to feed or treat

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when to treat when to feed

  • treat for mites and feed

    Votes: 10 71.4%
  • feed then treat for mites

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • feed, treat and finish feeding

    Votes: 4 28.6%

  • Total voters
    14
  • Poll closed .

plumber

House Bee
Joined
Sep 1, 2009
Messages
262
Reaction score
1
Location
LEICESTER
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
7
At my apiary sorting out ready to treat the hives, a farmer who has livestock on the same land were I have my bees and was in the same class this year
came over for a chat. He was saying that he was not shure when to treat or feed, of three experiaced beekeepers asked he had three ansewers.
1. Put the Apiguard on and then feed
2, Feed then treat
3, Feed for a week add treatment finish feeding
As I understan it the last option was to avoid the Ivy flow as much as possible.
your comments and vote please.
 
I do both at the same time..
Bees multitask.
 
I emergency fed due to very low stores and treated at same time. Will winter feed after treatment.
 
There isn’t a, I feed but don’t treat to tick;)
 
Treat as a priority (especially when temperatures are getting cooler and Apiguard won't work so well) then feed, if necessary. I treated and fed with thymolised syrup at the same time and none of the four colonies touched the syrup (meticulous preparation of HM's recipe). I have since removed the Apiguard and fed unthymolised syrup and they're guzzling it down.

I have been converted to the ways of the precautionary treatment followers here too. Colonies showed a very light Varroa drop coming into autumn (due mainly to opportunist treatments at times of AS, swarm capture, etc.) and I was reluctant to treat. On this occasion the post-Apiguard Varroa drop hasn't increased hugely but it does provide a feel-good factor that the bees are as prepared for winter as they can be (though the downside is that thymol certainly wound my bees up).
 
As an additional query. My bees were robbed of there spare honey at the beginning of September (Don't know who ???) and since that time have been pretty active on the collecting front. I figured that with the global warming effects, the weather pattern is a few weeks behind.
I have just been through the hive today and stores are pretty well up. The Bees look healthy, there appears to be a small drop of Varroa, but a very active hive. I couldn't believe the amount of Strong yellow pollen being brought in today! What it is I've no idea. (Picture attached!)
I have a dilemma, given that there are large amounts of stores (Plenty of brood, and stores in the brood chamber and 2/3rds stores in the super) should I still treat for Varroa with a Thymol based product and risk tainting the stores and stopping the Bees gathering?

BEES002.jpg
 

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