I was told to treat my hives in october

[tom]

Howdy all

 I was told today by a beek friend to treat my three hives with fumagilin-b and treat them for mite even if i do not have any that i should not take the chance on either treatment. So i figured if i need to know the best advice on treating my hives is to come here and get some more advice on this should i do these treatments before winter comes in and should i do it next month. I was told to buy api-var and fumagilin-b is there some thing i need to do different or go with this advice he does a poor job of taking care of his bees he leaves aspitan strips in all winter long and he has his entrance about the size of two fingers thats all they got to come and go in the summer.

Tom

[pdmattox]

Not sure for your area but for my area i treated the hives with apriguard and some kind of powder shake from dadant at the end of august.  I was told the queen shuts down a few days after treatment, so here is how the timing was.  pulled honey, treated, two weeks and treated again, then let the hive build up for winter.

[BEE C]

There is speculation but no proof that queens shut down production with the proper use of medications, or that queen mortality is increased.  Properly managed hives should be requeened every year in the spring anyway, so this shouldn't be a big concern.  The bigger issues for wintering are making sure hives have enough sugar syrup or honey and pollen stores, as well as proper ventilation.  There is a large body of evidence that proper ventilation can make or break a hives winter survival chances.  I mix fumagilin b into winter sugar syrup, and then I wait until that five gallons of syrup has been taken up, and add formic acid pads on top of the upper brood box.  Formic acid needs to be repeated four or five times at five day intervals.  The daytime temp needs to be at least hitting 12 degrees for formic acid to work this way.  Oxalyic acid can wait until its cold... I found varroa on my bees and thought it was not a big deal, but my mentor said the varroa mite population can explode just before winter, and its not a good thing while all the bees are crammed into two or one brood boxes.  Find information about your particular area and what diseases are present, varroa and nosema are good to treat preventatively, because they are everywhere now.

[tom]

Howdy

  Thank you both for your insight my queens are a young queens one was bred in august and the other in september. My first hive queen was mated in april this year and they are working like crazy i counted about 20 coming and a handful going my #2 and #3 hives has reduced thier brood down alot both of these queens are NWC queens from HoneyRun Apiraries. And the april queen well i wish she would slow down but she has not they are bringing in lots of both pollen and nector and they are calling for rain before the weekend. Now i am going to order some Honey-B- Healthy and fumagilin-B i was told these two combined will give them a big boost i have not seen and mites and the brood patterns are solid almost a full frame of nothing but brood. I did notice my third hive throwing out some old bees this morning and would not let them back in but other than that they are working full force and if it keeps up they may make some surplus. But as soon as my stuff comes they will be fed to all three hives and i am going to order some api-var life also.

Tom

[Brian D. Bray]

Nosema is akin to pneumonia in bees.  It's usually caused by too much moisture in the hive.  Proper ventilation (not too much) cures a lot of ills, parasites, and is natural.

[Michael Bush]

In 34 years of beekeeping I've never used fumidil (or fumigillan as it is now called).  Nosema has never been a problem.

Tracheal mites are really just a breeding issue.   You need Tracheal mite resitant bees.

Varroa mites are the real issue.  If you do nothing at all your bees will all die eventually.  Probably within the first two years.  But there are many other options besides chemicals in your hives:

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

[tom]

Hello

 Thank you guys again for the good advice i think i am going to go ahead and treat for mites which what i am more worried about my bees are bred for EFB,AFB and tracheal mites. As for ventilation my inner cover has a top hole so bees can come out if they want so i have some of the problems solved but the mites i will get a jump on now.

Tom

[ian michael davison]

Hi Tom

You say you saw your 3rd hive expelling old bees. What makes you think they are old?

Strong hives will often expell those bees suffering from DWV and you don't actually notice them in the hive until the situation is very bad.DWV is normaly a good sign of heavy Varroa infestation.

This may not be the case but just keep it in mind and monitor that hive. Also take a good look at those bees expelled, are they drones(common pratice in Autunm) or have they got deformed wings. It may give you a clue.


Regards Ian

[tom]

Howdy

  I went to look at them this morning and they were not expelling any bees this morning but working like crazy. I did a sugar roll and found nothing like i said they were only a few they were pulling out the hive i have seen my first hive do the same thing and the bees would fly back to the hive and they would pull them out again. I did not see any of that this morning and i notice my bees clean each other all the time i have seen it in all three hives and i have seen them cleaning the queen all on her back and around her head so they do calean themselves but i am going to treat them any way as for drones they were gone back in july except for my big hive and they gpt rid of them in august. All my hive have young queens and good brood patterns and working like crazy they are out when my freinds italians are not.

Tom

[ian michael davison]

Hi all

Tom: When you see them cleaning/grooming the queen they are in fact removing queen substance/pheromes from her. This tells the colony all is well and the queen is present.

Older/defetive queens produce less substance and are less likely to hold the colony in check resulting in swarms/supersedure.

Regards Ian

[Brian D. Bray]

Grooming and the exchanging of phoremones is common within the hive--a perpencity of such beehaivor (pun intended) is called hygienic and aids in dislodging mites.  If you're bees are showing that type of beehavior it would serve you well to attempt to propigate it into more hives by raising queens from that stock.

[tom]

Hello

 All three hives shows this and i have seen them do the field bees as they come in they seem to stop them and groom them before they enter so it is a good thing for me to see this. And i often see them cleaning themselves and i often check on them everyday just to watch them work and clean they do not let anything stay on thier front porch. And it has rained her real good and they say that cool wheather is coming  it is going to be 70s during the day and in the 50s at nite so this should really make the fall flow put out good.

Tom