Thursday, September 22, 2022

Fall 2022 update

 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!

No comments:

Post a Comment