Well i was taking my dead frozen hive apart and when i got to the bottom board there was well over 500 mature mites laying there .
There was no moisture and around 50 pounds of honey left so I'm going with mites.
In the fall things looked good i didn't see any mites at all so i figured no need to worry about mites till spring well i was wrong i do have alot to learn any way i'm going to freeze the honey and feed it to my new package bees come spring.
And please feel free to tell what a fool i was not to take the mite thing serious.
Iwell try again in the spring.
I dont think you are a fool at all. It's called a learning curve, and you just paid for your education. I posted earlier today, that I discovered that I lost one of mine due to my error. (Low population and should have been reduced to a nuc). Oh well, there is always next spring.
BTW...I'm a Sig Sauer man myself, we are issued Glock 21's and I hate em :-D
Now you know. I would not call your lack of action foolish. That is how we learn.....from our mistakes. Freezing the honey is an excellent idea. It will give your packages a jump start.
Good Luck,
Steve
I just lost one of my two hives (well, I just checked it and there were several handfuls of dead bees--looked like alot of them had starved). I think this is a hive that swarmed earlier this year. There was alot of uncapped honey. Not quite sure what to do now with the rest of the frames--are they okay to let "freeze" in the hive til winter, or do I have to remove and freeze in a freezer?
Glock, I am on the other side of Erie County, near Girard.
There's no chance of getting wax moths in a freezer; there is a good-to-excellent chance of getting them in a deadout hive! Don't let your frames stay there past the freeze spell or you will regret it! :-D
Glock,
how many bees were in the dead hive? Could the cluster have been too small?
No chance of wax moths in Pennsylvania till at least the beginning of June, if not longer. ;)
Hey buzzbee i was born in LOCK HAVEN i see your in clinton county.
Any way the bees where kinda in 3 small clusters one in the bottom brood box and 2 in the top.
Do you wrap your hives what all do you do for the winter?
and there was brood like 3 frames srounded by honey top and bottom.
But like i said there where more then 500 mites on the bottom board.
I'll try again these year coming and now i have honey to feed my new bees.
falls under two headings. SH and learning.
was this a first year package? very often you don't have to treat them because they don't develop a heavy mite load until the next year. you might have asked and been told that. the results would have been the same :-)
got a new Taurus 1911 .45. haven't been able to play with it much yet, but so far it's a nice fit for me :-)
I dont know about mite treatments i will do the natural things like drone removal, screened bottom board things such as this. I want mite resistent bees and if i have to loose colonies to get them so be it im not about to install meds every year if i dont have too :-\
Quote from: kathyp on December 31, 2010, 04:39:33 PM
got a new Taurus 1911 .45. haven't been able to play with it much yet, but so far it's a nice fit for me :-)
Using a Face-book saying
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Happy New Year
Quotedo I have to remove and freeze in a freezer?
You don't have to have a freezer; a refrigerator will do fine. Pick up one of those college fridge's that the kids don't come back and get in the fall from any storage place. Every backyard beek should grab one. They cost nothing to run in the winter and you will use the frames in the Spring anyway. All you got to do is hose them out good because they leave crap in them to cook while in summer storage. Not too much will live in the small fridge for long. They have a good seal and the oxygen gets depleted quickly.