I thought the Goldenrod was done here, drove next door to see family and there is still a strong bloom going on in the rows of Blueberries. Nephew said he wasn't going to mow until Goldenrod is done because he knows the bees are still working. Likes the free honey and the bees in the spring bloom of Blueberries. Guess you could look at it as mutual alliance.
Is this the normal protocol for OAV treatment (8th)? Not familiar with OAV. Being the only one with bees here and no real Varroa risk unless infected when the farm brings in commercial pollinators for Cranberries next door. I do a treatment of Apivar and Formic Pro spring and fall alternating as a matter of course and have had only 1 mite out of 3 hives over the last 3yrs.Setting up for our 8th OAV treatment.
We'll probably inspect on Sunday and see where the bees are at.
The days are getting shorter, sunset is at 7:18, sigh.
Bees and blooms!
Italian Bee on Salvia!
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We are doing a 28 day treatment. We treat every 3 days. So we will have a total of 10 treatments. The OA dissipates in 3 days and the bees have cleaned it out of the hive by then. By treating for 28 days it catches a complete brood cycle. Sadly we have definitely had more than 1 mite. There are quite a few local beekeepers in our area and commercial bees too, so I'm sure we will always have a lot. I'm kind of hoping to just use OAV and OAE on our hives. But we might use the Apivar that we bought from a club member. We'll make that decision when we do our next mite test. I think we will be making up new OAE pads this weekend and putting them back on the hives. We will be leaving next week and be gone for 9 days, then home for 2 and gone for 5 more. We will test for mites when we're back home.
I love the sound of bees buzzing.
Sweet clover is a biennial. You may get some light, late blooms the first year but it really doesn't bloom fully until the second year after which it dies. It may or may not come back from the seeds it produces.
That's pretty! Looks like the bees like it too. I'm thinking you must have more rainfall than we get. We average about 10 inches. Getting the most rain in November, around 1 inch.
