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.
Because I'm treatment free I keep a very close watch on mite levels .. I used to do every colony every inspection but after 10+ years I get to know what they look like so I do a couple of my colonies when I open them up - but - if you are going to treat your bees I'd just do a sugar roll if I had any concerns about the colony and perhaps one early in the season, one mid and one end. It's interesting to see how mite levels can fluctuate in the same colony and from colony to colony.
As JBM inferred: effort wasted on a poor method.
Without drone, gas on day 1, 6, & 11.
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.
Ask here. You’ll get plenty of advice
Perfect! Thank you.
With DWV in evidence I would not consider going TF ... the first thing before you even think about TF is to do regular testing for varroa ... so many factors are involved in being able to have healthy and thriving colonies that can survive when there is varroa present (and there will always be varroa present). You have to check the mite levels regularly and only consider being TF if and when you are confident that your colonies, in your location, with your beekeeping, have maintained low levels of varroa, consistently for a significant period. Be prepared to treat if mite levels seem to be escalating out of control - it's a hard road to follow, there are no silver bullets and you risk losing colonies if the mite load is too much for them. Not something to dive into and hope for the best ...
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 no beekeepers for several miles and only occassionally am I aware of feral bees in the forest. I'm hoping that in the future I can go treatment free or at least incorporate a more natural approach.
OA by sublimation is about the nearest you can get to being treatment free without actually stopping treatment altogether. It's a naturally occurring organic acid (present in rhubarb leaves and other plants). The bees don't seem to mind it at all, it is very effective as a mite killer and there are no significant residues left in the hive after treatment. If your sugar rolls show any significant mite levels then I would treat them with OA.
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.
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Half my colonies are foundation free. They make lots more drones than the colonies on foundation.
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 eggs, etc. VSH queen might be worth looking into when I (hopefully) split a hive this year.
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.
How and when they build drone comb will depend very much on the size of colony and time of year!
