Mid Bucks Beekeepers Association Blog

Down at the Apiary yesterday the place looked at its best.

We are still feeding some of the hives and the bees are taking full advantage of the excellent weather with all entrances very active.

One of the hives had a high Nosema count when we tested all the colonies during the Apiary close down day so we have been feeding it Thymol in sugar syrup as an alternative to Fumidil B. The bees know there is something different (smell for one thing) so are not taking it as fast as previous feeds. The recipe we used comprised:

Dissolve 30g Thymol crystals in 150ml of alcohol to make stock solution (surgical spirit works).

Use 10ml of this stock solution in 4.5 litres (1gallon) of syrup.

The stock solution keeps ok if well sealed, otherwise the alcohol evaporates.

It will be interesting to see if this has an effect.

There is just one colony job to do before winter and that is unite the two colonies on stand 2, one is weak with lots of drawn brood comb and the other is strong but has not drawn out more than 5 frames of brood, uniting should produce a colony that will se the winter out.

The attached photo shows a hive stacked too high for a normal beekeepers back. The top super weighed in at over 40 lb, was propolised and brace combed to the super below, so working at eye level was hard enough for a pair of beekeepers.

At the Association apiary our stands are at a variety of heights so as to give new beekeepers different experiences as part of their own apiary planning, however the rule of thumb is that the height of the stand should be such that the top of the brood box is at knuckle height. If we had followed this rule for this hive life would have been easier!