According to Carrier's technique, each hive should receive five (5) medications during the year. Three medications in the early spring (late winter, February 1, 10, 20) and two medications in the fall, after extracting has been done. Do not medicate after April 15 or during the honey flow.
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Mix
thoroughly 5 teaspoons of TM-25 with one pound of powdered sugar. (We have
packets for 5 medications for 1 hive or a 6.4 ounce bag of TM-25 that will
medicate 10 hives for the year).
-
Spoon
6 slightly rounded tablespoons of the medication into a fine sieve or into the
cut off foot of a panty hose. Shake the sieve or panty hose over the frame tops
until it is gone. We think the bees will clean up the bees covered with sugar
and will at the same time remove any mites attached.
-
Close
the hive.
-
Repeat
the medication in 10 days.
-
Repeat
the medication again in 10 more days.
-
Label
and store the remainder of the medicated sugar in a cool dry place. Out of
reach of children, for the two fall medications
Starting several days
after hiving the bees repeat the Foulbrood medications listed above. NOTE: If the swarm is
captured late in April or later you may only be able to medicate the hive
twice. Any more medications may allow the bees to put the medication in your
honey, which we do not want.
To prepare one gallon of 2-part sugar 1-part water solution for fall and winter feeding and Nosema medication.
To
make one gallon of 2-part sugar to 1-part water solution.
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Mark
one-gallon capacity in a six-quart (or larger) pot.
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Put
five (5) pounds of sugar in the pot.
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In
another pot boil three (3) quarts of water.
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Pour
one quart of boiled water into the pan with the sugar. Stir until the sugar
dissolves.
-
Add
enough more boiled water to make one gallon. Stir in 1/16th teaspoon of cream
of tartar to prevent crystallization during the colder nights. If you have
no cream of tartar, reduce the sugar in step two to four (4) pounds.
To make one gallon of
1-part sugar 1-part water solution.
Spring
feeding of the bees is to give the bees a 1 to 1 solution for starting swarms
and hive divides. Give one gallon to each hive start.
Follow directions above
with the exception of step 2 which should read 'put 2 ½ pounds of sugar
in the pot'. No cream of tartar is necessary.
Water is very important for the bees. If the bees do not have a water source of their own, they may begin to use the neighbor's pool, bird bath or dog water dish. Lack of water for the bees is probably the primary source of complaints by the neighbors. The best watering source I have found is a plastic, five-gallon bucket into which is draped an old beat-up bath towel. Fill the bucket with water and your bees will have a weeks worth of water and they will not drown. Do not place the water beside the hive or hives, but put it 20 or 30 feet away beside a bush of something. At my place the apiary is on one side of the house and the water, buckets are on the other.
This is a rough date outline and pre-supposes that you are checking your honey supers about every two weeks after you put on the first honey super. If you let the honey super get completely filled before adding another honey super, you may find that the hive will swarm. If you are not going to check the supers regularly, you had better add honey supers as shown below. Always have more super space on the hive than the bees need for several weeks in advance.
|
Starting
with swarm or package |
Starting
with wintered hive or 4 frames of brood |
|
|
Waiting |
Feb 1,10,20 |
Medicate hive. Remove
vent blocks |
|
For |
March 1 |
Add 2nd
brood chamber if not already in place. |
|
A |
Mar 10-21 |
Add queen excluder and
1st honey super Add medium supers in pairs. |
|
Swarm
or Package *********************************************************************** |
|||
|
April 15 |
Hive started |
April 15 |
Add 2nd
honey super |
|
May 1-15 |
Add 2nd
brood chamber |
May 1 |
Add 3rd
honey super. |
|
June 1-15 |
Add queen excluder and
1st honey super |
June 1 |
Add 4th
honey super, If necessary |
Balance of year both types have same schedule |
|
|
August 15 To October 15 |
When started, complete
all four steps within three weeks. |
|
September 15 |
When the above steps
have been completed, and being sure, no honey super is on the hive, medicate
twice, with Terramycin, at 15 to 20 day intervals. Dust medication over the
frames. |
|
November 25 |
Close the hive entrance
down to about three inches. Place 1/4
inch blocks under the top on the front end of the inner cover to
provide moisture venting. Replace top. Remove venting blocks after third
medication in February. If you are planning to medicate to control Nosemsa
Disease, start now. Continue to feed the three gallons of medicated mix
through the winter. |
|
December
-- February |
Watch
activity at the hive entrance when weather is pleasant to get a feel of hive
strength. Watch for intake of pollen and (later) orientation flights - both
good signs. |
The above calendar
presupposes an average beekeeping year. In this area, honey flows from about
April 15 through July 1, and in certain floral areas until August 1. Honey
supers in which one or more frames of honey are fully capped can be removed and
extracted about May 15 and again about June 15. Replace any frames or supers
removed for early extracting.
Plan ahead for
extracting. Have the supers removed from the hive prior to picking up the rental
extractor. If you use the inner cover and bee escape to remove the honey
supers, figure two days per super or pair of medium supers. If you want to rent
the extractor to begin extracting on Saturday morning, you will want to start
removing supers from a 3 honey super hive on the previous Sunday and all your
honey supers will be off by Friday. We have extractors for rent at the shop.
You can rent a two- frame or four- frame hand crank or a four frame electric
extractor. Schedule the rental about a week in advance and remember that the
extractor must be returned on schedule so that those scheduled behind you will
get the extractor on time. We also have in stock the new 2-frame and 4-frame
extractors. We can order and have sent to the shop or your address the 4-frame
electric extractor or any other extractor.
So far, the best thing I
have found for straining the honey is the strainer we sell at the shop. A paint
strainer bag will be satisfactory also. Place the strainer in the bucket and
fasten the top around the bucket with a cord or rubber band. Fill the bucket no
more
than 2/3rds full. To strain, grasp the strainer top together and with a stout
cord tie together securely. Pull the cord over a rafter while lifting the bag
about a foot out of the bucket. Tie off the cord and let the honey drain from
the strainer. When the honey has drained from the strainer, you can let it down
into the next bucket and reuse it a number of times. If you have honey that has
sugared in the frame and you extract it, those sugar crystals will not strain
through and will clog the strainer.
Now you have a strainer
that is half full of sugared and liquid honey that will not strain. Call
me if you want to know how to finish straining that mass of unmoving honey with
no mess other than sticky fingers. When you have strained the honey you will pour
it into your jars or you can buy a gated bucket at the shop which permits you
to strain your honey and fill your jars very easily and mess free.
Replace the extracted frames in the supers as
they are extracted. When extracting is done take the supers to the hive(s) and
place them on the hive over the inner cover - hole open. Replace the top cover
and leave supers on the hive for 3 - 4 days. The bees will sip up any sticky
honey in the comb and on the wooden frames. Remove from the hive by inserting
the bee escape in the oval hole in the inner cover and waiting two days for the
bees to vacate the supers. Store the supers as suggested in the paragraph
below.
Place one deep super (OR two medium or two shallow supers) in a large, clean plastic garbage bag. Toss in 3 - 4 tablespoons of Paradiclorobenzene (PDB) moth crystals. (We sell them in the shop). Tie off the bag securely. Store the bagged supers carefully in the garage. For some reason the bees let the adult wax moth into the hive where they lay eggs in all the supers. A strong hive will carry out the wax moth larvae and drop them away from the hive. A weak hive or a hive that has lost its queen will be overrun with the wax moth larvae and they will destroy the wax comb of the brood and honey supers.
California climate saves
us from the Nosema disease for the most part. In the East, the disease can kill
the hive during the winter. In Nosema, a Protozoan multiples and-grows in the
mid gut of the adult bee. The winters prevent the bees from flying and the
bee's mid-gut fills with the protozoan and it must eliminate inside the hive
causing the remaining bees to clean up the mess. The healthy bees ingest
protozoa and the disease becomes worse. In the course of the winter and under
the stress of Nosema the hive usually dies. In California, the bees fly most days
of the winter and eliminate the protozoa in flight. What we look for in this
area to indicate Nosema Disease are dark spots of eliminated matter on the
front or around the hive area. Generally, healthy bees eliminate a golden
matter. I think the best plan for controlling and curing Nosema Disease in this
area is to medicate every three years.
This medication will be
done during the winter using the entrance feeder to feed out three gallons of
the 2-part sugar to 1-part water sugar solution. As each jar of sugar solution
is taken in by the bees you will fill, another jar until three gallons of the
solution has been fed to the bees. When the first gallon of solution is feed,
make a second and later a third.
-
Purchase
the .5 gram bottle of Fumadil-B. This bottle will medicate 2 hives.
-
Shake
The bottle vigorously,
-
Make
one gallon of 2-part sugar to 1 part water sugar solution.
-
Place
1 teaspoon of Fumadi-B powder in a small jar and add some sugar solution.
-
Shake
the small jar vigorously to mix in the powder.
-
Pour
the mixture in the small jar into the gallon of sugar solution and shake.
-
Place
the entrance feeder in the hive entrance. Fill a quart jar with the sugar
solution then screw on the top and invert into the entrance feeder in the hive
entrance.
-
Continue
to refill the jar and make more sugar solution (3 gallons). When 3 gallons of the
medicated sugar solution has been fed to the bees, the medication is complete.