It’s already some time since my last blog entry but I was very busy the last weeks. The free time I had I decided to spent with my bees because winter is coming and the bees need to be prepared. The two main activites I concentrated on were:
- Decreasing the Varroa Destructor population inside the hives as much as possible.
- Feeding enough sugar water so that the bees have enough to eat.
Both activities were harder than expected. I started the feeding end of july and thought it will be no problem at all. But when I checked my hives end of september I had some hives with too less food. So, I started additional feeding activities in october which were successful thanks to the warm days we had. Now temperature decreased (1 degree celcius) in the night and it is not possible to feed anymore. But I hope all hives now have enough and will survive the winter.
This year there were some hives that showed a very high Varroa population. So, I already started in july treating these hives with formic acid 1 – 2 times (60%). Unfortunately it was not as successful as expected. So, in september I treated the hives with a high Varroa population again. Now, I will wait until december and treat again with oxalic acid when no brood is in the hives.
I attached two pictures to this blog entry. The one on the left shows my bee hives during feeding with the extra rack. On the right side the hives are prepared for the winter.
