How’re everyone’s bees doing this year?
I had 9 of 10 hives come thru. Recently treated for mites and starting to put on supers. Probably a month ahead of schedule, but dandelions are starting to bloom and the hives feel heavy!
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Lost 1 out of 7 over the winter. Actually already had one hive swarm today, was able to catch it, so now I’m back to 7. Will probably add supers this week.
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I’m worried about swarming already. Too early for this!
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Agreed. I checked the other hives, some queen cups, but no eggs in them. No swarm cells in any of the other hives other than the one that swarmed. I don’t know how I missed that when I had it open last week.
If memory serves it’s only 5-7 days from queen cell building to swarm, doesn’t take long!
I have swarm scouts all around a couple of bait hives. Swarming this year is starting about 2 weeks earlier than normal.
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I think I’d rather try and catch a free bunch of bees in a nearby tree than have a super of dandelion honey, though. 
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Dandelions are just a phenological marker, not enough around my hives to make a big difference in taste. Can’t be worse than knotweed honey!
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Never had any of that one I don’t think. But, dandelion isn’t good unless you need a strong honey for baked goods.
Really? I like the taste of dandelion honey lol must just be me. 
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Different strokes for different folks. One frame of dandelion honey can ‘ruin’ several supers of extracted clover honey. Redbud trees honey is more like cough syrup your great grandpa might have taken for the croup. I suppose some like it too.
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I had 3 out of 3 survive over winter. I opened them up Saturday and found one hive with about 15 frames of brood the other two with 9 to 10 frames of brood. The hive with 15 frames of brood was completed void of stores and the others had a tiny amount of stores. A week ago we had a nasty freeze, 21 degrees, and striped us of our blooms. We were in full bloom with red bud and other trees. This was devastating to my plums. Any way I’m giving them some sugar to help them out. I probably should have thrown on a pollen patty as well.
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My sister has been keeping bees for a few years now, including several hives in my yard. She had been having very little luck overwintering while trying to stay organic. Over the winter she treated for mites and didn’t lose a hive. Made a huge difference. The hives in my yard are already filling with honey and the bees are doing fantastic. She’s getting ready to do some hive splitting ASAP.
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Out of curiosity what “organic” treatments did she use? I don’t know if thymol, formic acid, or oxalic acid are organic. I personally use a rotation of Apivar and Formic pro.
Unfortunately, treating for mites is a part of beekeeping until hygienic bee breeding catches up.
I saw heavy activity at the bait hive by my house today. Swarm probably will fly tomorrow!
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I use oxilic acid. All my hives had a 0 mite count when the state inspector checked. It works, but you have to be mindful that it won’t get in a capped cell. Do one treatment every five days, five times. Hard to explain, but will treat all bees.
Another reason I like Kentucky. No givermint inspections.
I am not sure. Whatever it was, it didn’t work. We are not in a great area for bees, generally. Too much pavement and not enough trees.
Since oxalic acid is naturally occurring in many vegetables it is organic if it was extracted from plants. If it was made via a chemical process it isn’t considered organic.
I agree with the previous poster, you must treat for mites.
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Respectfully disagree with this statement. If you keep common commercial honeybees, you must treat. If you get mite tolerant genetics, treating can be omitted. I’ve used mite tolerant bees since 2004 and totally stopped treating in early 2005. There are frustrations, but the bees can be very productive if carefully managed.
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