Thank you so much for the video. We bought our first the pie body box 2 years ago and put a nuke in there. Since we live in central Colorado, our area has nothing blooming for the beast to eat until mid summer so we placed pollen patties in there to feed the bees and when we pull the white shelf out from the bottom, there was very little residue of any kind on the white shelf and we would check it periodically. Before winter came, we built a castle out of concrete blocks down in our valley about 10 acres from our house and put the deprived body in there to block the harsh winds of the high prairie in the winter time from pounding on the box and we put a moving blanket over the box but left a space for bees to come and go and for ventilation. We had a really warm spell hit in the spring and my husband went out and opened up the top of the hive and the bees look great in there. This happened in February 2023. The temperatures here drop at night so we never even plant anything from our greenhouse into the ground until memorial day weekend. Just to let you know about our climate. in 1 April 2023, we went back out and checked again to discover that herpes had starved to death because they were deep into the combs apparently trying to get every last morsel of honey and they were dead and my heart was so broken I grieved for days. Our growling season is very short and we’re lucky to get 130 to 140 days of growing season. I planted massive flowers that the bees in the butterflies like. we cleaned out the hive really good and bought another nuke in May 2023. We are trying to learn as much as possible because we are almost retirement age and we want to be able to have an extremely healthy honey crop to supplement our lack of income as we age. We now supplement with pollen patties and sugar water until July. our bees did extremely well during the winter of 20 23-24 and are thriving now. I ran into the beekeeper at the rural feed store where I bought the last nuke and she asked me about the mites. I told him that we kept checking the white plastic board shelf and I had never seen any residues except for just minor dust that one would expect with a large amount of insects and he said that we could not count on that board at all to tell us anything so we went ahead and bought the Apivar three days ago and since it is Sunday, my husband is going to go down to the hive and install the strips. We have never had any supers or a second deep hive body box but I anticipate getting those things in July or August after this might treatment that we are installing today. I hate chemicals and everything here is very organic. I wander if diatomaceous earth would help in anyway to keep the mites out of the beehives. we personally ingest diatomaceous earth daily with her health shakes in the morning and we put it in all of our animal feed and I do believe that my home and my animals are parasite free. I would love to find any studies about any beekeepers who may have used diatomaceous earth as a preventative or perhaps a treatment in their hives. Please don’t laugh at me, we really are trying to learn. Thank you again for taking your time to make this wonderful video. I have been a journalist for a long time and I’m starting my own and you do extremely well in your presentation and I just wanted to complement you there
@marinediva921302 жыл бұрын
Thank you for this video I’m new to this product I know the basics but your tips are more detailed and I appreciate it thank u
@BeekeepingMadeSimple2 жыл бұрын
You're welcome!
@soylg28 күн бұрын
Ha! I heard the sound of the Puerto Rico coqui! It’s a small frog. 🐸 thanks for the video!
@calbritt78519 күн бұрын
I was just wondering , have you moved to the state yet
@noahriding57803 жыл бұрын
I'm curious if you think Mineral oil fogging works also? (Maybe with wintergreen?) Thanks for the treatment videos including this one. I hadn't seen anyone say # of strips per number of frames before. It was something you answered what I was wondering about.
@BeekeepingMadeSimple3 жыл бұрын
Hmm... I have absolutely no idea! With fogging, you have to do it when there's no brood present, or do multiple treatments every 5-6 days like with the oxalic acid. And also be careful when experimenting with anything and make sure you're not putting your health at risk. If you sell your honey, you also need to make sure you're only using approved products. that being said, what you choose to do in your own hives for research purposes is up to you! I think you would be a great student in one of the master beekeeping classes. I know part of the class is doing a research project. I'm not too familiar with the use of mineral oil or wintergreen to manage varroa. Are there articles you can point me to so I can read about it? For the # of strips comment, I'm solely going off of what is recommended on the directions on the package. My boss had always told me to do what the directions state or go a little less b/c a lot of companies will over exaggerate how much product is needed. I have been trying to not use apivar, especially since I usually only have to treat once a year. It's a really harsh chemical, but a good option in the spring when the queen is laying and you don't want to disturb the brood with stinky treatments like apiguard and formic acid.
@mohamadmakki56513 жыл бұрын
In the video, it says that 1-6 frames of brood we should put one strip, but i have small nucs, it is 4-5 frames of bees with 1-2 frames of brood, what should i do then? Thank you
@BeekeepingMadeSimple3 жыл бұрын
The Apivar directions say to put one strip in. Make sure it's in between the brood frames. I wouldn't do a mite test before or after the treatment unless the nuc has at least 4 full frames of brood and the frames are covered in bees. On a side note, I try to make my nucs after I treat, so I don't have to treat so many hives. I know in some locations this isn't possible, but if you can hold off on making your nucs later, I recommend it. It'll save you a bunch fo time and money. If you just bought the nucs, you shouldn't have to treat. The beekeeper should have treated before they sold the nuc. If a beekeeper sells you a nuc and tells you to treat it, that's not a farm I would buy a nuc from again.
@ameliasheffield986811 ай бұрын
What are the best organic ways to treat mites.?
@BeekeepingMadeSimple10 ай бұрын
Oxalic acid, formic acid and hopguard (I believe) are organic. Api life var is not organic but is considered natural (though that term is a little vague). It is mainly thymol, eucalyptus oil, L-menthol, and camphor.
@gladnier11 ай бұрын
What do you do with the honey super and frames while they aren’t on the hive to protect them from wax moths? Also what do you do with the honey that is on the other side of a brood frame that needs to be treated? Thanks!
@BeekeepingMadeSimple11 ай бұрын
I made a video about how you can store honeycomb when they're not in the hive: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hbehY71qtLqRmps.htmlsi=fkXw8DadMfdZhuMO I put mine in a chest freezer. The honey on the other side of the frame and ALL honey in the beehive during an apivar treatment cannot be consumed by humans. You should leave it in the hive for the bees to eat or you can store it in a freezer and give it to your bees to eat next spring. Make sure to label it as poison in a prominent spot so you see it.
@johnm15703 жыл бұрын
Is it too late to treat for mites this spring? I installed a nuc about 3 weeks ago and just added my second brood box yesterday.
@BeekeepingMadeSimple3 жыл бұрын
It's never really too late to treat for mites. If you have to do it, then you have to do it. It might mess up your honey harvest, but you can always hold onto that honey for the winter. And, of course, make sure you mark those frames so you know they're not safe for consumption. Whether or not the treatment will be in the hive when a honey flow has started varies depending on where you live and year to year. This year, our rainy season was about a month late so the honey flow started late as well. What I would recommend doing is doing a little research to find out what the big nectar producing flowers are in your immediate area and think about when you see them blooming as well as look at the plants near you. Are they budding? Are they just starting to have new leaves on them? That will give you an idea of what to do. Asking local beekeepers can help too. Just don't be too hard on yourself if you have to treat and honey starts coming in. You can always give the bees some sugar in the fall if needed and make a note of it so you know to treat a little earlier next year.
@ronblack24043 жыл бұрын
Hi from WA. State, I am going to remove my supers and jar the honey for family use. My question is how do you feed your bees during the time you have the strips in? Thank you , enjoyed watching.
@BeekeepingMadeSimple3 жыл бұрын
Hi! If you're using apivar strips, you can feed your bees pretty much any way you like. There are lots of feeds you can buy from beekeeping supply sites that go inside the hive. It's not like formic acid or agpiguard that use a substance with a strong smell. You can throw an empty super on top with a feeder in it if needed.
@ElocinAlways3 жыл бұрын
Ron from WA, are you finding Amazon won't ship Apivar to WA? I can shop to Colorado, to my sister, but I can't get it delivered to kirkland.
@filbilly3 жыл бұрын
I've installed one strip since I only have 3 frames of brood right now. If the hive grows during the 6 week treatment period to 6 frames, do you install another strip?
@BeekeepingMadeSimple3 жыл бұрын
Personally, yes, I would put in another strip, so there was 1 strip for every 1-3 frames of brood throughout the 6 weeks. The only tricky part is storing the apivar once it's opened. At the farm I used to work for, they covered the opened package with aluminum foil, duct taped it up then put it in a ziploc bag and stored it in a freezer in the office. Just make sure you keep it away from food and nowhere where it's going to get too warm. You don't want someone accidentally opening it up and touching the strips with their bare hands.
@noahwhite25562 жыл бұрын
Since bees move honey around the hive, what’s to prevent them from moving honey that was exposed to apivar into a honey super once you put them back on?
@BeekeepingMadeSimple2 жыл бұрын
Good question! There isn't anything preventing them from doing this. I would think that if they do this, the amount of apivar in your honey would be so low that it wouldn't be a problem, but that's just a guess.
@Loribelle022 жыл бұрын
if you take the honey boxes off what are the bees eating?
@Loribelle022 жыл бұрын
What do you do with the honey supers?
@BeekeepingMadeSimple2 жыл бұрын
If it's spring, you won't have any supers on. If it's late summer, I would harvest the honey first and then treat. You try to treat in spring and late summer so that you don't have to treat in the middle of summer. This will prevent you from having to figure out what to do with all that honey when you put the apivar in. You will have maybe one super on the hive in late summer for the winter feed for your bees. You can leave this on the hive, just mark the frames so you know this is apivar honey to be used in the winter as food for the bees and not to harvest it. Or you can put frames in your refrigerator. They stand up nicely on the middle shelf or in the freezer. I have a large chest freezer for my honeycomb storage, so I put my frames in there.