# First year Illinois beekeeper - new to forum



## EssexStadir (Nov 16, 2016)

Hello,
My name is Nick. 
This past May I installed bees creating my first hive.
We've let them do their thing and flourish this year and did not take any honey from them. 
Periodic checkups have shown that they're doing well, which I'm very happy about.

After a recent heavy frost I figured it was time to get them ready for the winter months.
I put the entrance reducer back on with the larger opening (open-part facing down, not up). I crafted a mouse guard with hardware cloth. I also put a moisture board over the inner cover/under the telescoping cover. The outer cover has a slight tilt towards the front of the hive.

I plan on putting some shims under the back of the bottom board (which is solid) to create a slight tilt to allow moisture to run out of the entrance. 
This is about all I plan on doing to prepare the bees for the winter. I'm just south of Chicago so the winters CAN get very harsh. I have a wrap in the event of such a harsh winter which I won't put on until I know I'll need it.

I do not plan on feeding the bees through the winter. I'm hoping they'll have enough food to get them through. I could not lift the two hive deeps without extreme effort so I know they have a decent supply.

That's my current bee situation. I look forward to reading through the forum and picking up valuable advice and information from the experienced beekeepers.


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## bjamesvw (Apr 17, 2014)

Welcome.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

Welcome to BeeSource!

It sounds like you have had good luck and put serious attention and care into your bees.

Only thing missing from your list is a report about the varroa mite-status of the colony?

Don't believe it, if you have heard or read that mites aren't a problem in first-year colonies. If you've got live bees, you've got mites. The only question is whether they are at the point of colony-injury, or not.

I would consider an oxalic acid treatment (dribble or vapoirzation) sometime in early December. I think it is the most effective anti-mite treatment of the whole year, setting the stage for a strong and healthy build-up next spring. 

During the winter spend some studying ho to manage the swarming impulse next spring. It came as a rude awakening to me in my first spring that my strong overwintered colonies presented an even more daunting challenge the second spring. I thought I was home free having gotten them though their first winter.

Enj.


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## Eikel (Mar 12, 2014)

Welcome Essex, what part of IL?


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## EssexStadir (Nov 16, 2016)

Thanks.

Kankakee, Il.


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## EssexStadir (Nov 16, 2016)

I couldn't tell you anything about mites. I have never seen any, though I doubt they are completely nonexistent from my hive. I know that they can be a serious problem but to be honest, I'm hesitant to spray anything on them or treat them with anything. 

As far as swarming, this is one of the reasons I came to the forum. I don't really know how/when this impulse kicks in during the spring. I'm not sure if I should or must split to prevent this issue or when. So, taking your advice, I will do my homework and study up on this.

Thanks.


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## Eikel (Mar 12, 2014)

A recommendation, search the forum and read up on sugar and/or alcohol rolls and conduct a count now; whether you treat or not is strictly up to you but knowing your current mite situation will be critical on determining your future management decisions and/or changes.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

I wouldn't do a sugar (or alcohol or ether) roll this late in the season - unless you are much warmer than I am and even then you'd need a warm day for it.

I would simply do an OA treatment (of one kind or another, but dribbling takes the least amount of extra equipment compared to vaporization) during the broodless period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

When the bees are broodless (which happens nearly everywhere in the US but for a shorter, or longer, period depending on where you are) all of the mites in the colony are in the "phoretic stage", meaning none are protected under the cappings with the pupae. OA is very effective on phoretic mites (not so much when you have brood). You can remove upwards of 90% of the mites in the hive in a single treatment. Not only does it relieve your wintering bees from being parasitized by the mites all winter long, but because bees aren't flying around picking up new mites your hive will stay free from re-introdution for several months. And that means the first rounds of bees that start getting born in Feb. will not be parasitized. These bees will be the nurse bees for your spring build-up and if they are strong, healthy, and plentiful they will be able to raise your production bees in a clean environment that may not need treatment in the spring. So, a single dose in December often prenets the need for a long series of treatments later on.

If you haven't been doing regular testing, but instead are relying on "seeing" mites, you are on very thin ice, IMO. By the time you see mites on your adult bees your hive is usually a "dead hive flying". 

Nobody likes to treat and we'd all prefer not to. But experienced beekeepers know the heavy toll mites can exact even in hives where you're not "seeing" mites. Often the first thing you "see" is a dead hive.

Read up on doing an OA dribble on Randy Oliver's site www.scientificbeeekeeping.com. And then come back and ask for recommendations for mixing up just enough OA-laced syrup for a single hive. (Randy is a commercial beekeeper so his plans may need scaling down.) And then seize a warm-ish day during the weeks after T'giving through about Christmas Day. Don;t worry about the idea of opening the hives that late. I am in northern NY and some very good commercial guys open all of their colonies and spray the syrup in the seams in December, with excellent results. I have OA vaporization equipment which is little bit safer for the bees, but a bigger investment than a single colony may warrant. But the even OA dribble is quite safe for bees and your queen and the benefit of killing off nearly all the mites outweighs any small risk of doing it.

Over the winter you can read about doing the various kinds of rolls and put a season-long monitoring program in place for your second year. I recommend doing *Megan Milbrath's Michigan Method of Mite Monitoring *which can be seen here: https://pollinators.msu.edu/resources/beekeepers/varroa-mite-monitoring/ I saw Megan demonstrate it at the NYBeeWellness Conf. last summer and it compared very favorably with alcohol rolls which sacrifice bees for the test. Since nobody likes to kill bees to test for mites, a method like this one - which had the same accuracy as alcohol rolls - is really great. It takes a bit of effort to learn but once you get the steps down, you can easily incorporate into your inspections once every 3 to 5 weeks all season long.

At this point, having done everything else to make sure your bees survive, you are missing just one last thing: the broodless period mite treatment. Since you have done nothing else to kill mites this year a broodless period treatment is even more critical for your bees' continued good health and long-term survival.

If you are concerned about "chemicals" in your hive you should know that OA is one of the two mite treatment substances that can be used even in colonies being certified under the "naturally grown" category. (CNG is what passes for organic certification in the bee world.) The other one is formic acid, but I would not use it at this season. 

Enjambres


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## EssexStadir (Nov 16, 2016)

enjambres said:


> I wouldn't do a sugar (or alcohol or ether) roll this late in the season - unless you are much warmer than I am and even then you'd need a warm day for it.
> 
> I would simply do an OA treatment (of one kind or another, but dribbling takes the least amount of extra equipment compared to vaporization) during the broodless period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
> 
> ...


Thank you for all the great information. I'm looking into an OA dribble.


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## EssexStadir (Nov 16, 2016)

I think I found a good instructional on how to make/apply the OA dribble. It's based off of Randy Oliver's information: http://honeybeesuite.com/how-to-apply-an-oxalic-acid-dribble/

My only question would be at what temperature would be ideal for this application? Obviously, exposing and dribbling the bees with a wet solution can have dire effects if it's super cold out.

As I understand it, 50mL/colony is sufficient.
I have two hive deeps so I'm guessing ~25mL/deep? Or at least focus on the bees as they should be in a cluster and not spread out over all the frames. Also, more than 5mL/seam could be too much. If this information seems correct I think it should be fairly easy to adhere to.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

Around here people do the dribble in temps in the neighborhood of 35-40 F. This keeps the bees in the box and not flying around during the process, so fewer bees will be lost by the opening of the boxes. 

I will see if I can scare up a BS member I know from my area who does OAD. He'll have more info about it than I do because I only use vaporization. 

HoneyBSuite is also a reliable site, IMO.

Enjambres


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## EssexStadir (Nov 16, 2016)

enjambres said:


> Around here people do the dribble in temps in the neighborhood of 35-40 F. This keeps the bees in the box and not flying around during the process, so fewer bees will be lost by the opening of the boxes.
> 
> I will see if I can scare up a BS member I know from my area who does OAD. He'll have more info about it than I do because I only use vaporization.
> 
> ...


Thanks again for the info.
I ordered some OA and a syringe. I'm going to do a little more homework but I think I've got the basics down. 
I'll be waiting for a good day during that broodless period when the weather is right to make the application. 
Once this is done I'll have a lot more peace of mind going into the winter and then into the spring. 
It still makes me nervous a little bit I'm I'm beginning to understand the consequences of poor mite management.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome Nick!


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