# What is my next step?



## Hotburn76 (Aug 21, 2014)

This spring I started out with two five frame nucs from a local beek, but I think my queens are from Florida though. Put them in a ten frame deep with a SBB on May 31. They have since been going to town. I have two deeps full and heavy and almost two completely full med supers. They each have had a half gal of 1:1 when new and that's it. I have also been doing green drone comb removal since mid June. My next planned step was which chemical to buy and when to start. Then I ran across Michael Bush's web site and its been all down hill since then. I have made my mind up that I am going chemical and essential oil free. As I read on Michael's site I plan on just doing splits and trying to catch local Mutts! My question is what can I do to best prepare for winter and spring survival? I wish I could have read more natural stuff first and just went after swarms and local mutts, but its yo late this year for that. What is my next best set of steps? I would also like to not feed and let them build there own stores. Golden rod looks like it just started here and would like to get my supers off and let them fill the deeps. So, what's my next move? 

Thanks, 
Jason Johnston


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## Hotburn76 (Aug 21, 2014)

I forgot to mention that I plan on taking the screen bottom boards off and putting solid on, I just did not want to do that in the middle of summer and planned on waiting to do that this fall.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

get used to the idea of monitoring for mites. many times the first year mites not an out of control problem, especially for package bees, it sounds like you suspect your nucs were made up with bees plus an outside queens, real close to a package. the package situation is a major brood break. next year or the year after things will not be as easy in all likelihood. many times "treatment free" success stories are helped along a lot by aggressive hive splitting... everybody has mites, monitor for mites and manage the situation.


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## Hotburn76 (Aug 21, 2014)

in your opinion what is the best way to monitor the mites. I have already done a couple sticky board test and it seems like my numbers were really low, three or four mites is all I found. I have thought about a sugar roll, just need to read more first.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

sugar shake, remember to double the results to get an alcohol wash equivalent. this is what I like. the sticky board is an indicator not an accurate measure of mites per 100 live bees. you will never kill all the mites but you can manage for low levels. look up the nybeewellness web site. I hear that a similar program for ohio is in the works.


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