I did my hives the same as Rae. No problems at all and they stayed that way throughout even the coldest part of last winter. All were there in the spring. Mine are being wintered the same way again. It worked for my bees so why change it.
My friend ordered two AMM Queens last year from Bickerstaffes. One gave yellow offspring and one blackish. When he complained as he had bought AMM he was emailed and told the Queen is grafted from the chosen stock and in this case AMM but all the bees from all races are then open mated.
So...
An English chap, forget his name, but who was teaching a mini nuc workshop at Gormanston this year said he puts his in the dishwasher. Minus the frames of course but he said it cleans up the apideas really well. He did state that wait till the wife goes shopping and allow extra time to clean...
I agree with Rae and think they are Earwig pooh. I have never had any problems with wax moth but always have lots of earwigs. Wherever they are I see these little black spots. I hate earwigs but they are harmless.
How do you find them? Are they sturdy enough? Am I right in thinking they sit directly on the top of the brood box. The price puts me off but might invest in a couple to try if any good.
Beecraft in Sept 2008 did a good article on feeding. It did calculations in both Lb and Kg. Ill keep it simple though directly from the article, it is how I make my syrup up though.
B&Q sell 12 L buckets for around £1 I have a couple for making my syrup up in.
For light syrup put 3Kg in...
My oldest boy is 7. Eight in October. He is a great help when needed and listens and works well. He first helped me at 5 and was pretty good. Calm and held frames of bees still. My youngest boy now 4 in July first came up to the bees in may so he was still three. He watched me work through...
That might be the case in England but not so in most of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. I believe we are approx 7 to 9 yrs behind the mainland on the varroa scene. So Bayvarol is still working for us. :hurray:
I was working with a small group of local beekeepers this year to try and graft and rear a small number of good natured AMM queens from selected stock. Breeding your own is the way people are going but not made easy with rogue drones. I had nice calm bees but one colony did a late supercedure...
Im not saying AMM do not get diseases. We are an island the same as the mainland is but varroa is not native to here neither is Nosema Ceranae or small hive beetle or tropilaelaps... I could go on but you get the point. We didnt have resistant mites either but I know that there have been bees...