Moderator:  If this is too much cut or toss it.
    My thanks to all whose insights have helped me though my fourth summer
beekeeping in Mid Virginia, USA.
    My bee buddies and I have started a round-table group to share info from
the web and otherwise help each other (2-125 hives).  Your info is the major
part of my input.
    The following is an update on the bees here.  Most beekeepers are
treating, some with Apistan, others with Checkmite.  Varroa is a major
problem.  A couple larger guys have left Apistan in all winter, despite
warnings.
The following refers to my bees (from my blog).  Note the starvation, which
is rampant, after a promising spring:

    After everything I have 23 going into winter (17 last spring). I'll be
happy to come out with half, with no treatments & a hard winter. The
Russians are wintering with smaller clusters, since they slowed down during
the drought.  We really suffered from July through September with no rain;
had too much rain for several weeks into October.  No nectar, little pollen,
then rain washed out both.
    I've ordered my Purvis Bros. Gold-line Queens for June 06.  They are the
mite resistant Italian bees. With last year's Blue-Line Russians mixed into
the gene pool I'm hoping to produce honey & not have to treat. I'm hoping to
give the Russians some drone brood to flood the area with better genetics.
If I do then the supercedures and swarm virgins will have a chance at the
resistant genes.
   The bees are full of syrup, but have little pollen.   Some pollen is
still coming in, though. I spotted a couple hives that might not make it,
but since they're Russians I couldn't be sure.  If they were Italians I'd
join them with stronger hives. Only one hive has brood, and that is the
weakest of the F1 Jester hybrid Russians, with only two frames of bees and a
three-inch patch of brood on those two frames.  We'll see if she survives.
There were no drones, and I saw every queen.
    Without brood, and with small populations (one box), the bees should
have shown some phoretic mites.  I was looking very closely and saw one
only, in a hive where there were three 'greasy' bees.  I'm sure that's
caused by a virus.  I killed all of those. I went in very late in the day to
forestall robbing.  It was about 59-60F, and the long shadows were falling,
so most of the foragers were home.  They were feisty, but not unmanageable,
since I took off all the tops and they had to defend every hive.
    All in all, with the outbreak of EFB and my scare with AFB, they look
really good.  I'm confident I'll still be a beekeeper next year.
    My bee buddy and I made a trip to Brushy Mountain Bees and bought 424
gallons of HFCS 55 at $2.02/gal.  With gas & taxes it came out to $2.40/gal.
We borrowed the truck and trailer for free and didn't charge for our labor.
It probably would have been $3.00/gal with all that.  That would still only
be $15.00/5 gal bucket.  ADM quoted me $17 plus shipping ($12.50 for a
truckload with no shipping.

Susi Wilson
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Rice, VA 23966

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