Sugar dusting

At about 2 pm I ground 113 gm of crystal sugar, put it into a  shaker, lit my smoker and put my bee suit and hat on. Ready with all my bits and bobs went down to the beehive, opened it up. This treatment is to be repeated every 10 days for 2 months.

I took the super away to one side. The bees were relatively calm, it wasn’t very warm outside not like the last few days, a bit windy. There were quite a few bees on top of the frames so I started shaking the sugar onto them.

 

They didn’t seem too angry about it, actually it almost looked like they were too busy eating the sugar off the hive and each other to be angry with my intrusion. I only looked into the brood box from the top, where you see the bees on the picture is where the brood is, the other four frames are empty, the wax had been built up but not filled.

The super, I lifted out frames 3, 4, 5  and 6, the same as below, except they have started to fill up the 5 with nectar and capped the top of one side, NE side of frame. The frames that I had out were treated individually.  I used up the rest of the sugar and shook it all over the remainder of the bees.

I also put a little amount of oil with a brush on the varroa floor, once the mites fall on it they will stay, also I think it will slow down the ants, maybe.

I am planning to feed them tomorrow.

We have also sorted out a new stand for them, ready for spring and another 2 hives, but this we finalized by moving the hive tonight, it was too dark for a picture. We have only moved it a metre, put it on concrete blocks with metal bars as supports.

I have put the entrance reducer in.

 

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