Midnitebee wrote:
 
> Greetings!
> Holly-B Apiary
> P.O.Box 26
> Wells,Maine 04090-0026
> www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee
> ---
>
> >Hi fellow Beehavers,
> >    I have seen several posts on the use of apistan for maximum mite
> >kill and to stop resistance to apistan,  you must use two strips per
> >colony.
> Stop resistence to apistan?..I do not believe you meant to say that, at
> least not in that context....
> I place apistan between the 3-4th frame and the 6-7th frame.
 
In the first pharagraph I was refering to what others where saying that they
should use two strips per colony, which could be a factor to the V-mites
building up resistance to the apistan strips. If I were to use only two strips
to cover 2 brood chambers it seems to me thats not enough on a good spring
boildup.
 
>
>
> All colonies that winter in the north have at least two deeps on
> >for the brood chambers.
> you are running two deeps? why? There is a fellow in Buckfield that runs a
> 600 hive operation running with a single deep in the winter...
> I live in the seacoast of Maine and I realize the temp's are quite different
> Downeast.
> I run one deep during the winter months with NO problem.
 
The winters here can be very extreme in 1996 and 97 the temps were as cold as 20
below zero and we had a lot of 50 to 70 MPH wind days to go with it, I don't
think any single brood chamber colony could have made it here under those
conditions.
 
> >My question is where would I put the apistan strips in the upper chamber
> >or lower chamber?
> for me?..i USE APISTAN STRIPS in the top hive w/grease
> patties..reason?..bees move UP not down,.
> >but I rotate the two brood chambers at least 3 times before the honey
> >flow starts.
> and you plan to have a 1000 hives...hope you have a strong back!
> I rotate my brood chambers once per year.
 
Yep that what I am setting my goal for, but after this year I may decide it is
not practical. I am very good at building things, Iam planning on building a
hive hoist on my pickup truck. I have seen several good ideas on the web which I
think I can modify for picking off the top honey supers so I can rotate the
lower brood chambers. The top chamber is always the heaviest because the bees
don't like to store their honey to close to the entrance. I always had seen just
brood emerging in the lower brood chamber when I switched. This does keep the
honey out of the brood chamber the bees will always move it out of the lower
chamber when they get rotated, cure for plugging.
 
This is the way I was taught. I seen an old beekeeper in his sixtys do it this
way with out queen excluders on over 500 colonies. I figure I am twice his size
and an ex-logger that use to cut an awful lot of timber, so I should be able to
do it.
 
Back on the two brood chambers, since my colonies don't winter in Minnesota it
is possible to get them in one brood chamber, before shipping them to
clalifornia. But when they come back in the spring I have seen some of the
strong colonies get honey bound with two chambers. I think they are working more
than just pollination out there, if they were shipped in 1 chamber they would be
pitching a lot of swarms in those california orchards. I bet there are at least
10% that swarm anyway before we get them back. The last pollination there is the
orange groves, I'll bet there are plenty of free swarms to get at that time for
any newbees that live in the area.
 
Maybe Andy in california could share about swarms coming out of the orange
groves.
 
Elroy
 
> Herb(Midnitebee)