🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[5Australorpasaures]

Our bees found the buckwheat patches I've planted in my garden. you go girls! The goldenrod is just starting to bloom. We're really hoping for another honey harvest.

@drstratton, do you do a mite check before you do the OA vapors? Since we'll have honey supers on, we're planning to use Formic Pro. I told hubby we need to do a mite check first, and he reluctantly agreed. He doesn't want to do an alcohol wash and kill 300 bees to see what the mite load is.

I use Formic Pro also, 14 day method. I pull the mediums off during treatment and do the 2 deeps. I know it is said you can leave the honey supers on, I just don't feel good about it. A chemical is a chemical and I don't believe the better living through chemistry line from the 60s, just look around. Plus, I have my problems from Agent Orange, thanks Dow, Monsanto and others.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Do you make your own?

When formic acid first came on the market years ago it was in a pad you placed on top of the hive at the right temperature with a shim and watched your bees die. It killed all my colonies that fall. Of course formic has come a long way since then. I don't recommend making your own treatments but my experience is a bit different. I didn't want to use synthetic treatments and if I waited for the EPA to approve anything I wouldn't have any bees. So I learned how to make my own treatments from reading what beekeepers were doing overseas. It was a struggle but I managed to overwinter bees. I love Randy's research and do use OAE, OAV, and thymol blocks if I have a hive with a very high mite count . I stay off of Facebook. Every beekeeper finds what works best for them.

 

[drstratton]

When formic acid first came on the market years ago it was in a pad you placed on top of the hive at the right temperature with a shim and watched your bees die. It killed all my colonies that fall. Of course formic has come a long way since then. I don't recommend making your own treatments but my experience is a bit different. I didn't want to use synthetic treatments and if I waited for the EPA to approve anything I wouldn't have any bees. So I learned how to make my own treatments from reading what beekeepers were doing overseas. It was a struggle but I managed to overwinter bees. I love Randy's research and do use OAE, OAV, and thymol blocks if I have a hive with a very high mite count . I stay off of Facebook. Every beekeeper finds what works best for them.

Thanks. I was asking if you made your own thymol blocks? With the assumption that you did. Seems a bit complicated, but doable?

We would like to keep it as natural and as safe for the bees as we can. I'm really hoping a good regimen of OAE, OAV and drone frames will make that possible.

 

[drstratton]

I use Formic Pro also, 14 day method. I pull the mediums off during treatment and do the 2 deeps. I know it is said you can leave the honey supers on, I just don't feel good about it. A chemical is a chemical and I don't believe the better living through chemistry line from the 60s, just look around. Plus, I have my problems from Agent Orange, thanks Dow, Monsanto and others.

I think if we were to use formic, we'd wait until after the last flow. We'd have to wait anyway, as it's too hot to use until sometime in September.