This was the best after harvest "to do" list ever. Spot on observations on robbing scenarios, great advice for small /weak hives, replacing poor queens before it's too late. Congratulations, outstanding video.
David, I recently purchased a couple of your classes, I'm going to get into bee keeping in the spring. I'm located in west central Iowa. I've enjoyed and learned alot so far from your videos! Can't wait to start my own colonies next spring! I figured getting a head start on my training and keeping it going through this winter will really pay off in the spring. Thanks!
Thank you David this'll help my daughter and son who plan on working my bee's this Saturday. I'm recuperating and can't get into the hives myself. I'll share this with them.
Thank you David, I'm a newbie and having a "monthly reminder" video really helps. I'm in North Florida so I think I'm about a couple of weeks to a month later than you. Keep 'em coming!
Dave, regarding weak hive and sugar powder treatment. The weak one is probably sick, so combining it with the strong one might not be without issues. And as far as the sugar powder test, maybe do a alcohol wash on the same bees after the test to catch the rest of the mites that never got dislodged by the sugar powder. We often fall prey to sympathy toward 300 bees and loose the colony over winter because of "low mite count" in August. Great point on choosing your own mite treatment. Mites have a long life expectancy, much more so than an average worker, thus mite death by attrition won't help our colonies. So brood break or not, they'll need to be killed by some method and it's important for the new beekeepers to figure out what that method will be.
Thank you so much for such informative and helpful videos! Your channel is my favorite beekeeping channel. You are an excellent teacher! Appreciate you taking time to help others.
Thanks David! I've been reviewing your winter prep beekeeping course, so I've already completed most of these steps for the month. I'm guessing I'm in a dearth period where I live. Been feeding the bees 1:1 sugar syrup and pollen patties every week this month and they're just gobbling it up!
@@beek I saw a video somewhere that people say don't feed pollen patties this late because it tricks the queen into laying brood but don't you want a strong population going into winter? Seems like the temp and length of the days would dictate things to the queen more than the pollen. Or is it that too much pollen takes up room that could be used for food?
Thanks, David. You are so helpful to us newbies. I live in NW PA and we have been getting lots and lots and lots of rain. I am talking about over a month of it. When the sun finally comes out they are so busy but I wonder about how this is affecting flowers and the bees' ability to make and store honey. Should I be feeding them myself. The frames are not heavy like you would expect at this time of year.
Great Tips here David. I did a Mite Wash 2 weeks ago on 3 of my hives and are cycling through OAV treatments now. Going to do a Wash after to see where I'm at afterwards. My Initial mite count on the 3 was 3,3, and 8. So not bad but they have them. I'm going to write down these Tips and share with folks. 6 keys tips here. .
Thank you David for these tips. This is my first year. Very helpful information. My mentor is our county bee inspector. Your wonderful tips just makes his job easier. LOL
David, quick question. Im in my second year and Im torn between a couple options. Ive already pulled honey and put the supers back on for them to clean, the flow wasnt quite over so a few supers have about 4-5 frames of honey stored back in them. They are currently capping it off. Im not really sure what to do, should i yank those frame out and extract them, should i yank them and toss in the freezer until the fall, or should i leave them bee? My instinct tells me to remove supers, extract what i can and feed. HELP!
What a great video David. Thanks. I've got a super on a first year hive and I don't know what to do with it. They've capped about 80% of the frames. I was going to remove the excluder and just let them keep it over winter. But now I'm thinking I should pull it, extract the honey, and give them 1:1 for the next 2 months instead. Thoughts?
Thanks for the tips Dave ,good info , I'm a newbie with my 2 horizontal hives and I just took off 10 frames of honey between my 2 hives ,not as much as I expected, was waiting for them too fully Cap it ,but they have been really slow to do that so after 3 weeks I took the frames anyway ,cant figure out why they have been so slow at capping, there were some capped one side but not the other side so is this going to be a problem for me as I wanted to start a mite treatment without contaminating the honey, also on the 8th August saw supercedger cells in my one hive and just let them settle their own business, saw new Queen on the 15 ,looked again on 24 dont see any eggs ,am I looking to early or has my queen not come back ,thanks for any insight you can give me as I value your expertise, Marten.
I had to pinch off 2 queens and I have 6 total colonies making queens, hopefully all queens are mated this weekend. Still seeing plenty of drones right now.
David I am following your feeding guide 1-1 + pollen substitute ++ my question is to continue to grow the colony do I still need to add a pollen patty. Pollen patty to make bee bread and feed the brood. 1-1 to keep bees healthy and add to future resources???
I’m a first year bee keeper with a first year nuc. Haven’t pulled supers, have let the bees keep the majority of 2 shallow supers. . I only took maybe three frames worth to harvest. My question can I leave the supers on through winter and take next spring when warmer weather returns.
Yes, BUT, for winter you will have to remove the queen excluder which means you'll have tons of brood in the spring in your supers. Secondly, I HOPE you replaced those three frames you removed with new or drawn frames. If you did not, RUN and do it now!
@@beek yes I reinstalled the harvested frames so they can clean them up. In your opinion is is worth just pulling the supers pending they are fully capped and substitute feeding throughout winter?
Thank you for a great video. I am not yet a beekeeper but I am learning all I can. I am going to be moving to Montana that is where I will be beekeeping. Montana is prone to a lot of forest fires. I read that if there is a fire and a lot of smoke in the air it’s time to start feeding your bees because they cannot get out and forage. Is that correct? Montana has a fire season which is truly sad.
I am not sure, but makes total sense. I do not travel well in fog or smoke. And bees use pheromones to mark flowers, so it would be hard to secure the landing site.
Hi David, My dad and I need to start our fall feeding (a little late 😬) and we found the Honey B Healthy and the Amino-B Booster on honey bees online but I was curious about the protein powder you use. You have a link to the additives but it does not appear to work. God bless and I appreciate any help you can give us.
We are recommending people purchase the honey b healthy, amino B and powder in separate containers. Here is our link to the three: www.honeybeesonline.com/feeders/
If you do powdered sugar test, you can either keep doing that so that you have a baseline to detect increases or you can add 3 mites to the count, in case all did not fall off.
H Gene, thank you for the kind comments and for being a subscriber now for 7 months. IF you feed your bees now with supers on, it is okay IF the supers are capped over. But if they are still filling them, you'll have sugar water instead of floral honey.
Thanks David. Do you have a video on treating mites? I am torn about which way to treat. I have mite away strips and never used. I also have oxalic acid, etc but have never used. Thanks!
Thanks for being a subscriber for three years! I really do not favorite a particular treatment or suggest one, as it is based too much on each person's own personal situations and preference. I cover this more extensively in my ONLINE mite course showing several different approaches. There are so many different types of approaches.
How do you determine when a hive is "weak" and should be combined? Number of bees, amount of resources, both? We have a hive that is a little weak but it's got a bunch of frames of capped brood so the population is going to probably double in the next couple weeks just in time to really start feeding for winter.
Torrey, if your hive has been limping along all summer, it will not suddenly become strong in the fall. if you cannot get good 4 frames of clustered bees into the winter, they'll probably die of hypothermia. On the other hand if it has been building up strongly in the last month and you have a bunch of hatching brood, you might be able to pull through just fine. Check for mites before infusing sickly bees into healthy colonies. Read Randy Oliver's website articles scientificbeekeeping for tested, non-anecdotal advice.
Dave. I’m in a situation in which I feel I should split one of my hives. I have 2 very strong hives that seem to be very crowded and I want to avoid a late season swarm. I live in SE Pennsylvania about an hour north of Philadelphia and I literally have acres of goldenrod in bloom right now. My question is when is it too late to split ? Or should I just start prepping them for winter and split in the spring?
David. Just a Query on Tip: 2 and 3... Be Aware on .... # 1) Check Mite levels 2) Remove Honey ! 》 BEFORE # any Mite Treatment # !!! 3) Treat (Control) any Mites ! eg : NO Honey for CONSUMPTION should in or on the Hive ! Treatments are Toxins (even Natural Remedies) you don't want them in the Food Chain.... 4),5),6) As described. Hope this helps. 🙂 Happy Beekeeping 2021.🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Nice presentation 👌 today ! With my Earl Grey Tea by my side. 😁 Thought it best to say, I think 2) and 3) should be reversed. Not all Newbie Beeks will know Mite Treatments (Any) are OK for Bees (some better than others !) BUT not good for us, eating our Honey. Be Safe, Be Savvy, Be Knowledgeable about what and why your doing Stuff. ✔
yesterday in the garden I was harvesting potatoes and cabbage and melons and stuff, and just the entire time hear the soft buzzing of thousands of bees (it's a big garden), tons of bumblebees too I mean several hundred of those guys alone.... it is extremely cathartic
I was harshly told by my bee club ( East Central Ohio Beekeeper Association) that powder sugar is really bad for them because of the cornstarch. They really got after me.
Well thank you! I really learn a lot from you and I knew you used powder sugar. I have used it with most of my mite checks. It really deflated me when they got after me about it. They said to take granulated sugar and put it in a blender and use that. What do you think? Also, thank you so much for responding. I know you guys are so busy. We have taken your course by the way.
You add all sorts of stuff to your sugar syrup feed. I though for winter feed you wanted honey with a low ash content so the bees can go longer without defecating. (I'm so proper) Could you comment. Thx
My friend, Jon Zawislak and I are working on developing QMP detector in the hive that bluetooths/wifi and sends updates to your phone app as to the health of your queen. As soon as her Queen Mandibular pheromones weaken, you'll be notified that you are queenless. So far, it is just a theory.
my second year and haen't done either. I open drone cells at random and if I see mites I open more then if I see quite a few then I treat. In my mind I'm not killing productive bees
hands up from me, David. Killing the queen by not seeing her prior to collecting the brood based bees. Am I over thinking this - yes, a newbie (2 years)
If powdered sugar will take off Mites in a Mite test then why not put powdered sugar in your hive on your bee's to get rid of Mites ? because it will cause the Bee's start cleaning them self's and each other .
Alcohol wash not for me either, only have four hives and would hate to sacrifice all those bees. We use apiguard on August then an oxalic vape around dec/jan
This was the best after harvest "to do" list ever. Spot on observations on robbing scenarios, great advice for small /weak hives, replacing poor queens before it's too late. Congratulations, outstanding video.
Thank you Joseph, nice of you to say! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks!
Wow, thank you so much Sharon, I appreciate your gift so much.
Always great information thank you David
I always combine hives! The best advice.
Watch almost everyday. Learning so much and much more relaxed about caring for my bees. :)
So nice of you to say!
Thanks David, short and to the point, your the best......
Oh yeah! Great videos!
Thanks you David this was great hope u have a blessed week
New beekeeper and I love your videos.
Thank you Steven.
David, I recently purchased a couple of your classes, I'm going to get into bee keeping in the spring. I'm located in west central Iowa. I've enjoyed and learned alot so far from your videos! Can't wait to start my own colonies next spring! I figured getting a head start on my training and keeping it going through this winter will really pay off in the spring. Thanks!
Thank you! great video!
Thank you David this'll help my daughter and son who plan on working my bee's this Saturday. I'm recuperating and can't get into the hives myself. I'll share this with them.
Great to hear Dianne and hope you have a speedy recovery.
I love your monthly tips being a newbie I have learned so much. Thank you
Thank you David for another top notch video❣️You are doing great things for us beeminders… and the bees 🐝
Thank you David, I'm a newbie and having a "monthly reminder" video really helps. I'm in North Florida so I think I'm about a couple of weeks to a month later than you. Keep 'em coming!
Glad it was helpful!
Dave, regarding weak hive and sugar powder treatment. The weak one is probably sick, so combining it with the strong one might not be without issues. And as far as the sugar powder test, maybe do a alcohol wash on the same bees after the test to catch the rest of the mites that never got dislodged by the sugar powder. We often fall prey to sympathy toward 300 bees and loose the colony over winter because of "low mite count" in August. Great point on choosing your own mite treatment. Mites have a long life expectancy, much more so than an average worker, thus mite death by attrition won't help our colonies. So brood break or not, they'll need to be killed by some method and it's important for the new beekeepers to figure out what that method will be.
Like your video. I also live in Illinois and getting ready for autumn.
Dave, thanks for getting a newBEE like me through my first half year. Have the winter classes and preparation underway. Great work!
Thank you
Thank you so much for such informative and helpful videos! Your channel is my favorite beekeeping channel. You are an excellent teacher! Appreciate you taking time to help others.
Wow Melissa, thank you so much.
Thank you for all your knowledge
Nice of you to say Charles, I appreciate it.
Thank you Sir. Won't overlook this, like any other of your material.
Nice!
A bundle of thanks for your valuable information
Thanks!!
Thank you 🙏🏼
Thanks David! I've been reviewing your winter prep beekeeping course, so I've already completed most of these steps for the month. I'm guessing I'm in a dearth period where I live. Been feeding the bees 1:1 sugar syrup and pollen patties every week this month and they're just gobbling it up!
Very nice.
@@beek I saw a video somewhere that people say don't feed pollen patties this late because it tricks the queen into laying brood but don't you want a strong population going into winter? Seems like the temp and length of the days would dictate things to the queen more than the pollen. Or is it that too much pollen takes up room that could be used for food?
That 60 second clip of the sugar test was pretty awesome 🐝
Glad you enjoyed it.
We have soy and goldenrod and asters on right now in southwestern KY! We did feed some about a month ago in a mini-dearth.
Do you know Kent Williams?
@@beek I haven't had the chance to make it to any Bee club meetings this season, I might have been able to meet him if I had!
Hello David Burns, yesterday I caught a swarm! Love the videos, I’m subscribed with the bell!
Awesome, thank you. Catching a swarm is sooooo fun. Thank you for subscribing and clicking on the bell.
Enjoying your show very much David. Keep the good work. Let me know if I can be useful. Cheers.
Thank you.
Good Information !!!
Thanks Rodney, glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks, David. You are so helpful to us newbies. I live in NW PA and we have been getting lots and lots and lots of rain. I am talking about over a month of it. When the sun finally comes out they are so busy but I wonder about how this is affecting flowers and the bees' ability to make and store honey. Should I be feeding them myself. The frames are not heavy like you would expect at this time of year.
Thank you David!
Very welcome Carla and thank you for subscribing 4 weeks ago!
When is the best time to install the entrance reducer. What month. And before the winter bees 🐝 are started another mite treatment also
Great Tips here David. I did a Mite Wash 2 weeks ago on 3 of my hives and are cycling through OAV treatments now. Going to do a Wash after to see where I'm at afterwards. My Initial mite count on the 3 was 3,3, and 8. So not bad but they have them. I'm going to write down these Tips and share with folks. 6 keys tips here. .
Cool
Thank you David for these tips. This is my first year. Very helpful information. My mentor is our county bee inspector. Your wonderful tips just makes his job easier. LOL
Yup, good deal. What state?
David, quick question. Im in my second year and Im torn between a couple options. Ive already pulled honey and put the supers back on for them to clean, the flow wasnt quite over so a few supers have about 4-5 frames of honey stored back in them. They are currently capping it off. Im not really sure what to do, should i yank those frame out and extract them, should i yank them and toss in the freezer until the fall, or should i leave them bee? My instinct tells me to remove supers, extract what i can and feed. HELP!
David, great video thanks for sharing you expertise. What pollen powder do you recommend?
LOL Thanks Dave you’re on fire in this vid! Say ,How long can I keep out the sugar water in my birdbath? A week? Then dump it? A real good idea!
Thanks Keith, Wow, my bird bath filled with sugar water only last an hour! If you are dumping it your bees must still have a nectar flow.
What a great video David. Thanks. I've got a super on a first year hive and I don't know what to do with it. They've capped about 80% of the frames. I was going to remove the excluder and just let them keep it over winter. But now I'm thinking I should pull it, extract the honey, and give them 1:1 for the next 2 months instead. Thoughts?
Thanks for the tips, here in west Texas we are in our fall flow with everything blooming during our monsoon season.
Wow, nice!! I would not have thought that about Texas. What plants are in bloom for honey bees to forage on?
@@beek All kinds of wild flowers yuccas and some variety's of cactus. in the spring its mainly cactus and mesquite and our fruit trees and grapes.
Thanks for the tips Dave ,good info , I'm a newbie with my 2 horizontal hives and I just took off 10 frames of honey between my 2 hives ,not as much as I expected, was waiting for them too fully Cap it ,but they have been really slow to do that so after 3 weeks I took the frames anyway ,cant figure out why they have been so slow at capping, there were some capped one side but not the other side so is this going to be a problem for me as I wanted to start a mite treatment without contaminating the honey, also on the 8th August saw supercedger cells in my one hive and just let them settle their own business, saw new Queen on the 15 ,looked again on 24 dont see any eggs ,am I looking to early or has my queen not come back ,thanks for any insight you can give me as I value your expertise, Marten.
I had to pinch off 2 queens and I have 6 total colonies making queens, hopefully all queens are mated this weekend. Still seeing plenty of drones right now.
David I am following your feeding guide 1-1 + pollen substitute ++ my question is to continue to grow the colony do I still need to add a pollen patty. Pollen patty to make bee bread and feed the brood. 1-1 to keep bees healthy and add to future resources???
Pollen patties are fine, but they can attract small hive beetle, but everything can attract SHB. I do not use pollen patties.
Hello David
Tip #3 is it wise not to harvest honey first year bee keeping. Thanks for all the good tips. Shalom
Hey Dave
Could you provide the other items you add to the sugar water?
I’m just south of you btw
Honey B Healthy, Amino B Booster and Protein Powder. I add 1 teaspoon of each to one quart of 1:1 sugar water.
@@beek thanks. I’m in Petersburg Illinois
I’m a first year bee keeper with a first year nuc. Haven’t pulled supers, have let the bees keep the majority of 2 shallow supers. . I only took maybe three frames worth to harvest. My question can I leave the supers on through winter and take next spring when warmer weather returns.
Yes, BUT, for winter you will have to remove the queen excluder which means you'll have tons of brood in the spring in your supers. Secondly, I HOPE you replaced those three frames you removed with new or drawn frames. If you did not, RUN and do it now!
@@beek yes I reinstalled the harvested frames so they can clean them up. In your opinion is is worth just pulling the supers pending they are fully capped and substitute feeding throughout winter?
Mr burns, is it possible to use your top feeder on Apimaye beehive?
You will have to perhaps modify something
How do you get your bees to eat the pollen powder outside of the hive? Mine won't go after it.
Same here. I put out a tray of powdered pollen substitute and Nada. 🙄
Thank you for a great video. I am not yet a beekeeper but I am learning all I can. I am going to be moving to Montana that is where I will be beekeeping. Montana is prone to a lot of forest fires. I read that if there is a fire and a lot of smoke in the air it’s time to start feeding your bees because they cannot get out and forage. Is that correct? Montana has a fire season which is truly sad.
I am not sure, but makes total sense. I do not travel well in fog or smoke. And bees use pheromones to mark flowers, so it would be hard to secure the landing site.
Hi David,
My dad and I need to start our fall feeding (a little late 😬) and we found the Honey B Healthy and the Amino-B Booster on honey bees online but I was curious about the protein powder you use. You have a link to the additives but it does not appear to work. God bless and I appreciate any help you can give us.
We are recommending people purchase the honey b healthy, amino B and powder in separate containers. Here is our link to the three:
www.honeybeesonline.com/feeders/
@@beek Thanks man!
i agree with you about that alcohol wash, seems cruel to kill the bees, especially when they're already endangered.
If you do powdered sugar test, you can either keep doing that so that you have a baseline to detect increases or you can add 3 mites to the count, in case all did not fall off.
Thanks for the video...I am a newbie...can you put a top feeder above a honey super? I am still hoping for some honey frames. Thanks Gene
H Gene, thank you for the kind comments and for being a subscriber now for 7 months. IF you feed your bees now with supers on, it is okay IF the supers are capped over. But if they are still filling them, you'll have sugar water instead of floral honey.
What about the dawn detergent wash?
I use the a entrance feeder as my water supply for the hive.
My father in law does that
Thanks David. Do you have a video on treating mites? I am torn about which way to treat. I have mite away strips and never used. I also have oxalic acid, etc but have never used. Thanks!
Thanks for being a subscriber for three years! I really do not favorite a particular treatment or suggest one, as it is based too much on each person's own personal situations and preference. I cover this more extensively in my ONLINE mite course showing several different approaches. There are so many different types of approaches.
Uggghhhhh! The queen thing! I’m never quit sure when to do the thing………
How do you determine when a hive is "weak" and should be combined? Number of bees, amount of resources, both? We have a hive that is a little weak but it's got a bunch of frames of capped brood so the population is going to probably double in the next couple weeks just in time to really start feeding for winter.
Torrey, if your hive has been limping along all summer, it will not suddenly become strong in the fall. if you cannot get good 4 frames of clustered bees into the winter, they'll probably die of hypothermia. On the other hand if it has been building up strongly in the last month and you have a bunch of hatching brood, you might be able to pull through just fine. Check for mites before infusing sickly bees into healthy colonies. Read Randy Oliver's website articles scientificbeekeeping for tested, non-anecdotal advice.
Ok so I combined a hive and I now have 4 deep boxes on top of each other can it stay like that till next spring
Do you use the green drone comb all year round? Do I leave it in the hive through the winter?
No, best to pull it off when they stop raising drones. For me that's usually in September.
So if I left all the honey on my bees this spring and summer ( first year hives ) and they have plenty of it . Why or should you feed sugar water ?
Dave. I’m in a situation in which I feel I should split one of my hives. I have 2 very strong hives that seem to be very crowded and I want to avoid a late season swarm. I live in SE Pennsylvania about an hour north of Philadelphia and I literally have acres of goldenrod in bloom right now. My question is when is it too late to split ? Or should I just start prepping them for winter and split in the spring?
Probably likely too late for splits. Prep for winter wins every time.
@@beek Thank you. I’ll plan for splits in the spring. I greatly appreciate your reply.
David. Just a Query on Tip: 2 and 3...
Be Aware on .... #
1) Check Mite levels
2) Remove Honey !
》 BEFORE # any
Mite
Treatment # !!!
3) Treat (Control) any
Mites !
eg : NO Honey
for CONSUMPTION
should in or on the
Hive ! Treatments
are Toxins (even
Natural Remedies)
you don't want
them in the
Food Chain....
4),5),6) As described.
Hope this helps. 🙂
Happy Beekeeping 2021.🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Nice presentation 👌 today ! With my Earl Grey Tea by my side. 😁
Thought it best to say, I think 2) and 3) should be reversed.
Not all Newbie Beeks will know Mite Treatments (Any) are OK for Bees (some better than others !)
BUT not good for us, eating our Honey.
Be Safe, Be Savvy, Be Knowledgeable about what and why your doing Stuff. ✔
Good point, I either said that or said it but removed it.
How long do I feed in August because I want some fall honey too and don’t want sugar in it.
Wait and feed after the nectar flow
My hives are more pets than livestock. We use them for BVT and maybe a little ASMR by sitting out with my coffee.
yesterday in the garden I was harvesting potatoes and cabbage and melons and stuff, and just the entire time hear the soft buzzing of thousands of bees (it's a big garden), tons of bumblebees too I mean several hundred of those guys alone....
it is extremely cathartic
How far away do I need to feed
Great video David! One question, are there any laws addressing the contributing to the delinquency of bees? Lol...
Wow... can I share the vodka with them?? This is great even for a 10 year veteran!!
I do sugar and if i find any mites i treat
The alcohol wash may be better but in reality isn’t the sugar shake “good enough” to get an idea for treatment.
Any thoughts or preferences on extracting equipment? Anybody?
I was harshly told by my bee club ( East Central Ohio Beekeeper Association) that powder sugar is really bad for them because of the cornstarch. They really got after me.
It's only 10% so a small amount has never bothered my bees, and most beekeepers agree.
Well thank you! I really learn a lot from you and I knew you used powder sugar. I have used it with most of my mite checks. It really deflated me when they got after me about it. They said to take granulated sugar and put it in a blender and use that. What do you think? Also, thank you so much for responding. I know you guys are so busy. We have taken your course by the way.
You add all sorts of stuff to your sugar syrup feed. I though for winter feed you wanted honey with a low ash content so the bees can go longer without defecating. (I'm so proper) Could you comment. Thx
I'm sure that makes sense. However, my Winter-Bee-Kind content and thickness has proven themselves for well over a decade.
Need a way to find queens,got two with unmarked queens and the bees really don't allow me a lotta time to look.😁
My friend, Jon Zawislak and I are working on developing QMP detector in the hive that bluetooths/wifi and sends updates to your phone app as to the health of your queen. As soon as her Queen Mandibular pheromones weaken, you'll be notified that you are queenless. So far, it is just a theory.
What do you think of CO2 instead of powder sugar or alcohol?
I’ve tried it a few years ago. It’s fine but not my favorite mode of testing.
I've tried feeding in South Florida and the bees just ignore sugar water. Is that normal?
Maybe they have a floral nectar source they prefer.
my second year and haen't done either. I open drone cells at random and if I see mites I open more then if I see quite a few then I treat. In my mind I'm not killing productive bees
what happens if you try to feed even lighter than 1 to 1?
How about using CO2
hands up from me, David. Killing the queen by not seeing her prior to collecting the brood based bees. Am I over thinking this - yes, a newbie (2 years)
Sometimes the queen dies of natural causes but often accidently killed when the honey is removed. So, be sure and have a good queen going into winter.
Still didn’t win. Looks like I’m going to have to break down and buy that ultimate class lol
Dang I didn’t win 😢😭
If powdered sugar will take off Mites in a Mite test then why not put powdered sugar in your hive on your bee's to get rid of Mites ? because it will cause the Bee's start cleaning them self's and each other .
I’ve recommend that for years. Not as the only way, but part of a plan.
Alcohol wash not for me either, only have four hives and would hate to sacrifice all those bees. We use apiguard on August then an oxalic vape around dec/jan
Glad you are reducing your mites!!