# new member from Vancouver, BC



## Chi (Jul 25, 2013)

Hi all I have been silently gleaning all I can from this site which is a fantastic resource!
My wife and I have been dabbling in beekeeping for near 10 years and currently have 4 hives, 2 in a community garden and 2 in a friends backyard. Urban beekeeping is great! Still lots of flow, the biggest challenge is the wet weather here.
Malachi


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome Malachi!


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## Loree Gregg (Sep 5, 2013)

I am also a new member from Vancouver, BC. Have been beekeeping for 5 years with one hive. We want to venture into rearing our own queens on a more regular basis but are not quite there yet. Trying to find an advanced beekeeping course in the Metro Vancouver area...guess I will have to wait until next spring. If we proceed with queen rearing, are you interested in exchanging nucs?
Loree


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## Chi (Jul 25, 2013)

Hi Loree, I managed to raise 4 queens this year after disaster struck and we lost all of our queens and decided not to keep buying foreign queens. I am interested in your idea, but what do you think we would gain from exchanging nucs? Currently all of our queens are italian descendants from one mother this year who open bred with drones and are laying well now. The cool thing is that their children are a mix of italians and others I don't know what but there is no color, just black and white stripes. What part of Van are you in? We are in Kits.


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

I am in Vancouver and new this year to bee keeping.

For those that have kept bees for a while in Vancouver what are the flows, when do they happen? 

When are the likely dearth periods if any?

When do you put away the hives for winter, w hen do you open them in the spring?

How do you manage your hives for winter...feeding, hive wraps etc. 

Are hive beetles, wax moth etc a concern? How do you manage Varro and nosema?

Local knowledge would be so helpful.

Thanks


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## Chi (Jul 25, 2013)

I don't claim to be an expert and I think it will depend upon your local flora, but the blackberry flow seems to be the best flow, usually in august. I don't see a dearth in the city especially with community gardens all over the place. We are trying to work towards a treatment free approach but will feed if a hive seems to be starving. Humidity in the winter was an issue last year, I think we will try to insulate the inside of the telescoping cover this year to help with condensation and not feed syrup as that probably contributed to the moisture which led to mold where the bees couldn't maintain cleanliness. Perhaps there was too much space for the number of bees, too. Never seen hive beetles, I don't think they are an issue although I could be mistaken. Wax moths could be a problem if they got into frames of comb when they aren't on the hives, sure would be nice to have a freezer to keep them in. The nosema was exacerbated by the moisture issues this spring and we treated with thymol which seemed to help. We have used fumagillin for mites but will be trying to wean them off of such harsh treatments. This year all 4 hives got a forced brood break and there has been minimal mite drop on the inspection board under the screened bottom board.


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

Thanks....blackberry seemed good for us as well. Lots of residential gardens around us so guess the bees benefit from that.


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