2026 08 09 C's Honey Bees Doing a Mite Treatment

Today was: Mite Treatment Day! Today's inspection was a little different because it was time to treat the colonies for Varroa mites. The inspection itself took about 45 minutes, but we sped up most of the footage to keep the video around 15 minutes. We installed Varroxsan oxalic acid strips in the hives, since we still have honey supers on several colonies. The bees can continue to have access to those supers for food, and with the extremely hot temperatures we've been having, the extra space also gives them more room to help manage the heat inside the hive. The Varroxsan strips will remain in the colonies for approximately 42–56 days, and we'll continue monitoring everyone throughout the treatment period. Unfortunately, we did have some bad new - we lost two colonies. One hive was already dead and had an infestation of small hive beetles and wax moth larvae. Chris dismantled the hive and put the affected equipment into the freezer to help stop the infestation before we reuse the equipment. The second colony was completely queenless, so rather than let the colony continue to struggle, we combined it with a strong nuc that had a castle and was absolutely bursting at the seams. Hopefully, combining the two will give them a much better chance going into winter. Overall, it wasn't a bad inspection day. Most of the colonies are looking good, and now our focus is keeping everyone strong through the coming months. We'll continue monitoring the hives, feeding as needed, and keeping an eye on their progress as we head toward winter. Thanks for following along with our journey and we will see you on the next video!