I am happy to say that the seven nucs have living, working, and happy queens. I did not check the full hives of bees, but I am confident that they all took too. I will check them soon.

My wife said that since she was off on Veteran’s Day, she would go with me to feed Fumigillin-B to the bees. We did all but one colony. That one is in a lady’s garden and I must say that it is one of the best colonies that I have. I did not requeen that particular colony. It is a survivor  and I want to leave it to its own devices to see if it will survive one more time. It has been in the garden for 3 years now and I haven’t done anything but pull honey from it and capture three swarms in one year.

All the colonies are looking good except one. It was given to me just to get it out of a back yard. I took it to an apiary and upon looking  inside, I found it was cross combed. I tried to take a picture, but it was dark comb and I couldn’t get a good picture.

I put a super of honey on that hive so the bees could move up next spring and then I could switch boxes. Then I will be able to cut the comb out and check for any problem that the bees might have had. It seemed to be a weak colony when I received it, but when we fed the medication mixed in sugar syrup, the bees were all over the honey super and appeared to be pretty strong.

Just in case you are wondering, Fumigillin-B is for Nosema, a gastrointestinal disorder. Sort of like diarrhea. The time to use it is in the late Fall and/or early Spring. Medicating in the fall is preventive and in the Spring is after the fact and you are trying to get rid of the disease after the bees get it.

The bees are in the Winter time now so be sure to check the weight of the hives for honey and also check to be sure they have enough pollen to last until February.