Seems like a lot of people are like me during the summer with trying to do OA treatments with suppers on your hives and how best to block them off for treatment or remove them each treatment.
You see a lot of arguments on the board "is it harmful or just not legal or ethical" to do OA treatment with the suppers in place.
Has anyone come up with a simple easy way to block off the suppers from the deeps to do a treatment with out having to remove/ the suppers during the treatment and still block off the suppers?
I had bees for 30+ years in the old days where all you had to do was rob them each year and not have to do much the rest of the year.
When I got back into bees in 2018 I bought hives and they had a screened bottom boards with a groove below the #8 mesh to close the bottom off when needed but I ended up building bottoms that have the SHB bottoms with oil traps.
Is there a way to build a spacer with this type of groove so you could leave it in place during the year so you could just slide a divider between the hives and treat away? I have thought of several ways but I come back to feel the bees will glue or wax it so if left open they close the track and if you have a piece in the track with a hole in the middle they will tack it down.
I do not relish going out and trying to remove two full mediums suppers with a deep on top with 5 deep frames of honey and one with7 frames in the other. ( Bees got cute and filled up the deeps with honey so I had to give them some room.) I plan to rob the mediums in October and reevaluate the deeps and add honey frames back if needed for winter. I live close to Houston, Tx so we have a different winter than most of you.
I thought about trying to pry the suppers up and laying in a piece of political sign in between for the tmt but that is a lot of weight to try to lift.
Do you have something that works for you to make this easier and quicker treatment sequence?
Thanks, JimD
You see a lot of arguments on the board "is it harmful or just not legal or ethical" to do OA treatment with the suppers in place.
Has anyone come up with a simple easy way to block off the suppers from the deeps to do a treatment with out having to remove/ the suppers during the treatment and still block off the suppers?
I had bees for 30+ years in the old days where all you had to do was rob them each year and not have to do much the rest of the year.
When I got back into bees in 2018 I bought hives and they had a screened bottom boards with a groove below the #8 mesh to close the bottom off when needed but I ended up building bottoms that have the SHB bottoms with oil traps.
Is there a way to build a spacer with this type of groove so you could leave it in place during the year so you could just slide a divider between the hives and treat away? I have thought of several ways but I come back to feel the bees will glue or wax it so if left open they close the track and if you have a piece in the track with a hole in the middle they will tack it down.
I do not relish going out and trying to remove two full mediums suppers with a deep on top with 5 deep frames of honey and one with7 frames in the other. ( Bees got cute and filled up the deeps with honey so I had to give them some room.) I plan to rob the mediums in October and reevaluate the deeps and add honey frames back if needed for winter. I live close to Houston, Tx so we have a different winter than most of you.
I thought about trying to pry the suppers up and laying in a piece of political sign in between for the tmt but that is a lot of weight to try to lift.
Do you have something that works for you to make this easier and quicker treatment sequence?
Thanks, JimD