What to expect from first year bees and some questions....

[nc_beekeeper]

This is my first year of really getting into beekeeping and was wondering how everyone thinks my bees did.  I got 2 packages the first of May and bought 4 nucs the first of June.  That put them about equal with my packages as far as drawn comb and such.  We had one hive swarm and managed to catch it but lost any honey from that hive.  So all in all we had 5 hives to pull honey from this weekend.  We ended up with 10 1/2 supers of some the best looking sourwood honey I have ever seen off of those 5 hives which I thought was extremely good for first year bees.  I felt bad about robbing them clean like that but it seems cheaper to feed corn syrup and sugar water than it is to feed them sourwood honey.  I went back with fresh mediums and hive top feeders on all of them yesterday so should they be ok by wintering time?  We still have a little bit of fall flow here with golden rod and wild flower on top of what feed they eat by then. 

On a more disturbing note.  One of my queens had laid some drones in one of my super frames and when we cut it out I thought I would check them for Varroa's.  Sure enough about 1/3 of the cells had 1-3 varroa mites crawling around in them.  I am in the process of making SBB's and rehiving them all and I'm very seriously considering buying some Apiguard and giving them a treatment now.  Any thoughts on Apigaurd good,bad, or ugly?  Also, should I treat now or wait a little closer to fall?  I have not seen any varoa's on the bee's themselves but I did not like what I saw in the Drone cells.

[Kathyp]

i use apiguard. 

to use it, you need 30 days (more or less) of 60 degrees or better weather.  you should do it as close to end of season as you can.  if you have taken off your honey, now would be a good time.  if your weather is going to stay good through August, wait and do it in September.

the idea is to catch them as close to the end of major brood rearing as you can so that they go through winter with the lightest mite load.

apiguard comes in jell tins and strips.  i have not used the strips, but the tins are easy.  you just need a spacer frame to give space between the top of the frames and the hive top.  i made mine with 1X2 inch pieces of wood built the same size as the super.  you also have to close the bottom if you are using a SBB.

[Understudy]

Sounds like your honey was a winner.

As far as your varroa goes. I would recommend reading:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesvarroatreatments.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm


Sincerely,
Brendhan