Questions for any NC bee keepers

[woodsstalker]

After a 30 plus year absence from the hobby I am getting back into bee keeping - got three hives set up and occupied yesterday.

A lot has changed in the hobby since I last had hives.

My questions:

   1) What routine medical maintenance do you perform if any? When do you perform this feeding of medical treatments?

   2) What routine feeding do you perform or recommend?

I plan to use a deep hive body for the brood chamber and a medium super above this for food storage, taking off only from any additional supers placed above this.

Next year I will analyze the results from the medium super and if it looks like I should be using a deep hive body for a food storage then I will go with that idea at that time. So - what is the common size food storage box do you use?

Any comments, advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[buzzbee]

Three things to research:
Varroa Mites,
Small hive Beetles
Nosema (Apis and Ceranae).
You asked a loaded question, sit back and hold on!! :)

[woodsstalker]

Yes, I realized that when posting Buss, but ignorance is not always bliss!

During the months leading up to my final decision to get back into the hobby I did quite a bit of research but none of the results dealt specifically with my locale. So upon finding this site I figured a good way to find answers to my problems.

Thanks for the input.

[buzzbee]

I'm sure we'll get some of your locals chiming in here. We have quite a few from that part of the country.

[iddee]

1. NONE
2. NONE
Treat or feed on an "as needed" basis only.
One deep and one med. AKA story and a half, is normally adequate. Two deeps, AKA two story, if splitting is the goal.

[woodsstalker]

Thanks Iddee, that's pretty much as I figured. It's just that I have been reading so many horror stories over the past few years regarding the loss of bee hives and I would hate to loose mine due to something I didn't do.

My set up and intended plans are to use a deep for the brood chamber under a medium super for food stores. I will take off honey only from supers above this. With the winters we have in this area I am hoping that additional feeding should not be needed.