Treating Bees In The Rain 

Heck yeah, 100 lb average is nice. Thanks for the support!

Thanks guys... Yeah I feel for you, we got totally skunked 3 years ago because of heat and drought. This year at our old location they're getting flooded out. I'm thankful as heck to have the kind of weather and forage we do this year, because with the move a drought or flood season could have been really bad. Thanks for the support!

Killin Mites Die in pain Using formic in the rain ha ha

No doubt.

Definitely. Take your stupid law and get lost, Murphy, lol.

How is it that only one person appreciated that one?! lol, thanks for sharing my sense of humor, Timothy!

Yeah, most people are in your shoes I think. Crap, my bees are in the Keweenaw Peninsula and early June would have been problematic with lots of 90+ days.

Why do we do this? lol

It can kill bees, sure, I assure you if done correctly you're killing more mites than bees. No washes before these treatments, I'll wash 'em in late August to verify a low mite load. For me to feel good about not treating this year based on mite counts I'd have to wash 'em all, it had been a long time since they've gotten a treatment.

Yuh too red yey

lol, that smoker is in tough shape. I started last year with 3 awesome smokers. Well, two, and then a land owner who had tried bees years ago gifted me the one I'm using now. Before the end of last year I had run over one, left another on the top of some hives on a trailer, and somehow bent and detached the top off of the one I'm using now. So, the one you see me using has a big crease at the top of the base, and the top is not attached to the bottom, so when I open it to fill it the top comes completely off. So yeah, I need to get a new one as well.

Damn that's rough, this 1 time my smoker fell from a tree, I almost had an heart attack🤣🤣🤣

I'm a jamaican bee keeper by the way

@@BKBees I dropped my Chinese one yesterday I thought for sure it was going to be busted but nope no damage... Took a licking and kept on ticking. LOL maybe I will just use it till it dies and buy a new Smoker @ Christmas time for next year :)

MAQS are no good the day after they expire. So yeah you were really dealing with some soupy maqs after a year. lol to the country song. Someone else commented that it sounded like a Dylan tune. I get the plastic frames from Acorn. You can get them directly from them, or one of their suppliers, but I get in touch with them directly. Get the heavy waxed ones, I forget if they call it double waxed or triple or heavy or whatever, but just get the most heavily waxed versions they have. I predict you won't turn back.

I didn't perform any tests this time. I'll test 'em in mid August to make sure everything is good before winter feed. The reason for this (and I have a video coming out on Monday that covers this exact topic) is the mite density in the lower peninsula. It took 4 treatments per year to keep my bees healthy down there, and they haven't been treated since last August. Next year we are planning a mid winter OA, and hoping to not have to treat at all other than that, but that will require constant testing. This year, I have to get rid of what I know is there.

How do you figure the mint affects the mites?

@@BKBees i planted an entire area with all different types of mints. Horse mint spearmint peppermint .thats just naming a few . I placed 1 hive out of all of these hives for a control . All the hives within the mint area alot of mites will drop off on the sticky pads . When doing a powdered test i rarely find mites but they do pop up from time to time . But the controle hive had them all the time . Also apple mint is the ones the bees with go crazy for . Hope this helps.

@@TheSpidersoftheworld k, well, I'm still interested as to what mechanism you think is killing these mites. How did you come up with the idea in the first place?

Yeah, the unfortunate aspect of formic is it can kill some bees. The fortunate aspect is when that happens it almost always comes with a great mite fall.

Doug, we'll be back in full force next year. This year was just impossible, too much travel, uncertainty, and too little good weather to get anything going beyond a couple of grafts and one round of nucs. Thanks for your patience. Yeah, that issue you're having with a couple of your hives isn't an issue only you or only you and I experience. In ideal circumstances I like to just shake 'em out, replace with a split. My experience matches yours in that they never seem to catch up and almost always end up screwing up my overwinter rates. My uneducated opinion blames the other bee foes that are less on our minds in the time of varroa, like nosema ceranae.

Heck yes. How's the rain affecting you guys?

@@BKBees We are lucky to have so far gotten enough rain to help crops and reduce drought in areas, but not enough to cause flooding. Not so, for many others. Beekeeping (and farming) is very "local". Catalpa and linden trees and some sumacs have been blooming still. Soybeans and alfalfa/clover, and milkweed starting.

No, in fact the opposite. I wouldn't have a box of foundation on top of a single in most cases, the only reason I did on that one is that was the only box we had to put on it. If at all possible, try to keep the frames above the excluder open and ready for nectar.

@@BKBees my singles already have supers on them that had drawn comb but the next boxes will be foundation because I’m out of drawn comb, should I put the foundation on top of the excluder or on top of the other supers?

Yeah I'd imagine Arizona beekeeping to be tough. My sister used to live in Phoenix, I visited many times and never saw a drop of rain.

Too hot & a drought in MN. Two new hives so I am feeding sugar water every other day to help them build comb and make honey for their winter food. I plan to stop once I put on a super, which will be soon. Read from a couple of sources to do this and my hives are looking good.

I feel for ya, and I've been there. 3 years ago we got almost totally skunked, the entire year. I put up like 10 buckets. Mating bees on an island, man, that is cool. You have a real opportunity there.

Not sure what you mean? The OA vape? Lorobbees.

I didn't do any testing this time. They haven't been fully treated since last August, and knowing my normal mite load, this was past due. It would behoove me to test in a month, with preparations to treat again if the mites are persistent, but I won't do that either because the honey hives will get another round in mid August. This is just following a routine that has really worked for me, but, I do plan on amending that, with mid winter OA and testing next year, because I'm in a MUCH better area in terms of neighboring beekeepers and mites.

@@BKBees Okay good to know, hope you can get everything done.

Sounds like a great configuration. Are you sure there aren't eggs in the empty cells below the arc of honey?

@@BKBees no. I use magnifying glasses (1.5) to read and have not seen any eggs where there was actually some eggs there. the queen was up there, so I suspect there are eggs.

I have one, well I have a couple, I have honestly never thought of that. Thanks for the tip.

I don't worry about it. My last treatment of the year stays in until next year, they'll bring a majority of it out themselves, but you'll probably have some remnants to remove next spring.

It'd be a sweet song too.

I wouldn't do that, a ton of returning foragers to a foreign weak colony could result in a balled queen. If I were really desperate to equalize I'd just give them a frame of bees and brood.

To be honest I've had those metal excluders for 2 years. Before that I ran plastic exclusively, like an idiot. I would imagine it would eat at the metal to some extent, but I wouldnt' expect it to rust, because it'd get propolized pretty quickly. Either way, the life limit for stuff like queen excluders is usually based on my using it correctly, not bending it, running it over, etc.

I'm at like 90 right now, a bit lower than the 150 I'd like,l but we sold everything that didn't fit on two trucks. I have around 150 total colonies, if you include swarms n splits.

Thanks just curious how many you tryed to manage while doing a little part time work on the side. Good work keep it on!

Not so much at this point, unless the small ones are REALLY in need. We're putting honey up now, so I don't like to take anything from our production hives. The stragglers will catch up or be combined in September.

Thanks, Kelly!

We're slowly migrating to mediums for honey. I made that decision at 25 years old with 10 to the operation. The last 3 years have been really tough. At some point I think I'd like to migrate entirely to mediums, for everything, but that's a 10 year plan. If you started your colony this year there's nothing wrong with only adding the formic in August. In general it is a good idea to stay on top of the mite load, testing every month, being prepared to treat if the mite load exceeds 2%. I manage 150 - 200 colonies and until this year kept bees in a very high mite density area, the lower peninsula of Michigan. To keep my bees healthy it took March OA vaporization, June and August formic. Even then we sometimes had September spikes that threatened the bees' overwinter chances. I typed all that out to impress the idea that it's a constant battle and a very regional one at that. If I were in your shoes I'd treat in August, do a mite wash two weeks later, and be prepared to treat again if the mites were persistent, ideally with a different chemical, like OA.

Yep, you're right. I was just typing in another comment that my normal course of action is to just shake 'em out and replace with a split. That's in the case where I have lots of yards of nucs, for queen mating, this year I don't have that luxury. Either way, the duds will be combined before the end of the summer.

Yep, that's perfect. I didn't do any counts on this round, mainly because they hadn't been treated fully since last August. I'll treat them again this August and do a wash afterward to verify its efficacy.

Is this the video where I realize one hive was missing an inner cover? I honestly can't remember, but if it is I believe I used some reflectix. Either way, yes, that stuff is great. I have stacks of regular inner covers though, so hopefully I remember to bring one, lol.

@@BKBees Yes it was the one that you did not have an inner cover. Down here in northern Iowa my wood inner covers sit in my shed. Less messy with Bur-comb and SHB can’t hang out up there with the soft inner cover. SHB probably not much of an issue in northern Michigan.

@@rstlr01 shb are not an issue, you're right about that. The only reason I run inner covers is fall feeding. I open feed until I feel like I'm just making the fat colonies fatter, and then I spot feed the ones that aren't up to weight. To do that I place the food above the inner cover hole. It's a hobbyist method that has stuck with me.

Not this time. This is a weird year. Normally I'da hit everything fully with OA in March, this year they got one weak round in late April, other than that nothing had been treated since last August.

Yeah, if you hear a beek saying they don't face stuff like that, you're listening to either a brand new beekeeper, or a liar.

It is not recomanded !

Yep, it's not only legal but numerous studies have shown it to not affect the level of formic in the resulting honey. Formic acid is a highly prevalent substance in nature and nectar.

We weed whack the grass under the fence and around the hives pretty regularly. SHB aren't an issue around us, and mites (varroa) aren't getting into hives by climbing on grass, so I'm not super concerned when the grass gets a bit long around the hives. I am concerned when it gets long around the fence though.

@@BKBees, do you have any ants issues over there?

nukes or nucs?

Same thing right the one I had it wasn't doing like the rest I made two nukes out of it

@@scotth5261 the same thing right you said you had some that was really behind the others if you have Queen cells or Queens split them up

We're making honey out of these colonies. Did I come across a swarmy one in this video?

@@BKBees I have misunderstood I thought you was saying that you had some colonies that just was not growing