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Not looking for a flame war, genuinely trying to think this through. A guy at our association — decent beekeeper, not a crank — hasn't treated for varroa in three years a…
Texas, four hives. Yellowjacket pressure is ramping up like it does every August and I want traps out BEFORE they get bad, not after. But last year I used a homemade soda…
Third year, four hives in the North Carolina piedmont. Put Formic Pro (2 strips, full dose) on my worst mite hive Saturday evening. Daytime highs have been 84-86F, so ins…
G'day from the other hemisphere — while you lot argue about dearth feeding, I'm staring at four clustered hives in a Victorian winter. Fifth year, but this is my first pr…
Ontario, second year. My July nuc (5 frames, maybe 3 covered in bees) is under siege — yellowjackets patrolling the entrance all day, diving on returning foragers, and to…
Eight years in Skåne, and every summer the same claim resurfaces at our club: regress your bees to 4.9 mm small-cell (or go foundationless for 'natural cell') and varroa …
Third year in North Carolina, four hives, mite counts creeping up (6-9 per 300) and I need to pick a treatment. Our forecast is 33-35C for the foreseeable. Formic Pro say…
Washed all six of my hives yesterday here in Oregon and my two biggest ones came back at 14 and 16 per 300 — call it 5%. Way over threshold, I know I need to treat now, n…
22 years in and I still see the same heartbreak every spring, so forgive the soapbox. The colony that dies in January didn't die in January. It died in August. Your winte…
Seven years in Perthshire, six hives. One colony throws chalkbrood mummies every time we get a cool damp spell — and we've just had two solid weeks of it. White and grey …
Six years in Flanders, and this season I'm switching to Apivar after two formic summers. I want to sanity-check my timing math because amitraz strips are a 6-week commitm…
Second year in Galway, two hives. Found several patches of bald brood in my stronger hive yesterday — capped pupae with the cappings removed or perforated, white pupae vi…
Second year, three hives in Ontario. Did alcohol washes in mid-June: 1, 2, and 2 per 300 across the three hives. Felt great. Pulled supers on the weekend and re-washed ye…
Quebec, five years, six colonies. Alcohol wash on my worst hive came back at 11 per 300 last week — way over threshold, can't wait for fall. I vaporised oxalic once, wait…
First year, two hives, Yorkshire. The retired chap two fields over lost his only colony a few weeks back and just told me over the fence that it 'dwindled and stank a bit…
Third year, 6 hives in the NC piedmont. My club teaches sugar roll because 'you don't kill bees', but I've been reading that sugar shakes recover maybe 80–90% of the mite…
Perthshire, 9 hives, mite loads creeping to where I want formic on before the heather. Deciding between the two label options for Formic Pro: both strips at once for 14 d…
Jalisco highlands, 12 hives on low stands. Three mornings in a row now I've found the same scene at two hives: little scratch marks on the landing boards and around the e…
İzmir, second year, 3 hives on a wooden stand in the garden. This morning I found a proper ant highway going up one stand leg and straight into the back seam of my weakes…
PSA post, because I nearly talked myself out of acting this week. Inspecting my Willamette Valley hives on Sunday I spotted two bees with the classic K-wing posture on th…
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