Varroa Management: Rough outline on my treatment plan. I’m usually very anal and plan for things years in advance but for whatever reason I have always just wung it for pest management. Little late to the party but I did realize I need to lay out a formal plan and execute. Being a bee keeper is pretty much project management! I’m breaking my plan into 4 streams of work and schedules realizing that each of these different situations needs a unique plan and timeline. Today we will cover over-wintered hives and my treatment plan.
Summer Splits, Swarms, and Emergency Splits
July: The tentative plan is to make my splits to put into winter the first or second week of July. Hopefully by following my pest management plan all year the splits i’m creating will be lower in mites and not mite bombs! I will be setting queen cells in these splits so that will allow the hives to have approximately a 3 week brood break for some chemical free mite management. Once the queen has mated and started laying I will OA vape the hives just prior to capping.
August: Splits have been made and by now the queen will be laying it down! August is when I’m going to start my work for the 2023 season! This year I will be treating in August with Apiguard giving these splits a minimum treatment so they can build up a strong winter brood nest that is low in mites and disease. Due to these being small hives I will not be doing any sampling for mites and just treating prophylactically.
Any emergency or swarms will be established and looped into a treatment cycle depending on where we are in the season and where the bees came from.
I will cover any subsequent treatments in a winter prep series!
American Heritage Apiary 