Efficient Beekeeping
As I become a more confident beekeeper I am observing the honeybees more and inspecting them less. This in turn is good for the bees and saves me time.
On Saturday my focus was to observe (in order to make plans) and add Apiguard (to reduce varroa).
I spent about 1.5 hours beekeeping – and most of this was taking equipment backwards and forwards.
It was great to see the colonies thriving and to be working with the bees again.
External Observation
5 of the colonies have many bees leaving the hive and returning laden with pollen. Pollen = brood rearing. All fine.
1 colony had very little going on. Suspect no queen.
Internal Observation
I opened the hives, observed for 5 seconds, added ekes and applied Apiguard.
5 colonies were packed with bees and had expanded over 9-11 frames.
I was glad of the 10Kg of sugar I fed each colony 6 months ago.
The 1 dubious colony had 4 frames of bees but I suspect this colony is failing. Plan – keep under observation. On next inspection – possibly close the hive and throw bees onto the grass if required.
The objective of today was to check the 2 nucs I was selling had eggs, stores and gentle bees. Which they did.
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Is April a good time to be adding Apiguard?
The thymol will surely taint any honey collected
Or do you not remove honey?
I’m not going to collect honey yet. Plan is to perform artificial swarms in 2 weeks time (end April). Continue with Apiguard for further 2 weeks after this (mid May). And then start adding supers mid June.
Looking good – honey please 🙂
Hi. I’m a relatively new reader. I’m wondering what happened with the “hot hives” with the special glass panels to overheat the varroa to kill it… you had 2 of their hives, but you are using Apiguard now. Does this mean the hot hives weren’t practical? Sorry if you’ve covered this already, I couldn’t find the relevant posts.
Another thing: do you use bee gyms? (Casual enquiry as I like them).
Thanks.
Julia