# New beek game plan



## Whitetail (Feb 3, 2011)

Playing it by ear sounds the best. There are too many variables that could happen.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

If they die of mites, it's normally during the winter and at that time you probably cannot get a queen. 

Carniolans are great bees and your packages should grow explosively, long as there is nectar coming in, or you feed them. So to have a good shot at a nice honey crop this year, keep the carniolan queens. 

But if the ultimate plan is to requeen with (supposed) mite resistant bees, plan that for early fall.

I suspect your plan is really to see how the existing bees handle mites on their own. To know that you'll need to test the bees for mite levels. However there are a number of traps for new players when doing this, and it is easy to be mislead by interpretation of results. My opinion, would be just go ahead & requeen at least one of them, with a resistant queen, you could leave the other hive as is, if you think they are tolerating mites, as an experiment.

Course you have many options, those are just my thoughts, there will be other opinions equally useful.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

I left my package queens (caucasian) and one was the only colony to survive the winter. The rest bit it (5 supposed resistant) and 2 packages.

My plan on rebuilding is 4 packages and 2 nucs from traditional sources 3 nucs from a tx free source and 3 queens from a no chemical (soft treatment only) source. I am going to requeen 3 of the traditional source hives with the "resistant" queens and split the remaining 3 into over winter nucs, allowing half to raise a queen using eggs from the tx free nuc hives. Ideally this will give me 7 hives and 6 nucs going into the winter all with a "resistant" queen on the daughter of one.


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## jeffnmo (Mar 16, 2013)

being new I can't claim any experience or proven actions but common sense and the learning I've done so far leads me to agree with Whitetail. You have to observe and act according to what is happening. Too many variables and you can't reasonably cover all. Go with the knowledge you have and trust your instincts. That's the way I'm approaching it at this point and if I change my mind I'll let you know. Good luck Gus


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## Gus979 (Oct 11, 2012)

Thanks for the advice everyone


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## Moon (May 7, 2011)

Advice is one thing you'll get a plethora of on beesource. From pretty much every corner of the globe and every spectrum of beekeeping. It's pretty easy to tell someone the best way to ride a bike, explain balance and forward momentum to them; braking and safety precautions looking out for traffic etc... etc... With all the explanation and reading in the world you're still going to have to hop on a bike, fall down a lot, and scrape your knees a time or two before you start to get the hang of it. Few things in life are any different. Dive in. Learn, make mistakes, learn from your mistakes, make more mistakes, keep learning. Don't lose the passion for what you're doing and you'll be fine.

Best of luck =)


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