Good Morning and Lets get ready to Beekeep!

[Shizzell]

Hey guys,

Its been almost 4 months now since i'ved looked back at this forum. Winter was great! And today has been the first day of 40 degrees F + since winter. The bees are starting to push their dead out and i plan on looking at them when it reaches 50 today :D. This year is going to be great!

Questions: Do you guys medicate your bees? This is the first year i'ved considered medicating and I have no experience on good medicine, or other stuff.

Lets have a good year,
Shizzell

[Understudy]

I do not medicate my bees. Finsky does.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Brian D. Bray]

The use of medications is creating a controversy.  There is speculation that wax contaminated by medications have resulted in high supercedure and queen loss rates.  There is also speculation that it may be a root cause of CCD.  IMO it is best to use as natural of parasite control methods as possible to avoid checmical contamination of honey and wax within the hive.  Remember too much of anything is bad, you can even drown from drinking too much water (Happened in California).  Most people have a tendency to over feed and over medicate their bees.

[Kathyp]

i used apiguard last fall, and terramycin this spring on last years hive.  i debated, but considering how wet, nasty, and strange this winter was, i figured if ever my bees were going to start spring stressed, this was the year.  stress can leave bees (and people) open to opportunistic diseases. 

while i agree with the folks who think we tend to over medicate, i do not agree that we should never medicate.  it needs to be an informed decision, and probably has much to do with individual circumstances.

hows that for walking down the yellow line??  :-)

[tillie]

I don't medicate.  I lost one of my hives over the winter and the second hive is weak, but hanging in. 

Even some of the non-poisonous remedies help the SHB explode in the hives such as grease patties - so even tracheal mites are possible in my hives because I didn't make grease patties.

I'm using regular powdered sugar shakes this year and regressing my bees to small cell over this year.  I have a vinegar trap in each hive for the SHB.

I don't plan to use medication - ever, but then I try to eat organic food, bake my own bread, and am a left over from the hippy era!

Linda T a happy non-poison user in Atlanta

[reinbeau]

We won't medicate or use any chemicals in the hives.  Yes we lost our first two hives but we'll continue.  We have people in our bee club who actually kill the hive every fall and start with a new package every year.  Not something I'd do, but I can sorta see their point  :-\

[Mici]

Not something I'd do, but I can sorta see their point  :-\

and that is??? :? :shock: :evil: :-X :(

[thegolfpsycho]

Bees are expensive.  Why don't you get some extra equipment together, and talk to the people that are doing the fall killing deal.  Trade them fresh equipment for their occupied stuff.  Feed em up and get em through the winter.  Viola!!  Free bees

[Billy The Beekeeper]

I havent medicated my bee's  and they do fine. I know when my grandpa used to raise bee's he would add either essence of peppermint or wintergreen into his Feed Syrup and he had one have that produced him over 10 gallons of honey in a year :). I dont know if he used peppermint or wintergreen though but im gonna ask him and see what he thinks Goodluck :D               :mrgreen:

[Michael Bush]

<Questions: Do you guys medicate your bees?

Not at all.  But I would not attempt to get by without doing something about Varroa.  In my case that's natural cell size: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm

> This is the first year i'ved considered medicating and I have no experience on good medicine, or other stuff.

Medication is not something I consider good.  Apistan (Fluvalinate) and Check-mite (Cumaphos) are poisonous to bees as well as mites and builds up in the wax.

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

[annette]

Hello, my name is Annette and I live in Placerville california. First time beekeeper as of last April 2006. I have one hive and they made it extremely well through the winter here. They seem to be getting ready to swarm. I found queen cups and cut them out, added another super and improved the ventilation. Do you think they might change there minds, or as some people tell me, once they are going in that direction, you can not stop them.

Also, is an early swarm such a bad thing??  They would certainly have time to build back up this early in the season. I find it very confusing about the splitting and would rather let them do whatever they do.

[Understudy]

For swarm control please read:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[annette]

That is a very good website. Thank you very much for your help understudy.

But does anyone have any experience with just letting the hive swarm this early in the season??? I would like to know about this also.

[Understudy]

Bees leave with the old queen, takes half the help with her and empties the pantry. And they forget to pay the tab.

It may seem silly. And I don't mind swarms because I am just a hobbiest. Swarms cause me a few problems. somewhere in my neighborhood a group of bees may endup in a yard not as friendly as mine. A hive is left in a weakend state that means pests and problems with those guys. Uncertainty as to queen status. No mated queen means a really weak hive. Also a lot of the honey takes off with that swarm. So now  have a bunch of bees somewhere they really don't belong and likely to end up in trouble. Plus they have the honey I want to steal from them. Also I have a hive that needs to rebuild it's numbers. Hives that don't swarm produce more honey.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Michael Bush]

>I found queen cups and cut them out, added another super and improved the ventilation. Do you think they might change there minds

No.  Most likely they will not.

> or as some people tell me, once they are going in that direction, you can not stop them.

In my experience once you have queen cells they are too far down that path.  If you destroy them odds are they will end up queenless because they either already swarmed or they will swarm anyway and there will be no queen to replace the one that left.  I never destroy swarm cells.  If they are at that point (which I try not to let them be) I put each frame with a queen in a nuc with a frame of honey and let them raise a queen.  Then I can decide what I wish to do with all those queens later.  If I can find the queen, I prefer to put her in a nuc also.  That way it imitates a swarm as the old queen and some of the bees have left.  But if I can't find her, I'll settle for a queen cell in each part including the old hive.

>Also, is an early swarm such a bad thing??

Yes.  It will make the difference between a honey crop and no honey crop most years.  You lost half the population at a time when it's critical to produce as much population as possible BEFORE the flow.

>  They would certainly have time to build back up this early in the season.

To make a crop?  No.  To get through the winter?  Yes.  That's why they want to swarm this time of year.

> I find it very confusing about the splitting and would rather let them do whatever they do.

If you let them do whatever they do, they will swarm and just put away enough honey to get through the winter.

You don't have to split to prevent swarming, if you start early enough.  Just keep the brood nest open until the main flow hits.  Then keep space in the supers until the flow is over.  You only need to split now because it got that far.

[annette]

In regards to the split. So since I cut out the 2 queen cups (cups, not cells) I found last week, how long do I wait until I search for more queen cups/cells.

Now once I find them again, is it time to split?? If there are only cups, do I wait until they become queen cells before splitting. Because you say I need to have those queen cells on the frames that I am transferring to the nuc box.

Now if I find my original queen you say I should place her as well in the nuc box?? I understand that it would take the desire to swam out of the hive, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of splitting. I would still be left with my original hive, half the amount of bees  and no queen until they make one, which would hold up the honey production also. How many queen cells do I leave in the original hive if I do transfer the original queen to the nuc box

also, I have this nuc box that needs to be placed somewhere else for a few weeks until they forget their location. How do I transport this  nuc box. I will purchase one this week, but do they come with screens so the bees do not fly out?? What time of day do I do the split?? The nuc box will have only 5 frames, do I transfer all 5 frames out.

I know these questions seem silly, but I am so new at this and am basically doing and learning as I go along. I really need all the help I can get.

Thank you all for your help.

Annette

[Michael Bush]

>In regards to the split. So since I cut out the 2 queen cups (cups, not cells) I found last week

That's good that they weren't cells.  Did they have larvae in them?  They may not be trying to swarm at all if they are just empty cups.  Bees build those all the time.

> how long do I wait until I search for more queen cups/cells.

If they build true swarm cells, where the queen lays the egg in them, it is 8 days (+- 1 day) until they cap that cell.  USUALLY they swarm right after the cells are capped, which is why it's a bad idea to cut out capped queen cells.  Often they already swarmed or they will anyway.  So once a week should catch them before they cap them.

>Now once I find them again, is it time to split??

Cups?  No.

> If there are only cups, do I wait until they become queen cells before splitting.

They may never become queen cells.

> Because you say I need to have those queen cells on the frames that I am transferring to the nuc box.

All you HAVE to have in a split is the resources to make a queen.  You don't have to have cells.  If you do, you are several days ahead.

>Now if I find my original queen you say I should place her as well in the nuc box??

If you are splitting a hive that has swarm cells, I prefer to put the old queen in a new place because it simulates what happens when they swarm.  But if I can't find her I don't worry about it.

> I understand that it would take the desire to swam out of the hive, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of splitting.

How?

> I would still be left with my original hive, half the amount of bees  and no queen until they make one, which would hold up the honey production also.

Actually if you make a split with the open brood and the old queen during or two weeks before the flow you will get MORE honey because the bees have less brood to care for and most of the field bees will return to the old hive anyway.  Bees raised ON the flow will not help harvest the flow, they just cost resources DURING the flow which cuts down on the harvest and then they cost resources AFTER the flow because they still have to eat.

> How many queen cells do I leave in the original hive if I do transfer the original queen to the nuc box

I go for one in each split.

>also, I have this nuc box that needs to be placed somewhere else for a few weeks until they forget their location.

I never do.

>How do I transport this  nuc box.

Don't.  Shake a few extra bees into it and put it next to the old hive or a few feet or yards away if you want.

> I will purchase one this week, but do they come with screens so the bees do not fly out??

Why?

> What time of day do I do the split??

Anytime will do.

> The nuc box will have only 5 frames, do I transfer all 5 frames out.

Everything about a split depends on what you want for an outcome.  One frame of brood and one frame of honey can do ok, but won't take off quickly.  Three frames of brood and two frames of honey and a queen they will grow very rapidly.

Here's the concepts of a split:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm

Here's the concepts of swarm control:
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm