I reorganized the bee shed. It had become very difficult to find and reach desired equipment. It looks great now.
Honey harvest was poor; about 2.5 gallons. Other beeks also had poor harvests, so the price of honey has gone up. I realized that the costs and amount of labor is nearly the same for any size harvest.
I'm trying a new way to store the comb. The combs have to be protected from wax moths. There are several ways to do so. Previously I froze the frames for a day or two. This requires me to tote the boxes to a neighbors house, leave them in their large freezer one at a time and then switch boxes. With the number of boxes, this takes a couple of weeks. I wanted to use the B402 strain of Bacillus thuringiensis, but one get it in California. The same is true of the dichlorobenzene crystals. I found moth balls of DCB available in California, so I got some. I am acting on faith that the balls are not contaminated with anything bad. So, after cleaning the frames of propolis and wax, I put the frames into plastic garbage bags, put 24 moth balls on a small paper plate on top of the frames and sealed the bags with duct tape. Time will tell.apivar
Because the bees had so little stored honey, I started feeding them today. They may not be taking much yet as there is still some forage.
In July, I did a mite count and it was dangerously high. I put in oxalic acid sponges. Now that the honey supers are off, I will treat with Apivar. Unfortunately, I don't have enough strips for all the hives and it's taking a while for my new order to arrive. I expect it in the next couple of days.
Happy new year everyone!
