Hi all,

A little history of myself is below if you want to read it.  Otherwise, my 
basic question is this:

I live in Southeast Nebraska, about 20 miles south of Omaha.

I want to treat my five hives (I'm a hobbyist, obviously) with Apiguard, 
menthol, and also requeen 3 of them this summer/fall.  Apiguard and menthol 
both rely on warmer temps to work properly, as you know. Menthol should be 
left on for 28 days, according to the manufacturer, and Apiguard is a total 
of 4-5 weeks in two treatments.  Can they both be done at the same time, 
during August, or would that be too much foriegn vapor for the bees and 
cause them to abscond, or die?  Secondly, can I requeen while one or both 
of these medications are being administered? If I did each of them one at a 
time, we would be well into September and pushes October before I would be 
done, which is fine, if the weather holds.  We usually have pretty warm 
weather through September, so prehaps it would work, but I wouldn't want to 
wait that long to requeen, would I?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Brad Young
Plattsmouth, NE

History:

I am returning to Hobbyist Beekeeping after a 3 year hiatus.  I live in SE 
Nebraska, 20 miles due south of Omaha.  In my previous beekeeping history, 
I had difficulty keeping my hives alive over winter, and got discouraged.  
After a few years of thinking about it, reading about it, and talking to 
other beekeepers, I now realize the fault was difinitely my own, so I am 
back with a renewed attitude and determination to care for the bees 
properly.  That has brought me here.  In short, I kept my bees in a very 
exposed location to sun and wind (on a hill top with no trees), I did not 
water them, I seldom treated for trachea mites, I did not feed enough in 
fall or move the honey filled frames to the center of the hive where the 
bees could get them.  All-in-all, I should be banned from keeping bees, and 
perhaps that what I did in my self-imposed hiatus the last 3 years.

However, by good fortune or happenstance, I have five hives this year, two 
from swarms, and 3 that I bought from another hobbyist that 'needed a 
break'.  I have them in a more sheltered location- just mere yards from my 
basement door- I water daily, or as needed, and am about to start my fall 
medication.  As luck would have it, I came to find, just before the honey 
flow started, that two of the hives I bought still had an apistan strip in 
them from the fall before, so I decided to use Apiguard this fall as an 
alternative to possibly resistant mites.  It is the gel formula.  I also 
want to treat with menthol for trachea mites, and requeen 3 of the five 
hives whose queens I don't know the age of.

Thanks for any advice on the medication schedule I should follow.

-Brad Young

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