First winter medication advice please

[Bellavista2]

Hi All I have read many posts but not come up with my answer. On the terramycin soluble powder it says 3 applications 4-5 day intervals 200mg./colony.  how do you get them to drink that much? next is it ok to mix terramycyn with fumagilin-b and last for now can I put the apiguard on top of the 2nd deep. I used the strips between the 1st and second 2 weeks ago so this is the 2nd mite treatment.Its kinda close between the frames+ I have to lift off the 100 lb. box.  I had 40-50 mites per square in. before i saw a problem It was a very strong hive up till then. The other hive was not infected. what is the conversion mg to tsp. Last a simple question for a 10 lb. bag of sugar how many cups  of water. Thanks for a wonderful Forum this has turned out to be a much more complicated and expensive hobby then I anticipated. I'm in far northern Ca. by the way. It was 111 last week but cooling down for the weekend.

[Michael Bush]

>this has turned out to be a much more complicated and expensive hobby then I anticipated.

Only because you are making it so.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoursimplesteps.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#nochemicalsnoartificalfeed

[Bellavista2]

Michael thanks for the links I enjoyed your lazy beekeeping see some great ideas there.I've read a few of your posts in the past and am glad this works for you It's a great goal to shoot for. I sure don't want to spend the money and hassle if I don't have to. The beekeeper that got me set up lost 457 of his 500 hives 2 winters back so he may be a little paranoid. 2 miles from my house are some of the largest Queen producers in Ca. Look up Wooten's golden queens between them and their family they put out 30,000 Queens yes 30,000 They also rent out 30,000 hives yes 30.000  check out there story pretty neat family.They Medicate so for now I'm just looking for how to medicate. 

[Michael Bush]

>The beekeeper that got me set up lost 457 of his 500 hives 2 winters back so he may be a little paranoid.

And I'll bet he treats for everything and was when he lost them.

Yes, I think the paranoia not only is not productive, I think it's counterproductive.  I've been not treating for most of 35 years now and the times I did treat for Varroa I lost them to Varroa anyway.

I used terramycin the first year or two because I was scared they would come burn my hives if I didn't.  But it seemed wrong and I quit.  That as 1976.  I've never used it since.  I have seen AFB in other peoples hives.  I have never seen any in mine.

I have never used fumagilin or fumidil or whatever they are calling it this year.    Every spring if there was a long confinement there is a little dysentery.  I a day or two it's gone.

I've never used apiguard or any other thymol product, nor formic acid nor cumaphos (check mite).  I have used  fluvalinate (Apistan) and the results were they all died from Varroa anyway.  I have used Oxalic acid vapor and it killed a lot of mites.  Anymore I don't see any more than a mite or two so I don't do anything.

So now I use not treatments at all.  I let them draw their own comb (without foundation), raise their own queens and I just try to be sure they don't starve or go queenless.  I lose a lot less hives that way.

[kathyp]

i see you didn't get to many answers.  getting one from MB is like getting a bunch from the rest of of anyway  

if you go by the discussions here, most of us have given up the antibiotic treatments, etc.  there is the cost.  also, for me, prophylactic antibiotic treatment does not make sense to me.  if they bring the stuff into the hive, you can't cure it, you can only keep treating for it forever..

your mite count was high.  the apiguard gel trays work well.  you can put them on the top box, but you need a spacer to keep the lid off the tray.  i make mine with some 1x1 pieces of wood.  anything will do as long as it is pretty much air tight.  you need temps + 60 during the day at least, and each hive will take two trays put in about 10 - 14 days apart.

be happy your hives are so heavy.  many of us are spending lots of money on feeding this year!

[Bellavista2]

Thanks Kathy I made a spacer. I'm down by Redding it's going to be 70 degrees today so should be good. I started out with 2 hives it's good to be able to compare the behavior the 2nd hive didn't have the mite problem. I've worried over these critters all summer and sure hate to loose them. I hate it every time a single bee gets squished. What boring part of Ore. are you in ? Not too many west coast people on here. Seems like every time I find an article that I think is the gospel such as bee culture Magazine or Georges Pink Pages its dispelled somewhere else and I'm back to square one. 

[kathyp]

there is no gospel.  only what works for you, and it will take you some time and some loss to figure that out.

i am in a town that is named Boring.  it's east of Portland toward Mt Hood.  if you look on a map, i am about 10 paces out of Sandy, Oregon 

[Bellavista2]

Ran across a interesting article called The ways of winter  by Thom Trusewicz He suggests you come out hundreds of dollars ahead by killing off the bees for the winter and starting from nucs in the spring you get a new queen +your hive boxes stay chemical free. You get to keep the 60 lb. of honey that they would have eaten and your equipment stays out of the weather.

[kathyp]

could be some truth in that considering the cost of feeding. 

[danno]

Ran across a interesting article called The ways of winter  by Thom Trusewicz He suggests you come out hundreds of dollars ahead by killing off the bees for the winter and starting from nucs in the spring you get a new queen +your hive boxes stay chemical free. You get to keep the 60 lb. of honey that they would have eaten and your equipment stays out of the weather.

If you can get free bee's and save the comb from the pests you would make out.  I have 2 freinds that do this every year.  They take order for 3# packages and alot of them.  They make 2 or 3 trips to georgia each spring with a van and big trailer packed.  There mark up covers there expences and the bee's they need.  The one friend lost 88 out of 100 last winter but he didn't care.  His hives have never been treated with anything