Hello Beepeeple!

[Maggiesdad]

Awesome man! that drawn comb will help. The red maples opened here today, and it's rainy and 41°. :^/

 

[babsbag]

I just installed 2 pkgs a few days ago. They have drawn comb, some with honey, that has been in the freezer all winter. They are already bringing in pollen. The blackberries should start blooming soon too, that is big in my area.

 

[Latestarter]

I'd love to plant some lilacs here... I like the smell and they're pretty to see and make a pretty good privacy screen when in leaf.

Hopefully it will dry up and warm up a bit so the bees can get to those maples!

Hope you have a better year with these packages Babs. Good to hear they got such a good head start!

Went to Lowes today to check on bee friendly plants/seeds as they are just starting to get in their bedding plants and flowering trees. So I'm standing there talking to a clerk and see movement and turn to see dozens of honey bees all over these flowering trees! It was amazing! Can't wait to get mine and that garden center is within range of where I live for my bees as well

 

[babsbag]

I always go to the nursery and see the bees and that is what I buy. Since I started raising bees I have become really conscious about leaving weeds that bloom, like mustard and wild radish. I draw the line at star thistle though, not allowed on my land.

I need to pay a lot more attention to treating for mites, as much as I hate it. Part of my problem is that I don't know WHEN to treat. I just can't grasp this whole honey flow thing and when that happens. I have looked online for our area and didn't get much help. In summer we have star thistle, in the fall we have golden rod, and then it gets cold. I think I have a real short window to treat. My honey yields are dismal so I do this more to benefit from the pollination than I do for the honey.

 

[Latestarter]

I understand your confusion... there are a lot of things to consider and variables, so from my research, if I determine that I NEED to treat, I think I'm going to go with hopguard strips: http://www.betatechopproducts.com/products/varroa-mite-control.php They suggest treating 3 times per year and though it's not stated in the product literature, the strips "dry out" in 3 days or so and then should be replaced so that the strips are in the hive and active over a 21 day or so period... this effectively takes care of the varroa hatching out of capped cells. I got this from several sources, but here's a good one with some good comments: http://www.honeybeesuite.com/hopping-mad-at-hopguard/

 

[babsbag]

I have the screened bottom board to look for mite drop and all the stuff, but when I was working full time and trying to run a farm too, it was really hard to get to where my bees were being kept. I only had one hive at my place and the others were 10-20 miles from me. I also don't do beekeeping in the heat well at all and our summer time temps are usually high 90s to 100+ for days on end so that would mean EARLY morning hive visits but I only had 2 days a week to do that because of work. Now that I am "retired" (no such thing with a farm) I am hoping I can do a little better by the bees.

I bought some Apiguard to use, but will look at that other stuff you posted. I used to get away with the powdered sugar dusting but doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. The last 2 years I have bought splits from hives that had been in the Almond orchards and I am just not sure that was wise. I have to wonder if there was more chemical exposure on them than what a pkg would be and also possibly mites would be higher too as they were older colonies. I went back to packages this year. Hope they do better.

 

[babsbag]

@Latestarter thanks for those links, it looks like a promising treatment. I would have to go visit my hives a lot, but much better than losing hives. I live that I can treat and not be worried about a honey flow. One of the comments a person said that they would us it to treat pkg bees. I wonder if I should just assume that the bees came with mites and treat while there isn't much brood? Guess I need to order some Hopguard.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I just installed 2 pkgs a few days ago. They have drawn comb, some with honey, that has been in the freezer all winter. They are already bringing in pollen. The blackberries should start blooming soon too, that is big in my area.

Wow, blackberries already?

I always go to the nursery and see the bees and that is what I buy. Since I started raising bees I have become really conscious about leaving weeds that bloom, like mustard and wild radish. I draw the line at star thistle though, not allowed on my land.

I need to pay a lot more attention to treating for mites, as much as I hate it. Part of my problem is that I don't know WHEN to treat. I just can't grasp this whole honey flow thing and when that happens. I have looked online for our area and didn't get much help. In summer we have star thistle, in the fall we have golden rod, and then it gets cold. I think I have a real short window to treat. My honey yields are dismal so I do this more to benefit from the pollination than I do for the honey.

I also don't allow star thistle.

I am putting in some lavender and rosemary since the bees love them.

 

[babsbag]

I have star thistle on all the roadsides around me so I am very careful to try and keep it off of my land, the bees love it though and it does make good honey. Rosemary is a great one, I have a few of that and lavender but not enough. My goats will actually graze on the thistle if they get to it before it makes the fruit.

Technically they are boysenberries, I have about 75' of them. The wild blackberries won't be for another month or so.

 

[Latestarter]

We had a guest speaker at the last bee club meeting and he said something that I had an offhand thought about but hadn't really formalized it yet... He asked us "Have you that are getting packages considered using powdered sugar on them BEFORE you dump them in the hive?" What a great question!

I mean these bees came from established hives, right? So I would guess there's a better than average chance that they are carrying varroa. Why not dust them before installing them and try to get rid of as many as you can before putting them into the hive? I plan on doing that as soon as I remove the queen, then shaking them a bit to see what falls through the screen. Once I'm sure I've got them all ghosty white, I'll dump them into the hive and see what ends up on the bottom board