soarwitheagles
True BYH Addict
The hives are both captured swarms and not very strong. One was doing well until the robbing started, the other had to be given a queen late in the summer so not much going on at all. I had planned on feeding them heavily all winter. I saw no queens today in either hive, the one being robbed may have been killed. I have thought about combining them. The honey wouldn't hurt them at all but if there are bees on the frames as I put them in is that starting trouble?
When you treat for mites with the OA vapor do you do it more than once a year? Does it have to be done during a period of no brood like the dribble?
babs,
I was told I could strengthen my hives by adding sugar syrup and pollen substitute during the first year and also during subsequent dearths. Bees need the sugar for food, and they need the pollen sub to feed the larvae. When I added these two ingredients, the queen began to lay 1,000-2,000 new eggs per day. So that is how they became incredibly strong.
I never had a problem with robbing until this year. The robbing began after I shook off bees from one hive into another hive. It was my mistake. I had to place robber screens on some of the hives after that.
I also noticed that when the hives are very strong, they can fight off and even kill yellow jackets.
To answer your question regarding the OA vapor...
I treat only when I see an increase in mites. I use sticky bottom boards that I designed and made to monitor the mite activity. I just began the first OA vapor treatments of the year last week because I saw a substantial increase of mite activity. The recommended cycle for treatment is 3 times at 5 day intervals. But I like to treat 4-5 times at 5 day intervals just to be certain I killed 99% of them!
I am so sorry to hear you lost some hives. I know the pain of that type of loss [we lost our first hive to ants]. I felt like given up after losing our first hive. But after lots more reading, study, and asking questions, I thought I would try again. Now we went from 1 hive to 15 hives, so the patience finally paid off.
After carefully analyzing how much time and money we put into the bee keeping, we have decided to downsize. Next spring we hope to double our hives by either splits or the Nucot method. That will put us up to 30 hives. Then we hope to sell 25 of the 30 hives to recoup our costs and make a little money too. Finally, we will probably stay around 5 hives for our pollination needs here.
We hope to double our 5 hives each year in the spring and then sell 5 each year to pay for the costs of the sugar and pollen sub.
Hope this helps!