The window for doing mite treatments is closing
rapidly. You may have missed it as far
as winter survival is concerned.
However, treat anyways. If you
kill the mites in your infected hive you may prevent a varroa/virus bomb that
will affect both your neighbor’s hives and any feral colonies in your
area.
Check the weight of your hives. The top brood chamber should weigh 80 to 90
pounds. Most of us do not have a scale
and must make the measurement by guess and by gosh. Another way is to inspect the frames in the
top brood box. At least eight should be
capped honey or a substitute. The two
center frames should be partially filled.
After you lift a few brood chambers so provisioned you will then be able
to better gauge a fully provisioned hive. Be careful, don't hurt your back. Simply tipping a fully filled is another way to gauge its weight.
If feeding is required use 2/1 sugar syrup or high fructose
corn syrup. Feeding should be
accomplished as fast as possible.
Provide large volumes (gallons) of syrup via top feeders. Don’t dribble it with quart entrance
feeders. The cooler weather also results in the bees
being active for shorter times each day.
It takes time to move and dry the syrup to 82% sugar concentration. High fructose syrup does not need drying and
can be directly stored. The bees will
also NOT eat cold syrup. The syrup in
entrance feeders cools much more rapidly than internal top feeders. Try to finish your feeding in September.
Please note that the bees see feeding as a nectar flow. Their natural response is to start raising
brood. This will permit the varroa to
also raise more young. Feeding is a
double edged sword, so make sure to re-treat for mites after feeding. Several oxalic acid vapor treatments in late
October will kill off the emerging phoretic mites. The goal is to have your hives as mite free
as possible going into winter.
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