[AlanInNJ]

Lots of similar questions on the first page, but I wanted to ask some advise for my situation. I have three colonies here in central New Jersey. All three are queenright. All three were two deeps and a honey super, 10 frame boxes. Inspection weekend.

Mite counts Sept 8th - alcohol wash - 3,3,5 per sample. I plan to treat with Formic Pro first, and then follow up with Apivar. This is the method my local guru suggests, so that's my plan.

#1 and #2 - almost identical. Lots of bees. Each top honey super has about 4 frames full of honey. The second deeps are nearly full of honey, easily 50+ pounds. Brood box has some brood, plenty of open frames, some eggs, some larva, not backfilled with nectar.

#3 - Top deep mostly full of honey, 50ish pounds. More brood than the other two hives, eggs, larva in brood box. The honey super is empty and not built out at all, so I removed it, not sure if that was right or not.

So, my question, should I harvest those 7 or 8 frames of honey from the top supers of #1 & #2? Or should I just leave them, and start feeding 2:1? I am not desperate for the honey. My goal is to get all three colonies thru Winter and hope for a good harvest in early Summer 2020.

 

[AlanInNJ]

Anybody?

 

[rwlaw]

I’m wondering why the two different treatments back to back, maybe you misunderstood him?
If your not concerned about honey go ahead and start feeding, less for em to work and cap.
Yes, pull the undrawn super, they can’t live on foundation thus your losing the ability to put emergency feed on them if need be.

 

[Mike Gillmore]

If you plan to use Formic Pro you will want to have a super on each hive during treatment to give the bees space to spread out, per Formic Pro instructions.

Post treatment I would plan on going into winter with double deeps on each hive and the supers off. It will make life a lot easier next spring if you would be doing any spring reversals.

Keep an eye on the stores after your treatment and if necessary feed them 2:1 before it gets too cold. Sounds like they are in good shape right now but monitor closely to make sure they don't burn through a lot of their stores later in the fall.

 

[AlanInNJ]

Thanks for the insight.

Yep, he told me FormicPro first, followed by Apivar. I stood in front of him with another new beekeeper late last summer, that's what he said, so that's what I did last year. I am only in my second year, he's been doing it for 40+, so I trusted him. Maybe it's an NJ thing?

So it sounds like I will treat for mites and then feed and not harvest.