# Minnesota Nice



## HoneyBeeBee1 (Mar 7, 2013)

Hi! Beekeeper from Minneapoilis, Minnesota here! I'm in my forth year and really excited to start this spring. Tips on medicating would be great as my bees all disappeared from their hives last fall. I've sucessfully wintered once and would like to winter in the future. Any tips would be great - I love learning!

Thanks!


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

Welcome! I'd encourage you to not necessarily default to medicating until and unless you know what the issue was. Otherwise it's a bit of a dart in the dark and can contribute to pest resistance as well as comb contamination. Do you count varroa levels? Did the starve or truly abscond? These will help you target your interventions to suit the problem at hand.


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## HoneyBeeBee1 (Mar 7, 2013)

Hi! Thanks for the reply. No, I don't count varroa levels. I guess that's something I will have to get educated on. I extracted once last summer. Beginning of July. I left quite a bit of honey in the hive, though. I wasn't able to feed them as much as normal last fall so maybe they did starve.  Thanks for the info. I still have a lot to learn!


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## Adrian Quiney WI (Sep 14, 2007)

welcome. Spring will come eventually.


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## Lazer128 (Dec 15, 2012)

Welcome to the site!


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome HB21!


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## samoadc (Dec 15, 2012)

Look for facts as to why they are gone, like have you contacted the county bee inspector or others to see if they had similar problems. Was all of the honey gone from the cells in all of the hives. Any dead bees in hive or around . Weigh any of the hives in the fall or after some bees died? Did you take some honey from every hive. I hope this is of some help. Realize that I don't know that much about bees too.


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## NowThen (Nov 26, 2008)

Welcome HBB1!
Your bees just left? At what point in the Fall did they leave?


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