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Randy Oliver mentions it but I too would like to hear from someone who's actually tried it.

A very dry year. The only thing blooming is what I've planted: Hollyhock, Echinacea, rudbeckia, parsley, squash and LOTS of catnip!

I'm in the USA and use Paradise Langstroth and bought a Paradise feeder. I assume they are available for National hives also. I HATE it!!! It works for dry feed but is intended to be filled with sugar syrup. The entrance for the bees is horrible and the bees get stuck in it. Thanks for the...

Hops has the same pain relief as Marijuana (just doesn't have the THC) and is legal everywhere. They are in the same plant family. I don't have any personal experience with CBD. See if you can find an herbalist to help you out.

Don't even own a cell phone. And been off grid for over 20 years including a solar pumped well for water. Lots of sun here.

It's my understanding the the OA sponges are to be used in conjunction with other treatments. If you have a heavy mite load you should use a stand method such as Formic acid or whatever your choice is. Then you follow up with the sponges to keep the mite load down. Kamon Reynolds explains it here.

I'll keep trying. I even take photos when I inspect my hives hoping I can find her in the photos. Nothing so far.

When I see photos and videos of "find the queen" I never have a problem finding her. But in real life it's not happening! I'm glad I'm not alone with this.

Oh! Thanks! I'll check them out.

To my knowledge, the Africanized bee is not at this elevation (7000 ft) but has been reported not far away at lower elevations. Africanized bees, varroa, hive beetles...... Yikes! So much to worry about!

Very interesting. I guess that makes sense because when the bees make comb that hangs down from the bottom of the frame it's always drones.

I'm in the USA but I know they sell them here. I'll have to do some research on the efficacy of VSH queens. But my main problem with that is that I would have to "retire"(!) the old queen and I'M NEVER ABLE TO FIND the queen in my hives. I just know the queens are in the hive because I have...

I was just given a Top Bar hive so I'll be experiencing bees making their own comb when I it get up and running. And I've heard that when they make their own comb they have less varroa because they control the size of the openings. True? And thanks for the info on insulation. I'll need to add some.

I agree. I did not hesitate to start OA knowing I had a problem. I didn't check the mite level first (I probably should have) but I'm in Panic Mode. I will start checking the mite load with the sugar roll method regularly. I really do live in the Middle of Nowhere and to my knowledge there are...

Perfect! Thank you.

The colony is now in a small box and vaped (with more to come). I took Michael Palmer's advice and pulled out 6 pupae from the comb. 3 looked perfect, 2 appeared to have no wings and one had deformed wings. Thanks everyone for advise!

How do you keep the mites away? I'm always interested in 'treatment free'. Obviously a long topic and not enough space in this forum.

The weather is about to turn bad again but I plan on moving the colony to a small box this morning and vaping them. I don't think there are any drone cells in this hive. Then when the weather clears up I'll start treating the other hives.

Thanks for the articles. I read some info on Randy Oliver's site about dusting bees with powdered sugar (repeated frequently) as a varroa treatment. Any thoughts on that?

How often do you personally test for varroa? Thanks for the information.