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I'm a fairly new beekeeper - this is my third season keeping bees and I have had an issue all three years that I was hoping someone could help clear up for me...
My beekeeping book says that I should never be treating for mites when I have supers on the hive intended for human consumption...at the same time, I don't want to wait TOO long to treat them for mites. I pulled my supers last weekend and about half the frames were either partially or fully uncapped nectar. So I end up picking through frames, looking for capped ones to harvest. Then I put the mite medication on the hive with all the rest of the uncapped frames in the super still.
Am I harvesting too early? Am I treating for mites too early? Is the advice of not treating the hives while having honey in the supers for human consumption bad advice? Is this a common issue, or am I the only one experiencing this?
If anyone has advice on this, I'd much appreciate it.
-Chris Gribnau
My beekeeping book says that I should never be treating for mites when I have supers on the hive intended for human consumption...at the same time, I don't want to wait TOO long to treat them for mites. I pulled my supers last weekend and about half the frames were either partially or fully uncapped nectar. So I end up picking through frames, looking for capped ones to harvest. Then I put the mite medication on the hive with all the rest of the uncapped frames in the super still.
Am I harvesting too early? Am I treating for mites too early? Is the advice of not treating the hives while having honey in the supers for human consumption bad advice? Is this a common issue, or am I the only one experiencing this?
If anyone has advice on this, I'd much appreciate it.
-Chris Gribnau
Hi Chris,
There are newer mite treatments that you can use while your honey supers are still on, but there are many that cannot be simultaneous. Guessing your book was written before Mite Away strips (the newer treatment) came on the market.
If using one of the treatments that you should NOT use with honey supers, the timing is difficult, as you described. You want to leave your supers on long enough to get capped, but the treatments can't wait til it gets too cold (I forget the temperature requirements). This is why I switched to the Mite Away Strips. There are still temperature requirements (not too cold, not too warm), but you don't need to remove supers first. I love this new freedom. --Julie
There are newer mite treatments that you can use while your honey supers are still on, but there are many that cannot be simultaneous. Guessing your book was written before Mite Away strips (the newer treatment) came on the market.
If using one of the treatments that you should NOT use with honey supers, the timing is difficult, as you described. You want to leave your supers on long enough to get capped, but the treatments can't wait til it gets too cold (I forget the temperature requirements). This is why I switched to the Mite Away Strips. There are still temperature requirements (not too cold, not too warm), but you don't need to remove supers first. I love this new freedom. --Julie
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