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[Mmathis]

OMG! @addy1, that is absolutely FASCINATING! I never even had a clue that there is so much involved with bee-keeping, and now there are mites to worry about!! And who would have thought that.....bees.....get.....diarrhea!

 

[addy1]

OMG! @addy1, that is absolutely FASCINATING! I never even had a clue that there is so much involved with bee-keeping, and now there are mites to worry about!! And who would have thought that.....bees.....get.....diarrhea!

When we went to the short course, you learn about all of this, but it does not sink in.

We treat and have lost one hive every winter to mites. We are below the national average. A lot of beekeeps lose 30-50% of their hives. Some to starvation, some to mites, some to diarrhea.

Ours are well fed (1000 lbs of sugar last fall, 500 lbs this spring) We give them anti diarrhea meds also, we just need to keep slamming the mites.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Wow that is very fascinating! I had heard a little about the mites before and the problems with bees. It's so nice that you are taking such good care of your sweet honey bees. We all need more bees on this earth. Many Years ago when I first started a real pond back in 1991, there was many bees around the yard and pond. Bees literally made a straight "B line" to the pond for water and if you were standing in their way, they would run into you and bounce off. Bees were everywhere back then and cell phones towers were no where in sight and back then GMO foods were almost unheard of. Now I never get honey bees anymore, just wasps... How the times have changed. GMO foods cause many problems for bees I have read...

 

[addy1]

farming practices, mono crops, imported bugs, mites, hive beetles, etc, diseases, they can't survive in the wild, easily. If they do, that is a good genetic to gather mite resistant, strong.

When I was a kid you would get stung constantly when walking in the clover, bees where everywhere, no longer.

I have hundreds of bees drinking from the ponds, mainly the small slow flow algae ridden ones and the plant covered deck one. They stay out of the pond with fish.

 

[Tula]

Facsinating information ! Oxalic acid can contribute to the formation of kidney stones in humans.

 

[addy1]

We just finished extracting the last of the honey from the honey supers. We do not remove any from the brood boxes, no matter how good it looks. I am so tired of extracting honey, this was a record year, we extracted 1055 lbs!

We make the bees work for us but get rewarded for that work. We load up the extracted frames into the honey supers, put them in my wagon and haul down into the back yard.

Within half an hour the bees have let all the other bees know there is free food! There is always dripping honey, cells with left over honey, etc in the frames. We let them clean the frames up. When they are done the frames are dry, i.e. no honey left on them. We made the mistake of putting some extracted frames in the driveway one year, could not leave the house by that door for a few days. Now we put them in the side yard.

We have a expressway of bees zooming from the frames to the hives as fast as they can fly and they do fly fast!

We leave them out only 1.5 hours, if you leave them longer they start eating the wax comb. We then take the frames, freeze them for two days at below zero, then store for use next year. Drawn comb is gold to a bee keeper, save the bees a lot of work.

 

[DutchMuch]

Interesting journal sort of thread addy! we have bees to and mites....
You can never get rid of them 100 percent, kind of like algae..

 

[addy1]

Have you seen the new way to use OA? Very interesting we are going to try it after a round of apivar.

 

[DutchMuch]

We use the heater thing that you but the, sugar looking stuff (ik very precise its my parents who know all this not me) in and heat it up. Like a vapor.

 

[addy1]

I use the OAV i.e. vaporizer, with oxalic acid. A scientist has come out with a way to treat using scotts shop towels, glycerin and OA. With real good success.
But they also say to rotate treatments so you don't get resistant mites.

 

[Lisak1]

My gosh - a thousand pounds of honey! Do you sell it? We just bought honey from a local beekeeper and paid $18 for two pounds.

 

[DutchMuch]

I use the OAV i.e. vaporizer, with oxalic acid. A scientist has come out with a way to treat using scotts shop towels, glycerin and OA. With real good success.
But they also say to rotate treatments so you don't get resistant mites.

Told my mom about this, seems she is now interested

 

[DutchMuch]

My gosh - a thousand pounds of honey! Do you sell it? We just bought honey from a local beekeeper and paid $18 for two pounds.

We just got our first batch of honey today, pure gold it looks like. Its a very light color, tastes like liquid gold! And I don't even like honey that much. 3000$ for one jar.

 

[addy1]

My gosh - a thousand pounds of honey! Do you sell it? We just bought honey from a local beekeeper and paid $18 for two pounds.

We go to a smallish farmers market on Wednesdays. Will probably have honey left over for next year. Also go to the fair, with the beekeep association and a few other misc gatherings.

Not to worried about it, a rum maker wants to buy some to make honey rum. You can always sale honey esp in the winter when all the beekeeps are out.

It is so much better than store bought honey.

Our 2lb jars are $18 also.

 

[addy1]

We just got our first batch of honey today, pure gold it looks like. Its a very light color, tastes like liquid gold! And I don't even like honey that much. 3000$ for one jar.

Had a great black locust bloom this year, the honey is so darn good and very light in color. Ours is usually very light. Takes around a year to crystalize.
Agree $300 for a jar! Our first tsp of honey cost around 3k.