Hello All, I have a new hive, My only hive right now. Started from a swarm May 30Th, I think they are doing well. They have the bottom deep all filled and the second deep is all drawn with some honey in it along with some weird orange pollen. I am hoping to be able to place a super on by the end of July and maybe take a little honey this year.
I am wondering. This hive looks nice and healthy, although I am new a friend looked into the hive and said that he could not find anything wrong with the bees and thought they were doing very well. Should I be concerned about using any type of medications for SHB or mites or foul brood at this point? Should I wait till fall? Or do you wait till you find something wrong?
Harvey, most of us here are chemical free. You may want to check out this section on our site: http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/board,87.0.html
...JP
Wow, I read the four step article by Michael Bush, Impressive and it makes a lot of sense for someone who doesn't have any. The hive I am starting has plasticell, They have two deeps drawn out right now and I am hoping to add a super soon, Now I am wondering if it would be better to remove the foundation from the supers and see what happens? Course Bush didn't address the size of the cells in the honey storing area? I am planning on starting another hive next spring. Not sure to order package bee's, try to find another swarm or split what I have. No idea realy how to do that other than reading on here. I would like to try natural cell though. and clean comb sounds very appealing to me. How would I transition a hive that is already drawn out comb on plasticell without hurting the hive?