We read a lot of bad news on Bee-L so I thought I would give a bit of good
news from my small part of the world.  I just finished taking off honey and
my bees have done exceptionally well this year.  I practiced good mite
control last summer and did 2 rounds of alcohol washes - 1 in late July and
1 in late August.  I treat with formic and got pretty good results from the
July round but was surprised to find a good number of higher numbers in
late August, so I treated those again.  I use oxalic in December.  I had
good winter survival and we have had pretty good weather in North Carolina
this spring.  Lessons learned (again) this spring are to put spring nucs in
full sun (we had a cool spring) and to avoid pushing strong colonies to get
even stronger with spring feeding.  It seems the average colonies make the
most honey as they max out just as the flow starts.  The big ones want to
swarm and must be split and reversed and cause a lot or work.

I attribute what success I have had staying in the bee business to what I
have learned on Bee-L, so thanks to all contributors.  We have talked in
the past about a decline in bee vigor since around 2005 and I have seen
that too.  I hope this year signals a turn for the better in my bee
operation.

Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html