🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[drstratton]

July 22nd, 2025

We've been feeding all but one of our hives. Well, we fed them all until it was time to put the supers on. I wanted one hive without any sugar syrup in it. That's the honey we're gifting to our friends.
We are in our dearth now and are feeding all of the hives. We want them to continue building comb and want to keep them strong. So we'll feed them sugar syrup with pollen in it. I might also make some pollen patties. We will possibly stop feeding if we get a good nectar flow from buckwheat. I'm hoping to keep the queens laying through October. Hopefully we will have helped build them up with a strong winter physiology. We will be using a candy board once the overnight temps drop below 50°F. Watched a good video from Bob Binnie on a study about feeding with sugar syrup being better than feeding them honey. It was very surprising to us.

 

[drstratton]

July 24th, 2025

 

[drstratton]

We ordered a Varroa Mite tester. We'll probably test on Thursday and see what our counts are.

Hopefully we will also be extracting the rest of the honey.

Here's a great video we watched about chemical free varroa control. This is the method I want to use, but that will probably be next season. This year in addition to the green frames (used without catching the queen) and the Oxalic Acid pads, we are going to use Apivar, if our counts are high. What I'd prefer to use over the Apivar is Formic Pro, but not until September, it's too hot for it right now.

 

[Baymule]

Such a great story of your bees! I can see the love y’all have for your bees and the great care y’all give them. Such incredible tiny creatures!

 

[drstratton]

Such a great story of your bees! I can see the love y’all have for your bees and the great care y’all give them. Such incredible tiny creatures!

They are a truly amazing part of God's creation. I'm in awe of how they were designed.

 

[fuzzi]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your bee journal. Thank you for taking the time and effort to share with us.

 

[drstratton]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your bee journal. Thank you for taking the time and effort to share with us.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to read it!

 

[drstratton]

It's very sad to kill any of the bees, but it's necessary. If we don't test for mites we won't know if our treatment methods are working.
The mites are from Asia and are slowly spreading around the world. There are some areas in Australia that are still mite free, but I'm afraid, not for much longer.
I want to go the natural route, but to do that means killing drones. There is really no way too completely eradicate them. Some bees are kind of mite resistant, meaning they are good at cleaning them out of their hives. And from what I understand, but there are a lot of opinions out there, going the natural route helps the bees to become even more hygienic than they already are. Bees keep their hives very clean. When the mite resistant bees sense mites in the cells, they will actually open the cell and remove the infected larvae. So even they kill their own to save the many.
Their goal is for the hive to survive. They die when they defend the hive, they replace the queen if she starts to fail, they kill any with deformities and the drones only serve one purpose, to mate with a queen and die in the process. They are kicked out of the hive when resources become to low. It is a brutal, but efficient society. They are the most amazing and resourceful creatures, I've ever studied.

 

[drstratton]

July 29th, 2025

We decided to do our first mite check this morning. The wind was calm and it was still below 100°.
I am so happy with our results.

Mite counts out of 1/2c, approximately 300 bees from each hive.
Swarm hive: 0
Package Hive: 0
I'm not really surprised with those results as they didn't come with frames.

Nuc hive #1: 2
Nuc hive #2: 2
I believe the use of the green drone frames has paid off.

I think we will probably hold off treatment until in the fall. Going to do a bit more research.

Mad at myself, I forgot to snap a picture of the mites in the bottom of the cup. I like pictures for documentation. Oh well, next time.

 

[drstratton]

July 29th, 2025

Today's beekeeping chores are not over. Now that we are in a dearth, we are feeding all of the hives weekly. We want the girls to continue building comb and we want the queen to continue laying. So, I thought I would share the equipment we use and the why and how. There are many ways to do different things in beekeeping. I'm sharing our methods and want to make note that those methods can change as we learn.

We feed inside the top of our hives. You never want to feed outside your hives as that can encourage robbing.

My husband built our feeder frames.
The screened portions in front are for ventilation. The middle is for pollen patties(from my understanding this encourages the queen to lay, pollen is used to feed the larvae). The back is for the syrup jar. We place a deep box around it and then the inner cover and top cover.

This shows how we first thought we would use it, but found the method I shared above works really well.

We are currently feeding sugar syrup with a ratio of 5 cups water to 3 cups sugar. That ratio will change depending on the season. From what I've learned you don't want to use boiling water as it will change the chemical compound of the sugar and can upset the bees digestion. My water temp is about 120°, I've found that dissolves the sugar fairly quick.
We use 2quart jars.

Later in the fall and early in spring when the supers are off and before the nectar flow starts, I will add pollen powder, Honey B Healthy and Honey B Healthy Amino Booster to the syrup. We will stop all feeding when we add the first super.

During the winter months, once nighttime temps drop below 50°, we will feed the bees using a candy board. I will share how, when we do it. If you want the information earlier look up David Burns, he is who we are modeling our feeding boards as well as the candy board after and he shares how to make the sugar candy and the syrup with the above supplements.

My jar lids. I drill 2 holes using a 5/64 bit and a dremel grinding stone to grind away any sharp edges. Mine is a variable speed and I set it to 15.

When the jar is full and you turn it upside down, it will drip for a moment and then a vacuum is created and that will stop. It's amazing how fast the bees can empty a bottle with those 2 holes.

I'm always open to any questions or suggestions.