Hay man you are killing it. Here in Minnesota it started to rain finally. It’s been Over 47 days with out rain and in the 90s. So unfortunately my bees aren’t doing that great so it is so cool to see yours build up. Just remember head up and one foot in front of the other. You rock
Thanks guys... Yeah I feel for you, we got totally skunked 3 years ago because of heat and drought. This year at our old location they're getting flooded out. I'm thankful as heck to have the kind of weather and forage we do this year, because with the move a drought or flood season could have been really bad. Thanks for the support!
My flow is over here in NC. Took off a little over 400 pounds with 4 production hives so its been a pretty good year. Now I'm treating with OA. Been a busy year with a day job but I enjoy it. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and expertise I always enjoy.
Is that a new country and western song? Formic in the rain?. . . All you need to add is mama, prison and a pickup truck. lol I'm going to have to try some of those plastic frames and see if you can change my mind. I've always heard the cracks were bad for hive beetles to hide in. Where do you get them from? I used the Mite Away quick strips one year, and yeah, I remember they were really soft and floppy, but I held on to them a year before I used them. Have a good one.
MAQS are no good the day after they expire. So yeah you were really dealing with some soupy maqs after a year. lol to the country song. Someone else commented that it sounded like a Dylan tune. I get the plastic frames from Acorn. You can get them directly from them, or one of their suppliers, but I get in touch with them directly. Get the heavy waxed ones, I forget if they call it double waxed or triple or heavy or whatever, but just get the most heavily waxed versions they have. I predict you won't turn back.
The bad always sits with you longer because deep down we always reject feeling it. It's a human survival instinct to not feel our bad emotions but that only makes them stronger. The best way that I have learned to deal with it is to surrender to the feeling and truly feel it for a minute or 2 to reflect on what it can teach us instead of worrying about why it happened. Then take it for the lesson it is, grow and move on to completing the next task you have.
My formic treatments are in the mail. With the temperatures we’re experiencing in the Pacific Northwest these days, we’ll have to wait until the temperatures to come down anyways.
Yeah, most people are in your shoes I think. Crap, my bees are in the Keweenaw Peninsula and early June would have been problematic with lots of 90+ days.
lol, that smoker is in tough shape. I started last year with 3 awesome smokers. Well, two, and then a land owner who had tried bees years ago gifted me the one I'm using now. Before the end of last year I had run over one, left another on the top of some hives on a trailer, and somehow bent and detached the top off of the one I'm using now. So, the one you see me using has a big crease at the top of the base, and the top is not attached to the bottom, so when I open it to fill it the top comes completely off. So yeah, I need to get a new one as well.
@@BKBees I dropped my Chinese one yesterday I thought for sure it was going to be busted but nope no damage... Took a licking and kept on ticking. LOL maybe I will just use it till it dies and buy a new Smoker @ Christmas time for next year :)
Formic also kills a shit load of bees and in higher temps it can kill off even more. What were your fall-spring treatments and mite wash count prior to this treatment?
It can kill bees, sure, I assure you if done correctly you're killing more mites than bees. No washes before these treatments, I'll wash 'em in late August to verify a low mite load. For me to feel good about not treating this year based on mite counts I'd have to wash 'em all, it had been a long time since they've gotten a treatment.
Why do you use deeps on the top your hives for honey supers? Doesn't that get heavy for you versus using mediums for honey? Also we haven't put on mite away pro strips on yet. We are in zone 5 southern new Hampshire. We were always advised to wait till August. I'd love your thoughts. Thank you
We're slowly migrating to mediums for honey. I made that decision at 25 years old with 10 to the operation. The last 3 years have been really tough. At some point I think I'd like to migrate entirely to mediums, for everything, but that's a 10 year plan. If you started your colony this year there's nothing wrong with only adding the formic in August. In general it is a good idea to stay on top of the mite load, testing every month, being prepared to treat if the mite load exceeds 2%. I manage 150 - 200 colonies and until this year kept bees in a very high mite density area, the lower peninsula of Michigan. To keep my bees healthy it took March OA vaporization, June and August formic. Even then we sometimes had September spikes that threatened the bees' overwinter chances. I typed all that out to impress the idea that it's a constant battle and a very regional one at that. If I were in your shoes I'd treat in August, do a mite wash two weeks later, and be prepared to treat again if the mites were persistent, ideally with a different chemical, like OA.
Hi Brett, love your videos and as a past customer, I’ll look forward to the day when you start selling queens again. I placed Formic Pro in my hives just last week and the hives here in Maine are doing very well except for 2 of my 11 hives. It seems l always have one or two that I can never get built up quickly enough to harvest honey. I used to add a frame or two of bees to the losers but I have found that they never seem to catch up in time for a honey harvest. I will requeen in august and feed like mad to get them ready for winter, but for this year, they are just pets, fun to have but serve really no useful purpose. Best of luck in your new venture further north!!! It certainly is beautiful country. Best, Doug
Doug, we'll be back in full force next year. This year was just impossible, too much travel, uncertainty, and too little good weather to get anything going beyond a couple of grafts and one round of nucs. Thanks for your patience. Yeah, that issue you're having with a couple of your hives isn't an issue only you or only you and I experience. In ideal circumstances I like to just shake 'em out, replace with a split. My experience matches yours in that they never seem to catch up and almost always end up screwing up my overwinter rates. My uneducated opinion blames the other bee foes that are less on our minds in the time of varroa, like nosema ceranae.
Formic Rain would be a good song name for Metallica. Despite the drought, the bees are pulling in some nectar from jacaranda trees and the Phoebe colony graduated to a double deep yesterday.
No, in fact the opposite. I wouldn't have a box of foundation on top of a single in most cases, the only reason I did on that one is that was the only box we had to put on it. If at all possible, try to keep the frames above the excluder open and ready for nectar.
@@BKBees my singles already have supers on them that had drawn comb but the next boxes will be foundation because I’m out of drawn comb, should I put the foundation on top of the excluder or on top of the other supers?
Mr. Brett, I am using formic pro for the first time and a question comes to mind I hope you can answer. After the 14 day treatment do I need to remove the pads, do they dissolve or do the bees remove them?
I don't worry about it. My last treatment of the year stays in until next year, they'll bring a majority of it out themselves, but you'll probably have some remnants to remove next spring.
It’s a celebration when all things go well in the apiary! Most of the time I forget something or I find at least one hive problem to keep me up at night 🙄 but that’s what keeps it interesting. I use all mediums. Honey hives have 3-4 mediums of honey being capped 👍🏻 and still flowing in southeast Michigan.
@@BKBees We are lucky to have so far gotten enough rain to help crops and reduce drought in areas, but not enough to cause flooding. Not so, for many others. Beekeeping (and farming) is very "local". Catalpa and linden trees and some sumacs have been blooming still. Soybeans and alfalfa/clover, and milkweed starting.
To be honest I've had those metal excluders for 2 years. Before that I ran plastic exclusively, like an idiot. I would imagine it would eat at the metal to some extent, but I wouldnt' expect it to rust, because it'd get propolized pretty quickly. Either way, the life limit for stuff like queen excluders is usually based on my using it correctly, not bending it, running it over, etc.
It can always be worse: our spring honey flow was 0 honey, we had the end of the spring honey and from 9 hives I could only take 3 boxes. Our summer flow started 1.5 week ago (3-4 weeks late due to cold weather) and it has been raining till today. For me it's a hobby, so no need to make my income out of it (there are no professional beekeepers in the Netherlands). This weekend I brought 4 buckfast queens for mating to one of the dutch islands and we made a holiday weekend out of it.
I feel for ya, and I've been there. 3 years ago we got almost totally skunked, the entire year. I put up like 10 buckets. Mating bees on an island, man, that is cool. You have a real opportunity there.
Northern Arizona, I’m new at bees this year, I have 2 hives but we don’t have much flow as we’ve been without rain until this week. Expect to see more comb drawn out soon. The bees are bringing in pollen still and new bees are birthing. Don’t expect to get a lot of honey this year. Enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.
Too hot & a drought in MN. Two new hives so I am feeding sugar water every other day to help them build comb and make honey for their winter food. I plan to stop once I put on a super, which will be soon. Read from a couple of sources to do this and my hives are looking good.
I'm at like 90 right now, a bit lower than the 150 I'd like,l but we sold everything that didn't fit on two trucks. I have around 150 total colonies, if you include swarms n splits.
How much did you test your apiaries before putting on formic? I have 6 colonies right now. I added a deep of foundation onto four of them and they have been drawing them out like mad. One not particularly strong hive drew out 4 deeps frames fully in a week. The other three are also pulling in crazy amount of honey and drawing the frames out. I am going to make a cell builder on the Fourth of July and then make a bunch of splits on the 15. I hope to overwinter 12-15 and I hope to sell some Queens. I haven’t really had any buyers yet. Hopefully I will have more interest later.
I didn't do any testing this time. They haven't been fully treated since last August, and knowing my normal mite load, this was past due. It would behoove me to test in a month, with preparations to treat again if the mites are persistent, but I won't do that either because the honey hives will get another round in mid August. This is just following a routine that has really worked for me, but, I do plan on amending that, with mid winter OA and testing next year, because I'm in a MUCH better area in terms of neighboring beekeepers and mites.
Is there a mite per 1/2 cup of bees threshold that makes you decide to use formic vs OA? How many times a year do you aim to knock the mites down? I'm in Ohio - I'm reading that every hive should get one good mite kill a year, more depending on the mite count in their monthly alcohol wash. Is this in the right track?
Yep, that's perfect. I didn't do any counts on this round, mainly because they hadn't been treated fully since last August. I'll treat them again this August and do a wash afterward to verify its efficacy.
I do not recall seeing or you mentioning doing a mite wash/count to do this treatment. Either way it would be good to see the results before and after doing a mite wash.
I didn't perform any tests this time. I'll test 'em in mid August to make sure everything is good before winter feed. The reason for this (and I have a video coming out on Monday that covers this exact topic) is the mite density in the lower peninsula. It took 4 treatments per year to keep my bees healthy down there, and they haven't been treated since last August. Next year we are planning a mid winter OA, and hoping to not have to treat at all other than that, but that will require constant testing. This year, I have to get rid of what I know is there.
I use NOD formic pro i did the 14 day treatment. while I did have a good amount of bees dye off. In all 8 of my hives. They recovered very well.with little help. (Feeding) I am in florida and have to watch my temperature. So treating with the formicpro is normally early spring ( march/ april) and again in late fall nov/ dec. Best of luck and happy honey . Thanks for sharing your video
Yeah, the unfortunate aspect of formic is it can kill some bees. The fortunate aspect is when that happens it almost always comes with a great mite fall.
I wouldn't do that, a ton of returning foragers to a foreign weak colony could result in a balled queen. If I were really desperate to equalize I'd just give them a frame of bees and brood.
Not this time. This is a weird year. Normally I'da hit everything fully with OA in March, this year they got one weak round in late April, other than that nothing had been treated since last August.
@@BKBees i planted an entire area with all different types of mints. Horse mint spearmint peppermint .thats just naming a few . I placed 1 hive out of all of these hives for a control . All the hives within the mint area alot of mites will drop off on the sticky pads . When doing a powdered test i rarely find mites but they do pop up from time to time . But the controle hive had them all the time . Also apple mint is the ones the bees with go crazy for . Hope this helps.
@@TheSpidersoftheworld k, well, I'm still interested as to what mechanism you think is killing these mites. How did you come up with the idea in the first place?
Bret, you know we all have hives that follow all the rules and others that we always seem to struggle with. I have some with 6 mediums for honey and others that won't fill 3. I'll be requeening the duds soon. Suggest you do the same. Won't help this year but maybe make a difference in the future. Keep your chin up and your smoker lit.
Yep, you're right. I was just typing in another comment that my normal course of action is to just shake 'em out and replace with a split. That's in the case where I have lots of yards of nucs, for queen mating, this year I don't have that luxury. Either way, the duds will be combined before the end of the summer.
Not so much at this point, unless the small ones are REALLY in need. We're putting honey up now, so I don't like to take anything from our production hives. The stragglers will catch up or be combined in September.
Is this the video where I realize one hive was missing an inner cover? I honestly can't remember, but if it is I believe I used some reflectix. Either way, yes, that stuff is great. I have stacks of regular inner covers though, so hopefully I remember to bring one, lol.
@@BKBees Yes it was the one that you did not have an inner cover. Down here in northern Iowa my wood inner covers sit in my shed. Less messy with Bur-comb and SHB can’t hang out up there with the soft inner cover. SHB probably not much of an issue in northern Michigan.
@@rstlr01 shb are not an issue, you're right about that. The only reason I run inner covers is fall feeding. I open feed until I feel like I'm just making the fat colonies fatter, and then I spot feed the ones that aren't up to weight. To do that I place the food above the inner cover hole. It's a hobbyist method that has stuck with me.
I have 2 hives. both have 2 deep supers hive one has the second deep super full of honey hive 2 has done the honey on an arc pattern, expecting her or being told by her she is going to lay up there. I have enough honey to winter both hives and take 3 frames for myself
@@BKBees no. I use magnifying glasses (1.5) to read and have not seen any eggs where there was actually some eggs there. the queen was up there, so I suspect there are eggs.
We weed whack the grass under the fence and around the hives pretty regularly. SHB aren't an issue around us, and mites (varroa) aren't getting into hives by climbing on grass, so I'm not super concerned when the grass gets a bit long around the hives. I am concerned when it gets long around the fence though.
Yep, it's not only legal but numerous studies have shown it to not affect the level of formic in the resulting honey. Formic acid is a highly prevalent substance in nature and nectar.
Hay man you are killing it. Here in Minnesota it started to rain finally. It’s been Over 47 days with out rain and in the 90s. So unfortunately my bees aren’t doing that great so it is so cool to see yours build up. Just remember head up and one foot in front of the other. You rock
Thanks guys... Yeah I feel for you, we got totally skunked 3 years ago because of heat and drought. This year at our old location they're getting flooded out. I'm thankful as heck to have the kind of weather and forage we do this year, because with the move a drought or flood season could have been really bad.
Thanks for the support!
“Natures scary” haha 😂 I love it!
How is it that only one person appreciated that one?! lol, thanks for sharing my sense of humor, Timothy!
The Beard will help you through all of this!
No doubt.
My flow is over here in NC. Took off a little over 400 pounds with 4 production hives so its been a pretty good year. Now I'm treating with OA. Been a busy year with a day job but I enjoy it. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and expertise I always enjoy.
Heck yeah, 100 lb average is nice.
Thanks for the support!
Beekeeping/ Murphy’s law to the max
Definitely. Take your stupid law and get lost, Murphy, lol.
Is that a new country and western song? Formic in the rain?. . . All you need to add is mama, prison and a pickup truck. lol I'm going to have to try some of those plastic frames and see if you can change my mind. I've always heard the cracks were bad for hive beetles to hide in. Where do you get them from? I used the Mite Away quick strips one year, and yeah, I remember they were really soft and floppy, but I held on to them a year before I used them. Have a good one.
MAQS are no good the day after they expire. So yeah you were really dealing with some soupy maqs after a year.
lol to the country song. Someone else commented that it sounded like a Dylan tune.
I get the plastic frames from Acorn. You can get them directly from them, or one of their suppliers, but I get in touch with them directly. Get the heavy waxed ones, I forget if they call it double waxed or triple or heavy or whatever, but just get the most heavily waxed versions they have. I predict you won't turn back.
The bad always sits with you longer because deep down we always reject feeling it. It's a human survival instinct to not feel our bad emotions but that only makes them stronger. The best way that I have learned to deal with it is to surrender to the feeling and truly feel it for a minute or 2 to reflect on what it can teach us instead of worrying about why it happened. Then take it for the lesson it is, grow and move on to completing the next task you have.
My formic treatments are in the mail. With the temperatures we’re experiencing in the Pacific Northwest these days, we’ll have to wait until the temperatures to come down anyways.
Yeah, most people are in your shoes I think. Crap, my bees are in the Keweenaw Peninsula and early June would have been problematic with lots of 90+ days.
Much like you I spend to much time driving back to the shop to get that one thing I didn't bring enough of or forgot altogether.
Why do we do this? lol
Hi Bret, seeing you with that smoker is making me want a new one and get rid of my Chinese special that I've been using for 3 years now :)
Yuh too red yey
lol, that smoker is in tough shape. I started last year with 3 awesome smokers. Well, two, and then a land owner who had tried bees years ago gifted me the one I'm using now. Before the end of last year I had run over one, left another on the top of some hives on a trailer, and somehow bent and detached the top off of the one I'm using now. So, the one you see me using has a big crease at the top of the base, and the top is not attached to the bottom, so when I open it to fill it the top comes completely off. So yeah, I need to get a new one as well.
Damn that's rough, this 1 time my smoker fell from a tree, I almost had an heart attack🤣🤣🤣
I'm a jamaican bee keeper by the way
@@BKBees I dropped my Chinese one yesterday I thought for sure it was going to be busted but nope no damage... Took a licking and kept on ticking. LOL maybe I will just use it till it dies and buy a new Smoker @ Christmas time for next year :)
Formic also kills a shit load of bees and in higher temps it can kill off even more. What were your fall-spring treatments and mite wash count prior to this treatment?
It can kill bees, sure, I assure you if done correctly you're killing more mites than bees.
No washes before these treatments, I'll wash 'em in late August to verify a low mite load. For me to feel good about not treating this year based on mite counts I'd have to wash 'em all, it had been a long time since they've gotten a treatment.
What is the name of the fogger You just bought for Mites thanks
Not sure what you mean? The OA vape? Lorobbees.
Why do you use deeps on the top your hives for honey supers? Doesn't that get heavy for you versus using mediums for honey?
Also we haven't put on mite away pro strips on yet. We are in zone 5 southern new Hampshire. We were always advised to wait till August. I'd love your thoughts. Thank you
We're slowly migrating to mediums for honey. I made that decision at 25 years old with 10 to the operation. The last 3 years have been really tough. At some point I think I'd like to migrate entirely to mediums, for everything, but that's a 10 year plan.
If you started your colony this year there's nothing wrong with only adding the formic in August. In general it is a good idea to stay on top of the mite load, testing every month, being prepared to treat if the mite load exceeds 2%. I manage 150 - 200 colonies and until this year kept bees in a very high mite density area, the lower peninsula of Michigan. To keep my bees healthy it took March OA vaporization, June and August formic. Even then we sometimes had September spikes that threatened the bees' overwinter chances.
I typed all that out to impress the idea that it's a constant battle and a very regional one at that. If I were in your shoes I'd treat in August, do a mite wash two weeks later, and be prepared to treat again if the mites were persistent, ideally with a different chemical, like OA.
Hi Brett, love your videos and as a past customer, I’ll look forward to the day when you start selling queens again. I placed Formic Pro in my hives just last week and the hives here in Maine are doing very well except for 2 of my 11 hives. It seems l always have one or two that I can never get built up quickly enough to harvest honey. I used to add a frame or two of bees to the losers but I have found that they never seem to catch up in time for a honey harvest. I will requeen in august and feed like mad to get them ready for winter, but for this year, they are just pets, fun to have but serve really no useful purpose. Best of luck in your new venture further north!!! It certainly is beautiful country. Best, Doug
Doug, we'll be back in full force next year. This year was just impossible, too much travel, uncertainty, and too little good weather to get anything going beyond a couple of grafts and one round of nucs. Thanks for your patience.
Yeah, that issue you're having with a couple of your hives isn't an issue only you or only you and I experience. In ideal circumstances I like to just shake 'em out, replace with a split. My experience matches yours in that they never seem to catch up and almost always end up screwing up my overwinter rates. My uneducated opinion blames the other bee foes that are less on our minds in the time of varroa, like nosema ceranae.
standard with any gopro the water proof housing will protect it
Formic Rain would be a good song name for Metallica. Despite the drought, the bees are pulling in some nectar from jacaranda trees and the Phoebe colony graduated to a double deep yesterday.
Killin Mites
Die in pain
Using formic in the rain ha ha
When adding a box of foundation is it always best to put it so it’s the first box on top of the excluder? This is my first year trying singles.
No, in fact the opposite. I wouldn't have a box of foundation on top of a single in most cases, the only reason I did on that one is that was the only box we had to put on it. If at all possible, try to keep the frames above the excluder open and ready for nectar.
@@BKBees my singles already have supers on them that had drawn comb but the next boxes will be foundation because I’m out of drawn comb, should I put the foundation on top of the excluder or on top of the other supers?
Mr. Brett, I am using formic pro for the first time and a question comes to mind I hope you can answer. After the 14 day treatment do I need to remove the pads, do they dissolve or do the bees remove them?
I don't worry about it. My last treatment of the year stays in until next year, they'll bring a majority of it out themselves, but you'll probably have some remnants to remove next spring.
It’s a celebration when all things go well in the apiary! Most of the time I forget something or I find at least one hive problem to keep me up at night 🙄 but that’s what keeps it interesting. I use all mediums. Honey hives have 3-4 mediums of honey being capped 👍🏻 and still flowing in southeast Michigan.
Heck yes. How's the rain affecting you guys?
@@BKBees We are lucky to have so far gotten enough rain to help crops and reduce drought in areas, but not enough to cause flooding. Not so, for many others. Beekeeping (and farming) is very "local". Catalpa and linden trees and some sumacs have been blooming still. Soybeans and alfalfa/clover, and milkweed starting.
Do you find the formic messes up the galvanized coating on the excluders and causes them to rust eventually?
To be honest I've had those metal excluders for 2 years. Before that I ran plastic exclusively, like an idiot. I would imagine it would eat at the metal to some extent, but I wouldnt' expect it to rust, because it'd get propolized pretty quickly. Either way, the life limit for stuff like queen excluders is usually based on my using it correctly, not bending it, running it over, etc.
It can always be worse: our spring honey flow was 0 honey, we had the end of the spring honey and from 9 hives I could only take 3 boxes. Our summer flow started 1.5 week ago (3-4 weeks late due to cold weather) and it has been raining till today.
For me it's a hobby, so no need to make my income out of it (there are no professional beekeepers in the Netherlands).
This weekend I brought 4 buckfast queens for mating to one of the dutch islands and we made a holiday weekend out of it.
I feel for ya, and I've been there. 3 years ago we got almost totally skunked, the entire year. I put up like 10 buckets.
Mating bees on an island, man, that is cool. You have a real opportunity there.
Northern Arizona, I’m new at bees this year, I have 2 hives but we don’t have much flow as we’ve been without rain until this week. Expect to see more comb drawn out soon. The bees are bringing in pollen still and new bees are birthing. Don’t expect to get a lot of honey this year. Enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work.
Yeah I'd imagine Arizona beekeeping to be tough. My sister used to live in Phoenix, I visited many times and never saw a drop of rain.
Too hot & a drought in MN. Two new hives so I am feeding sugar water every other day to help them build comb and make honey for their winter food. I plan to stop once I put on a super, which will be soon. Read from a couple of sources to do this and my hives are looking good.
Just curious how many main production colonies you try to maintain? You've probly mentioned a thousand times and I just blanked it out.
I'm at like 90 right now, a bit lower than the 150 I'd like,l but we sold everything that didn't fit on two trucks. I have around 150 total colonies, if you include swarms n splits.
Thanks just curious how many you tryed to manage while doing a little part time work on the side. Good work keep it on!
How much did you test your apiaries before putting on formic? I have 6 colonies right now. I added a deep of foundation onto four of them and they have been drawing them out like mad. One not particularly strong hive drew out 4 deeps frames fully in a week. The other three are also pulling in crazy amount of honey and drawing the frames out. I am going to make a cell builder on the Fourth of July and then make a bunch of splits on the 15. I hope to overwinter 12-15 and I hope to sell some Queens. I haven’t really had any buyers yet. Hopefully I will have more interest later.
I didn't do any testing this time. They haven't been fully treated since last August, and knowing my normal mite load, this was past due. It would behoove me to test in a month, with preparations to treat again if the mites are persistent, but I won't do that either because the honey hives will get another round in mid August. This is just following a routine that has really worked for me, but, I do plan on amending that, with mid winter OA and testing next year, because I'm in a MUCH better area in terms of neighboring beekeepers and mites.
@@BKBees Okay good to know, hope you can get everything done.
Is there a mite per 1/2 cup of bees threshold that makes you decide to use formic vs OA? How many times a year do you aim to knock the mites down? I'm in Ohio - I'm reading that every hive should get one good mite kill a year, more depending on the mite count in their monthly alcohol wash. Is this in the right track?
Yep, that's perfect. I didn't do any counts on this round, mainly because they hadn't been treated fully since last August. I'll treat them again this August and do a wash afterward to verify its efficacy.
Great work....
Formic in the Rain. Sounds like a Bob Dylan song.
It'd be a sweet song too.
I do not recall seeing or you mentioning doing a mite wash/count to do this treatment. Either way it would be good to see the results before and after doing a mite wash.
I didn't perform any tests this time. I'll test 'em in mid August to make sure everything is good before winter feed.
The reason for this (and I have a video coming out on Monday that covers this exact topic) is the mite density in the lower peninsula. It took 4 treatments per year to keep my bees healthy down there, and they haven't been treated since last August. Next year we are planning a mid winter OA, and hoping to not have to treat at all other than that, but that will require constant testing. This year, I have to get rid of what I know is there.
I use NOD formic pro i did the 14 day treatment. while I did have a good amount of bees dye off. In all 8 of my hives. They recovered very well.with little help. (Feeding) I am in florida and have to watch my temperature. So treating with the formicpro is normally early spring ( march/ april) and again in late fall nov/ dec. Best of luck and happy honey . Thanks for sharing your video
Yeah, the unfortunate aspect of formic is it can kill some bees. The fortunate aspect is when that happens it almost always comes with a great mite fall.
Wow. Hang in there.
How about swapping the position of a weak colony with that of a strong one. The drift will then even them out?
I wouldn't do that, a ton of returning foragers to a foreign weak colony could result in a balled queen. If I were really desperate to equalize I'd just give them a frame of bees and brood.
Do you test before using formic?
Not this time. This is a weird year. Normally I'da hit everything fully with OA in March, this year they got one weak round in late April, other than that nothing had been treated since last August.
Formic acid or ,go the natural route and plant mint everywhere below your hives .
i use to have a bad mite problem the mint forest has solved this.
How do you figure the mint affects the mites?
@@BKBees i planted an entire area with all different types of mints.
Horse mint spearmint peppermint .thats just naming a few .
I placed 1 hive out of all of these hives for a control .
All the hives within the mint area alot of mites will drop off on the sticky pads .
When doing a powdered test i rarely find mites but they do pop up from time to time .
But the controle hive had them all the time .
Also apple mint is the ones the bees with go crazy for .
Hope this helps.
@@TheSpidersoftheworld k, well, I'm still interested as to what mechanism you think is killing these mites. How did you come up with the idea in the first place?
Bret, you know we all have hives that follow all the rules and others that we always seem to struggle with. I have some with 6 mediums for honey and others that won't fill 3. I'll be requeening the duds soon. Suggest you do the same. Won't help this year but maybe make a difference in the future. Keep your chin up and your smoker lit.
Yep, you're right. I was just typing in another comment that my normal course of action is to just shake 'em out and replace with a split. That's in the case where I have lots of yards of nucs, for queen mating, this year I don't have that luxury. Either way, the duds will be combined before the end of the summer.
Equalize…the number of brood frames on the week..give from the large and give to the small??
Not so much at this point, unless the small ones are REALLY in need. We're putting honey up now, so I don't like to take anything from our production hives. The stragglers will catch up or be combined in September.
Good job I learn keeping bees you work bees went you can no matter what weather doing
Thanks, Kelly!
Just have a roll of reflectX with you and you can make your inner Covers on the go!
Is this the video where I realize one hive was missing an inner cover? I honestly can't remember, but if it is I believe I used some reflectix. Either way, yes, that stuff is great. I have stacks of regular inner covers though, so hopefully I remember to bring one, lol.
@@BKBees Yes it was the one that you did not have an inner cover. Down here in northern Iowa my wood inner covers sit in my shed. Less messy with Bur-comb and SHB can’t hang out up there with the soft inner cover. SHB probably not much of an issue in northern Michigan.
@@rstlr01 shb are not an issue, you're right about that. The only reason I run inner covers is fall feeding. I open feed until I feel like I'm just making the fat colonies fatter, and then I spot feed the ones that aren't up to weight. To do that I place the food above the inner cover hole. It's a hobbyist method that has stuck with me.
Invest in a popup TENT...
I have one, well I have a couple, I have honestly never thought of that. Thanks for the tip.
I have 2 hives. both have 2 deep supers
hive one has the second deep super full of honey
hive 2 has done the honey on an arc pattern, expecting her or being told by her she is going to lay up there.
I have enough honey to winter both hives and take 3 frames for myself
Sounds like a great configuration.
Are you sure there aren't eggs in the empty cells below the arc of honey?
@@BKBees no. I use magnifying glasses (1.5) to read and have not seen any eggs where there was actually some eggs there.
the queen was up there, so I suspect there are eggs.
Buddy, you need to cut this grass. It is perfect for all kinds of mites, hive beetles....
We weed whack the grass under the fence and around the hives pretty regularly. SHB aren't an issue around us, and mites (varroa) aren't getting into hives by climbing on grass, so I'm not super concerned when the grass gets a bit long around the hives. I am concerned when it gets long around the fence though.
@@BKBees, do you have any ants issues over there?
Lov your videos.. challenges you face. Hit home..
Yeah, if you hear a beek saying they don't face stuff like that, you're listening to either a brand new beekeeper, or a liar.
Make nukes out of them
nukes or nucs?
Same thing right the one I had it wasn't doing like the rest I made two nukes out of it
@@scotth5261 the same thing right you said you had some that was really behind the others if you have Queen cells or Queens split them up
We're making honey out of these colonies. Did I come across a swarmy one in this video?
@@BKBees I have misunderstood I thought you was saying that you had some colonies that just was not growing
🇹🇷👍👍👍
Can you use Formic with honey supers on?
It is not recomanded !
Yep, it's not only legal but numerous studies have shown it to not affect the level of formic in the resulting honey. Formic acid is a highly prevalent substance in nature and nectar.