatment.

Rusty, Apivar only kills the phoretic mites as well. I am convinced that Apivar is quite effective. I am not at all convinced on OAV.
And for me, piece of mind is very important in beekeeping.

Not something to joke about.

Hearing loss numbers in the 10k+ range in Northern California this winter. Koehnan and Olivarez.