Bees Bees and more bees a question from a New England New Bee

[HockeymanVT]

My two hives were started in late May.  I placed them on top of my shed roof to keep them away from bears. I planted a half acre of buckwheat to give them something to do and now I have tons of bees!  The two hives are different in size. One was much bigger from the start even though they were created equally from packaged bees.  I just added a third deep body to the big hive which has two shallow supers that are filling up with honey. The smaller colony has two deep and one shallow.  Bees in both hives fill 80-90% of the frames with significant bearding on the outside. Now to my questions:

It is August 30 with LOTS of  flowers out and seemingly honey flowing well.  Am I making a mistake by adding the third deep to the big hive?  They seemed crowded and were starting to raise brood in the lower of the two shallow supers. I don't want then to swarm out on me.

I have been told that I need to start medication now and have  Fumagilin-B, Terramycin soluble powder and mite medicine.  I was assuming that they would produce very little homey the first year but there seems to be quite a few frames in the bigger hive. Should I give them some more time and grab some honey before winter then medicate them or should the meds go on now.  I will, of course feed them through the winter as well.

Sorry this is long but I felt you might want the context of my questions.  I will have more when I get closer to winter... which in Vermont might be soon.

Doug

     

[pdmattox]

Don't medicate untill you take the honey off.  Not sure about your location but would guess that you still have some time to do this. If they need more room then try pulling some of the honey and replace it with another frame. I would not add another box at this time in the year. You will want to decrease colony size not increase it.

[Kathyp]

don't know how soon it gets cold there or what you are using for mites.  for a full treatment with apiguard, you need 4 weeks with the weather at 60 or better during the day.  you don't want them clustered and sealed for winter and then be trying to treat them at the same time with anything.  when do your temps go down?

[Michael Bush]

>I have been told that I need to start medication now

I'm sure you have...

> and have  Fumagilin-B, Terramycin soluble powder and mite medicine.

Why?  Do you have Nosema?  Do you have AFB?  Do you know how big the mite load is?

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm