Sumertime. Come and Gone

My oh my indeed. Just like that, after far too many 90+ degree days, the switch seems to have flipped. The sun changed its angle and a little rain has started to sputter its way down.

The weather in July was great. It wasn't too hot and the nectar flowed freely. Pulling and extraction went to plan, cleanup commenced and we were able to get mite treatments on with seemingly conducive temps. This was the first year using Formic Pro. While it seems gentler than the MAQS, I'm still seeing about a 20% queen loss, which is right about what I would see with MAQS. One big difference between MAQS and Formic-Pro that I've seen is that the majority of hives that lost queens with the Formic-Pro have re-queened which was not often the case with the MAQS. While the majority of queens lost this year were 2nd year queens, plenty were first year, but then, plenty 2nd year queens survived the acid test so make of all that what you will.

One consistency between MAQS and the Formic-Pro is the lack of queen loss in nucs. Of the 40 or so nucs that were treated with Formic, not a single one lost their queen. In fact, I don't think I've ever lost a queen in a nuc to formic which I always find amazing. Most of the nucs are in 5 over 5 configurations by August, but some are still in single 5 frame boxes. They all get a single strip regardless. Even the nuc in the Jester box sailed through the treatment intact.

Overall, the bees seem to be in good shape moving into mid September. It's encouraging but it can change so quickly and I expect to see some colonies suddenly wilt, abscond or start to show mite damage. It always happens.

I've heard of a few late swarms in the last week. Late swarms are a curious thing. Are they absconding from mite pressure? Is part of the colony peeling away to save the nest left behind? Are the bees just making a bad decision? Unless they're captured and placed on comb and fed, their demise seems inevitable this time of year and if they've been compromised by mites, their outlook is likely equally grim,