It's May 2. Spring is in full bloom- even the Maple seems to be blooming. I entered winter with about 10 hives, and for various reasons, am now at 4 or 5. This is down from a long time sustaining 30-40, quite a bit for a small beekeeper. But the losses have been consistent-and relentless, despite hundreds of hours trying to turn the tide over 27 years, with lots of optimism. Yet- for me and the hives under my care- the mite is relentless, it seems unstoppable. I've tried everything, communicated and shared methods with many other beekeepers, kept data looking for patterns, or clues. experimented, tried all the methods I know-and yet, this is likely the last year of beekeeping.
Below is a hive- the last remaining of 15 on my property- which is a good example or what I have seen. Maybe it matched your experience? It's May, it's an intensely strong hive, packing away a fat super even before the Maple blooms. Treated 2x with intensive flash Formic treatments in Fall, and OAV 2x in January. Its packed with bees- and today, I found it with multiple swarm cells. Yet two weeks ago in scraping drone brood, I found mites- lots of them. So I did an OAV treatment- and maybe 100 dropped in 14 hours. That's bad. So I decided to treat every 2 days. It's the only way with OA. Second time- maybe 200 in 24 hours, and another 200 in 48 hours. Increasing. Yesterday, treatment 6 I think- the 24 hour drop was easily 400. With many soft shelled and light colored mites, and many still alive
So in 6 treatments- I think I've killed over a few thousand mites. And they still keep dropping. This is NOT unusual- quite the opposite. I see it all the time, and yet- never read about it. Do people stop counting?
The hive above is Demareed. You can see the excluder between #1 and #2. This is, bar none, the best swarm prevention method there is- with lots of benefits. I've tried many- but this really works.
Yesterday- I found queen cells- as I had neglected during treatment to check-and pulled out 4 or 5 frames with cells, and set them into mating boxes, pictured below. Of course, I have to treat them too, eventually, with an 1/8th gram or so, and so it gets complicated.
AA mating box (see previous posts for design)- only partly open to prevent a massive release of bees (who might return to the mother hive). Fed, packed with a few frames of bees and brood and an empty frame.
The single hive bee yard in my neighbor's yard (thank you Kevin)- with my house at left.
And on to non-bee things- the garden after winter- garlic strong in the distance, a fat compost pile I make with straw, leaves, and blood meal in Fall, my cold frame from last year now packed with double cupped tomatoes, last years leeks and carrots to harvest still, and a Fall green manure crop of cut vetch, rye, and legumes ready to turn over.
A sample of my wife Donna's tulip selection planted for this year- just amazing. Elsewhere, bleeding heart and so many other beautiful flowers in our garden beds. Best year ever.
My cat Ted's ladder out of the house- used every night around 4 am to go to the neigbor's to see if they have food. The window, together with a few others and all our doors, have been totally hacked up by him over the years. Clawed at, with that special dew claw, and worn out. Well worth it- a good cat is a great joy, and unlike a dog (sorry dog lovers), is still a wild thing, which one gets to live next to.
More tulips-and the bleeding heart freshly blooming:
And And lastly, the last of this evening light bathing a few of the 150 or so unused supers in my back yard-so much work involved! I suspect I'll need to sell this all off this year- keep enough for a few hives. It's been a lot of work- a lot of years of doing it- but it does feel very much like the end. If what I have survives- I'll keep at it- but bees are so ridiculously expensive now, that I won't buy more. I'm glad I did it, thankful for those folks that inspired me to keep at it, and taught me.
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