# 19 hives alltreatment free so far.



## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

I as of right now i have 19 hives 3 from last year 8 from swarms {all mine but one i think}3 i bought from yale apiaries and 5 splits.
All the swarms are strong builders the splits where slow to take off but are doing good now and hopefuly will be ready for winter buy OCT. 
All my bee's are chemical free and the nucs i got where from treatment free bee keepers so my beeyard is chemical free .
I'm a organic gardener so i want my bee's that way also .
Right now 2 of the hives that were from last year have high mite counts and DWV and a lot of crawlers and they are throwing out alot of weak bee's so i'm quessing they will fail . A feel crapie knowing i could save the hives by treating with apiguard but i want strong bee's and i want to do it right.
I have SBB and used drone frames and the two hives that are weak swarmed so they had a brood breaks and one was queen less for 2 month so it realy had no eggs for awhile and still had a mite overload. Now the one hive that is doing well from the year before is looking strong so i quess i should breed off that hive next year if she's doing well come spring. The rest are this year hives all are doing well low mite counts and should do well this winter. My plan is to allways build new hives every year out off my strongests hives come spring .
Any advice on my endeavor would be cool I'm a thrid year bee keeper and the frist year i failed two hive both died so real i'm only second year bee keeper with 19 hives and i made queens and have 12 acres for my bee's. I want to build a better bee.


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## Beregondo (Jun 21, 2011)

What if instead of breaking up your best hives, you make queens form them and split your weak ones, requeening them with daughters of your strong queen?
That way you don't lose the production from your best hives, but your weak ones are made strong by their genetics.
Of course I am not talking about diseased hives as donors but otherwise healthy weak ones.

This can also give a brood break if they are weak due to varroa, by timing queen introduction accordingly.


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## Rick 1456 (Jun 22, 2010)

Last spring I caught a swarm from un known origin. Built up great, put away good stores. Filled two deeps. By August, the were waining and lots of DWV. Mite count over forty. I decided to let nature take its' course as opposed to "trash bagging" them, freezing the resources and re issue to those hives that could use them. I reduced the entrance to guard against robbing when the "collapse" came and I could catch it. All winter when the temps were high enough, bees came out for cleansing flights. One day it was warm enough for a peek inside. Maybe three frames of bees off to one side. Spring came and I saw bees bringing in pollen. I found the queen. Same swarm queen cause I marked her. They built up fast, superceded the queen, then swarmed on me.  I re queened a hive with a cell from her, and that queen built up. Did swarm management and took one queen cell and started a Nuc. They are doing awesome! 
You just never know, till you let them try


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