Bee Keeping

Ok Iv always wanted to get some bees and produce my own honey. I have removed a few hives from peoples homes and got the honey out of them unfortunately i didn't save the hive.

My questions are. what do i need to start a hive, and how much work are they?

Oh boy, how time do you have?
Not for the bees, they're just a few hours a week, but for the what do I need to know. I'm nearly 40 years in bees and still learning.
Seriously though it's not that bad. If you've done a cut out or two your over the first hurdle, fear.
First, plan on two hives to start. Next read, books not the internet. First Lessons in Beekeeping by Dr Delaplane is a good place to start. It's somewhat see Jane run level but it's a start. Next determine if there's a local association in your area, probably is, there definitely a state association in your state. Get in touch with these folks they likely offer beginners classes and attend the meetings find a mentor you can talk to.
Then focus as much as possible on basic bee biology. The bees are hardwired to do their thing and we work with that rather than work against it.
Now the biggy. If you did all the above you're a beekeeper but your bees aren't out of danger yet. Varroa destructor is public enemy number one and will kill your bees within two to three years. Learn how to manage their numbers below a dangerous level. Now go back to the Internet and read www.scientificbeekeeping.com (all of it) to figure out how your going to do that.
Good luck.

Beesource.com is a good place to start reading and asking questions. YouTube can be too

It's an addiction just like trapping. A lot of fun as well ,can get expensive if you let it.
And like warrior said ,be sure to treat for mites, or you will lose your hives. Don't buy into the treatment free hippies idea.
Some knowledgeable guys on here can help too.
Good luck.

Oh and you need a couple brood chambers(boxes) with frames, and one or two more boxes for honey.
a smoker, and hive tool to pry the boxes apart to inspect.
Also a veil or jacket. It's no fun to get stung a lot.

Have you ever noticed that guys who talk about beekeeping drone on and on?

Beekeeping is a great supplement to trapping. A great way to lose money in another activity that takes a lot of work.

There are actually tons of great vids on YouTube on bee keeping. Randy Oliver, MIchael Palmer, Canadian bee keepers blog, UOG, are just a few.

There may also be classes in your area. I took a night course at a local college when I started. Some Universities also have bee labs along with classes.

I personally didn't get much out of the books, but I'm a visual learner. To each his own there.

BUT you are going to pay a LOT of money for that first bottle of honey...just know that.

All of the above.

I would say to go to a local bee club and just sit and listen. You'll be surprised at what you'll pick up.

The bees are more expensive than trapping.

Thank you all for your input. looks like i got lots of studying to do.

Now you done gone and said the F word.

That contraption is thoroughly despised among us old hands. It promotes a mindset of hands off beekeeping to neophytes who should be hands on learning at a time when bees are needing hands on attention for their survival.
It is flawed in concept as bees don't care for unnatural plastic, it will eventually cease to function and or break in normal use, provide harborage for bee parasites, promote neglect of basic bee husbandry.

It solves a problem that does not exist. A basic two frame extractor can be purchased for a c-note. And cut comb or crush and strain costs nothing. Besides most local associations have extraction equipment available on loan to their members.

Well said. The flow hive is a gimmick to get people into bee keeping under the ruse of being "easy". New bee keepers seem to buy them and once they learn how to keep bees, never use the Flow hive.

And don't get duped into the "Treatment free" scheme, either. Most bees need help ridding themselves of deadly mites.

Here's a clue. The Australian "inventers" of that design took a concept proposed by a Florida hobbiest beekeeper straight to crowdfunding after the Florida beekeeper gave up on his concept as unworkable. The "inventers" were not beekeepers nor did they work through any of the numerous international bee supply houses or manufacturers. Nor is that item carried by any reputable supply house.

Here's a clue. The Australian "inventers" of that design took a concept proposed by a Florida hobbiest beekeeper straight to crowdfunding after the Florida beekeeper gave up on his concept as unworkable. The "inventers" were not beekeepers nor did they work through any of the numerous international bee supply houses or manufacturers. Nor is that item carried by any reputable supply house.

Yet they somehow have made millions and not one commercial bee operation anywhere in the world uses that product.

My uncle taught me the basics back in the early 70s. I’m still using some of his hive bodies. I remember when a 3# package of Italians cost $16. Picked up some packages yesterday...$113.50 each.

Those Flow Hives are garbage. Sold mainly to folks who are afraid of their bees.

The amount of material on line and on YouTube is staggering. Can learn a lot looking at those sites. Stay away from the kooks with nutty ideas.

Learn to control mites and you’re half way home to being a successful beekeeper.

Good luck!

This is my second year. The good news is that you can get a couple of hives started this year and you won’t need to do much for them the first few months. Maybe feed them. I lost both of my hives last year to mites. My colonies seemed so strong by mid summer that I thought I was going to succeed my first year on beginners luck. By the end of the year both hives were dead. Looks to me like it’s nearly impossible to keep the colony alive without treatment. This year I will monitor my mite counts and most likely treat. My only frustration as a new bee keeper is that the more experienced people won’t come out and outline a treatment program that has been successful for them. Everyone just says to read up but won’t come out and say what they are doing. Regardless, pay attention to the mites.

The easiest way to control mites is with Formic acid....as in Mite Away Quick Strips. Oxalic acid is great also,..cheap...but there are limits to when it’ll be effective.

There...I just gave away all my mite control secrets Lol.

The rub of big strong hives is they often are mite factories since mites can only reproduce on bee larvae, more larvae equals more mites.

Because of that I key my treatments to those times the bees are gearing up to make larvae, late winter/early spring and late summer and am ready to cleanup treat early summer post main flow if numbers are high. Formic being temp sensitive is only safe here for the early treatment so the late treatment is thymol/apiguard or amitraz/apivar. I never use the same treatment twice in a row to avoid resistance. My results with oxalic (shop towel) have been mixed enough that I haven't pursued vaporization. If my hive count keeps growing I may need to go that route.

Oh here's a tip on MAQS. Since it's highly volatile it has a shelf life warning about storage temps and also the reason for the new formulation. Straight from a rep, freezer storage has no shelf life issues.

Thanks Brownie. I’m in the Midwest so flow is over in July. I’m thinking I’ll treat with strips or some other store bought chemical at the end of July. Probably do an OS drip in the fall. I also plan on doing some checks along the way to get a better understanding of my total mite count. I ended up with 3 hives this year so I want to keep those darn bugs alive!! I sure enjoy working them.

To the OP.....watch an experienced beekeeper and notice how deliberate but gentle they are. No smashed bees, no dropped frames, no pounding the lid off, etc.. I have found if I do a good job with the bees they are very gentle and I can work them in short sleeves and no gloves. I do usually wear a hood to avoid any stings in the face.

I am going in to my third spring and have lost two hives last year one at the beginning of spring it was a laying worker that I just got tired of wasting lava on and the other was the only package of bees I have bought. I had trouble the first year i had them, they were full of mites I hot that cleared up then last them to hive Beatles. All the nics I have bought or rised my self and only treat in early spring so far. I just can't beleave how lucky I have been with my bees they build up strong make a decent honey crop and are pleasant to have.

Well my joke about droning on must be rally bad because nobody mentioned getting it.

To the original poster, bees are amazing and fascinating. Since you are interested, try one hive starting small. Learning about the bees and recognizing their behaviors is just incredible. Opening a hive and seeing bees looking to see what is happening is a great revelation. They know their business better than we can. Have great fun.

If you send me a pm, I can set you up with some free and very good videos from a bee school.

Best wishes.

I now use two different types of Oxalic acid in my mix of treatments. This one is inexpensive and worked well for me last year. And you can buzz through a bunch of hives in no time.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...02672185E9698E8D43BC026721&FORM=VIRE

I also use Apivar in the spring (before a honey flow) and Formic pro when things warm up. Then Oxalic late fall before wintering. Not always necessary but many universities are now recommending 3 separate treatments per year.

Things have definitely changed in mite treatments. First is was put two strips (apistan) in per year. Then came resistance and it went to checkmite and IPM don't treat if a mite count doesn't go above a certain number.
Now it's three mites per hundred is the treatment number and since that almost guaranteed to be found treat anyway.
Whenever it seems we get a handle on them they throw us a curve. Thirty years ago I never imagined I would be studying up of bee viruses and mites. Heck, who knew bugs get viruses?

Lost 80% of my hives last spring.
Built the hives back up by splitting the remaining hives and adding mated bought queens to the queen less hives that were split.Managed to get 800 pounds of honey.
I only ever treated in August with Apilifevar till last spring.All surviving colonies got an April when the daytime temps were in the 70S of Mite away strips, then again in August with Apilifevar.
Had 33 nucs,and 17 full sized hives going into this Winter,All made it through the Winter,but 2 full sized hives were weak but with laying queens.
Put one weak hive in a nuc box, and the other got robbed out.
Moving 4 double decker nucs to full sized hives today.

Mites, number one enemy.

As for furred critters if you're in bear country electric fencing, the stronger the better, is a must. Only other furred trouble is skunks. They pester the bees at night scratching at the entrance and eating bees that respond. They can irritate colonies to the point of making them hard to work to even weakening or depopulating colonies. Easily remedied by placing hives on high stands out of reach or using barriers at the hive entrances like bird spikes or carpet strips. Mice can be a problem in the winter, they make mouse guards just for this. Cheap fix is to move your queen excluders (metal) to the bottom board in the fall.

Feathered critters rarely cause major issues but both turkeys and guineas travel in flocks and have good appetites. Most other poultry/fowl don't bother bees and chickens around and under the hives actually helps as they eat small hive beetles.
Occasionally a flycatcher like kingbirds or pheboes will set up shop but they don't eat enough to be damaging. Martins are accused of eating bees but I just don't see it. There may be issues at queen rearing operations though.

BTW, bears and skunks aren't after the honey (carbs) they eat the brood mostly (protein).

Honey is a great coon bait though coons won't brave the wrath of the bees to get it.

I am doing the hippie thing of no treating as stated to not do above. But, really I am treating just not with chemicals......I brood break, select for resistance etc. Listen to 10 bee keepers and you will get 20 answers. Read, learn, and apply, re-apply, diagnose and improve.

NRA, there is a lot of money in bee keeping - you might as well put some of yours in too!! All kidding aside it's very rewarding to work with your bees...

I've been keeping bees for about 5 years now, finally overwintered my first hive.

Last year I got my 4th package & was given a swarm from a friend. The package made it, the swarm did not.

I learned much more last year than I did the prior 3 by comparing each hive to one another, that and I also leaned on the couple I got my swarm from for some advice and ideas I had. As someone else said, ask 20 people and you'll get 20 opinions. Heck, they might all work but you gotta pick one and go, not ponder which one for 3 weeks and miss the boat, i quit doing that. I get some sound advice from reputable sources & bounce those ideas off one person.

If I had any advice it would be this - It's expensive, order enough equipment ahead of time so that you can add boxes and frames as the colony grows, anticipating growth ahead of time is much better than realizing it too late and ordering equipment.

Same goes for mites, buy formic acid with your initial package. Formic, Apivar & Oxylic acid seem to be the big three. 2 being organic & the apivar synthetic (Correct me if i'm wrong) combine to lower the risk of resistance. I've tried some of the hippy methods, they didn't work & i'm not interested in losing bees and spending $120 bucks a package.

I was lazy with my mite checks in years past but it's become evident that they're likely the number one reason I was losing hives. I was dillengent about checking mites with a sugar rolls (Alcohol wash is more accurate) and I treated when necessary.

So, let me summarize.

1. Buy a book and read reputable online resources. I highly recommend http://scientificbeekeeping.com/ Randy Oliver does his research correctly & thoroughly. He's been in business for decades for a reason.
2. Join your local club & admit you know nothing & get a mentor. clubs also often have a loaner extractor, bottling bucket & other essential tools for extraction.
3. Order what you need for 1 or two hives ahead of time. Don't get sucked into the novelty garbage. Veil, hive tool, smoker & I like those grippers to pull frames out of the hive. That's what I used 95% of the time. Kitchen dish gloves work fine if you want to protect your hands
4. Get in there every week and check things out. You cant be in it for honey the first year, you need to learn. If you do not learn, no honey for you next year.

I'll reiterate that the club to folks helped me considerably. hearing what works and didn't work from back yard keepers like me & what worked and didn't work for commercial folks. This year I plan to be more active in the club as well and participate in the club hive inspections every other week or so. I want to learn, experience is the best teacher.

Oh, by the way, it is WAY cheaper than trapping. Every coon I kill costs me 25 bucks to tan. Every pound of honey I collect PAYS me 8 bucks. I don't need a truck to drive from one end of my property to the other to do a "Hive Check" Daily either. I already know they're there

A lot of "naturalists" hobby bee keepers are really just Mite Farmers, but they don't know it. If their bees are within flying distance to your bees, it becomes more real (and angering). IF you're going to be a mite farmer, don't start. You are just causing problems for your neighbor bee keeper. Every University that has a bee lab says to TREAT your bees. With how "natural" most Universities are, I think this says something. Our local University bee lab recommends 3 times per year.

I do know a guy who brood breaks and says he does well, however. Not sure how "well" is, though.

I've found a good percentage of the Local bee keeping assoc's fall under these Naturalists. Take what they say with a grain of salt.

YouTube has thousands of hours of great info....many from commercial bee keepers who have to do things right. Not that some of the hobbyists don't have it figured out, too, but there seems to be a difference in thoughts at times between the two. Kind of like trappers I guess.

I think the 20 bee keepers/20 different opinions has gone by the wayside a bit. I "think" this craft has become more unified over the years. You just can't screw up as much as you could in the past. Mainly in regards to parasites and disease control. The big shots and universities are finally starting to call people out onto the carpet it seems.

Best investment I made was to buy a new TV with a Roku box so I could watch YouTube bee vids on my couch. I"ve watched hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of bee keeping vids over the years. It beats regular TV and per time invested you get much more info per minute than a book or an assoc meeting.

That said, it's addicting....and a real nice/relaxing hobby for those of us who are aging past the fast cars, fast life age.

Good point on the associations, they vary greatly. If you're fortunate like I am you may have several in your area. I'm past president of Henry County, current vice president of Potato Creek (Spalding County). There's a club in Fayette County and Clayton County as well as Rockdale, Fulton and Coweta. These are all adjoining counties on the south side of Atlanta and all within an hour of me. All the adjoining counties north of Fulton have clubs as well and I believe Fulton may have two. South of me is a club in Bibb/Macon 45 minutes away. All but Fayette are also affiliated clubs of the State Association.
Each club is autonomous to persue however they want to operate. Fayette has chosen to go it alone (and I assume partake in hippy dippy nonsense since they keep buying new bees every year for some reason). Coweta seems to be more structured and cooperative promoting their own "Coweta Method" of beekeeping that involves queen rearing and overwintering nucs similar to what Palmer in Vermont does. Clayton aka Tara Bee Club is the mother and grandmother club to all these being the oldest in central Georgia. Henry seems to want to be a teaching club catering to the new beekeeper, fortunately there's enough old hands on board to counter the non sense. Potato Creek I'm sad to say hasn't found its footing yet and is as much a social club as anything else.
Henry's meeting is tonight and they're starting a new early mentoring (Q&A) meeting tonight at 6 before the regular meeting at 7 where we'll have Bruce Morgan of Sparta GA (Dr Jamie Ellis' father-in-law) speaking on his 25 years in beekeeping. Afterwords is a Board of Directors meeting that I get to sit in on in an advisory capacity as past president. But they don't need it as I think they're doing just fine without us past officers meddling.

yes, the natural wild bees are mite farmers and they too just don't know it...........so don't forget to treat them.........oh, I guess you don't need to if you have your own airspace for your bees and make sure they don't allow any feral bees in your hives ever - so you best paint them all pink too

On the serious side - I have had good results with Mn Hygienic Queens. They seem to do what I want.

The ferals are indeed mite factories. There's no way around that. What I am seeing in ferals that survive longer than three seasons is behavioral differences that seem to allow toleration of mites or moderate mite reproduction to a tolerable level.

Small broodnests (can overwinter in a single deep only)
Limited brood producton shutting down quickly on a dearth (I've seen colonies go nearly brood less here from June to august)
Hygienic traits pulling brood
Heavy propolis (I've had entire entrances sealed)
Consistent swarming (one tree I know swarmed three times in ten days)

None of the above are conducive to large honey crops. If you can live with it fine but most of us can't. I love my little brown bombers (they head butt) but I gave up on feral stock/survivor about three years ago.

Oh, and it's the rare feral colony that's makes it into its fifth season.

i'm not sure how many ferals made it thru the big crashes of tracheal and varroa in these parts back in the day. most of the folks that had bees back then pretty much decided there were few if any ferals really left and what was found in trees, chimney, etc were just escapees from commercial colonies given that the southern and western part of the state is pretty much migratory pollination. historically isolation has helped some areas have less issues with mites than others and parts of this state are pretty isolated so i can see feral bees making it in the UP or pockets of the northern lower.

many of us here were involved in collecting components of survivor stock that usda used in creating vsh. over a decade thru 90's into 2006-2007 I messed with alot of survivor stock (none of which came from ferals but all from commercial colonies) and I'd say the small populations/brood nests were the most common theme. In the early days we crossed alot of survivor lines by way of insemination and many of those daughter colonies still exhibited that same trait even after open mating. i believe some of the folks like seeley have more recently documented high swarming in feral colonies but 20+ years ago we didnt actually see much swarming with those colonies at least compared to some of the other colonies. in fact, most of the survivors never really built up to a point that they would excessively (repeatedly) swarm or produce a crop for that matter but swarming was a common theme with russian hybrids and eventually the most of the more well known treatment free folks mixed that into their stock. and as vsh trait has been spread out enough to get into the general population at a level thats at least high enough to keep some of them alive for awhile I think bigger populations and swarming have become a little more common in the survivor type stock at least around here. but thats just a local observation in grand scheme of things.

Guess I'm a hippie too. Only kept bees for three years now. But my " mentor " has been keeping bees since the 70's. So all this required mite treatment is news to me based on how he has taught me. I'm on a facebook group and they say the same thing about needing to treat mites.

Not saying y'all are wrong. Maybe there are different ways of doing things depending on what you are trying to do long term.

Im glad this bee keeping thing is not like trapping . everyone agrees on everything. lol.


maybe just keep buying my honey and go by one of the local guys with bees and get stung 7 or 8 times a year and all will be good. LOL

Tell me more about spring treatment. I just installed 3 packages about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Things are starting to bloom here so I assumed flow was starting and a spring treatment wasn’t a good idea.

If you're in a very cold area, GET RUSSIANS. I'm in MI and I can't keep Italian alive to save my life, my Russians were my only survivors this year. They are super aggressive though. They're also resistant to mites but I treat anyways.

Hey BullOx----also seems to me that italian style bees struggle here in this day and age. one of the upsides to them is that they can be a good starting point for a new beekeeper as they do tend to be a little friendlier than some bees (like your russians). and before the arrival of tracheal and varroa they were actually pretty common in these parts. however often times they arent as inclined to have some of the characteristics we might consider more common in northern style bees like heavy propolis & burr comb or quietness on comb during winter. probably where they struggle most is that they do a poor job of regulating to the weather---they lay later into the year when others have long shutdown which in theory gives them winter bees but it also puts them into winter with giant hungry clusters and a varroa population that keeps expanding compared to others. sometimes you can help the cause by leaving them lots of winter stores and that will get them to the next year but they normally are laying well before others by late winter early spring. if the weather works in their favor in the spring they will be fine BUT if not they brood up, run out of everything stored, dont bother to shutdown when nothing is coming in and croak in spring. also keep in mind that unless you are buying new queens to replace everything each spring eventually you get a mix of genes with some traits showing up more than others from swarming, supercedure, etc. a bee like the old minnesota hygienic has plenty of italian style traits but still did good up here.

where did you get your russians? i used some a long long time ago when they were first released. the first generation daughters didnt combine nicely with my bees at that time so i got away from them but i did like some of their traits that seemed to eventually get passed along by their drones.

I personally either use the above Oxalic acid vaporized or Apivar strips in the spring. Apivar strips come in a 10 pak and once opened they are activated....so if you can't use all 10 strips, you are wasting money I guess. Apivar stays in the hive for a minimum of 42 days....56 days max. Not to be used when supers are on for honey consumption (bee consumption is fine) Take strips out a week or two before adding human consumption honey supers. One strip for up to 5 frames of bees....so with a package you'll only need one strip per package.

Maybe try the Saskatraz's. I'm having good luck with them...and they don't chase you down the street.

But like anything, Once a northern bee...the will be raised in Calif now....and how hardy is anything out of calif? I/m done buying junk Calif bees. I've found my best luck to do a walk away split with my best overwintered northern hives. In the right conditions, they make really nice queens all on their own. Some of my best queens came through walk away over wintered splits. Easy, cheap and about 75% effective per split/Queen on the first attempt.

those california hybrid saskatraz do show plenty of vigor. Overall they seem decent at the moment and winter doesnt seem to bother too bad from locals are saying. But probably the best benefit off them is the drone stock they provide unless you get your hands on pure breeder that you can open mate to what you want

If my neighbor's russians are any indicator I'd imagine the woods around have long ago been repopulated with russian genetics.
This time of year she sends about three texts a week saying swarm headed your way. LOL

Are the Webb's still keeping russians down there? Havent had any contact with them in very long time

I will second the oxylic acid. Vapor or dribble. I began using the vapor last year with good success.

On another note, our club relayed some information at a meeting last spring about packages which are supposedly treated, but still hold mites. Some of the numbers of mites found in a package were well above treatment levels. Bottom line, you do not know if you have mites in a package unless you sugar roll or alcohol wash. What I took from this is that I do not care how many mites are in that package. There is no harm in treating.

I prefer vaporized oxylic acid. treating a package after it's been in there for a day or two could possibly be the absolute best time to get the highest efficacy out of a treatment. The spring they're not tightly clustered, numbers are low & there is zero brood.

Side by side tests last year showed that the swarm I got in late may had more mites during the same test days. The treatments (Formic) were more effective also on the treated package later in the year as their numbers were lower too. I battled mites all year in that swarm hive. I wouldn't have had this issue if I would have treated it when it was broodless, for reasons I couldn't control, I didn't treat it for a few weeks, by then it was a bit too late. That swarm hive kicked the bucket this year, the treated package made it and was split last weekend.

Small sample? Sure. But no doubt to the high efficacy of treating a broodless package. Knock out the mites & keep their numbers low all year rather than fight an infestation in august.

Agreed Dusty. I too hit the swarms with oxalic acid vapors before they start laying. No reason not to do that with a package as well. Get ahead of them from the get go...instead of trying to make up ground later.

Yep, Carl and Virginia are still raising russians and she's still winning honey shows.

Calvin, I agree about the walk away splits...I have very good luck with adding hives this way...I just pick out some really good frames and let my girls queen. It puts that hive back a few weeks, but I have a good location and by the end of the season those hives look really good..

I am new to bee keeping. I got two swarms off my neighbor a couple of weeks ago. My question is are mites and hive beetles the same thing?

No

Varroa mites are tick like parasites that feed on the fat bodies, vitagellin, of bees in both the larval and young adult stage. This stresses the bees during early development plus viruses are spread via the feeding behavior. A double whammy and number one killer of bee colonies.

Small Hive Beetle is a small ladybug sized black beetle. It is a kleptoparasite (thief/scavenger) of honey bee colonies. While it can aggressively take over a colony it is a minor pest if the colonies are otherwise healthy and strong.

Warrior thanks for clearing that up for me. Will the same treatment work for mites as well as beetles?

25 Minnesota Hygienic queens soon to be introduced here. Anyone utilize them? I read quite a bit on them before deciding to try them out.

No, though one mite product is labeled for both however method of use is different enough that it's not dual purpose.

Best defense against SHB is strong colonies, full sun hive placement, strong colonies, no empty space inside the hive, strong colonies, judicious use of beetle traps/bottom boards if needed and strong colonies. Other novelties that can be used outside the hive is dry sandy ground, nematodes or permethrin (gardstar) treatment of the soil though these only come into play after the damage is done when the beetle larva go to ground to pupate. I like chickens under and around my hives for this.
Strong colonies is best because the bees will herd and corral the beetles keeping them confined. This is why empty space is bad since you need bees available to guard every square inch of space. Beetles are a minor problem with good management without good management you will grow to despise these little black demons. They can literally destroy a colony overnight. They do so by laying eggs in the comb and the rapidly hatching and growing larvae burrow through eating pollen, honey, wax and bee larvae while spreading yeasts that ferment everything. The beetle larvae also secrete slime that the bees will avoid. Very quickly the mess drives the bees off the comb and out the door, an abscond.

Best defense against mites is knowing your mite count and all bees have mites. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Oh and your best defense against everything else is the very thing that will give you lots of mites. Mites reproduce inside the capped cells of bee larvae so strong colonies making lots of bee larvae are making lots of mites. To the tune of two or more mites per bee produced. A foundress (reproductive female) mite entees larval cell prior to capping, once capped she cuts into the larva to feed then lays a fertilized egg that will develop into a female then a second then a third unfertilized egg that will develop into a male. This male will mate with the two females. This is on worker brood, on drone brood a fourth fertilized egg will be laid for three females. Hence mites prefer drone brood. Also more than one foundress can occupy a single cell, recent research shows this to be their mechanism to avoid inbreeding. Upon bee emergence the females emerge and latch onto young bees less than three days old for another meal, the male dies. A female can repeat this process three or more times in her lifetime.
I hope you can see how the mite population grows exponentially while the bee population is growing linear. This leads to severe issues as the bee population naturally reduces going into winter. Increasingly bee larvae will be parasitized by ever larger numbers of mites. And this doesn't even take into account the dozen or so viruses the bee will carry for the rest of its shortened life.
Hence mite management is the number one issue facing beekeepers. So learn how to do a proper mite count. Forget drop counts and sticky boards. The most accurate is going to be an alcohol wash though other solvents such as washer fluid or ether can be used. The method is to collect a half cup or approximately 300 young bees (most likely to have mites on them) from the core of the brood nest (most likely area to find young bees) then pour alcohol into a container with these bees. Shake to dislodge the mites then pour off the alcohol through a filter (paper coffee filters) and count the mites dislodged (it may take washing the sample several times to dislodge all mites). Divide the total number of mites by three as mite counts are expressed in mites per 100 bees. Current methodology and research suggests that 3 or more mites per hundred is the threshold for treatment. I treat at two.

As for treatment options we have many.

Hard chemicals/synthetic pesticides
Apistan (first generation mites quickly developed resistance)
Checkmite (harder on bees also resistance developed also registered for SHB)
Apivar (gentle on bees some reports of resistance but not yet documented known misuse of generic or homebred versions)

All of the above can not be used while honey supers are on (honey being produced) and can accumulate in the wax.

Soft, Essential Oil, Organic Acid (synthesized from naturally occurring)

Apiguard (thymol in a gel form)
Apilife Var (thymol in tablet form)
Hopguard (beta oil extracts from hops)
MAQS and MAQS PRO (formic acid in pad form)
Oxalic Acid (applied in sugar syrup drench or sublimation)

All the above except MAQS cannot be applied while honey supers are on.
Also none of the above except MAQS will treat the mites within the capped cells so require treatment over time in the form of time release strips (apistan, checkmite, apivar) or repeat application at timed intervals (apiguard, apilife, hopguard, oxalic) to ensure treatment of mites as they emerge.

Formic/MAQS is the only product that will penetrate to kill mites in the cell and can be used with supers on. However it also has issues being temperature sensitive (the reason for the pro refomulation) that can be rough on the bees and is known to incite queen supercedure.

For me formic has a fairly narrow window that I can safely use it but so far it's been the most effective with apivar being the other. Since resistance may develop with repeated use of a single product I rotate between MAQS early spring during buildup, Apiguard for all swarms and new/non production colonies, and Apivar post flow/summer if mit counts indicate. Then a fall cleanup to prepare for winter, MAQS if weather allows, if not Apiguard if Apivar was used. I won't use Apivar more than once per year and would like to eliminate it's use but it's effectiveness keeps it in my arsenal. I may try Apistan as it's been out of common use long enough that resistance isn't the issue it once was. It worked as advertised early on with one treatment per year (30 years ago) but we learned a hard lesson as the mites adapted. We now do two or three treatments a year and rotate to avoid resistance.
I will be adding Oxalic to the mix once I spring for one of the oxavap units ($400) as the spoons are to time consuming to be practical.

Tip on the MAQS. According to the label it has a fairly short shelf life. That temperature thing cropping up and should be stored below 70°F. It off gasses easily. Well straight from a company rep, the colder it's stored the less offgas. Keep it in the freezer. Oh and buy fresh product from a high volume dealer that has fresh product.

I tried 3 out last year still have one and a daughter of another. Like them very calm and good brood producer's.

I've ran them. Good queens, I was impressed with them but unfortunately the hygienic traits are based on genetic recessives and daughter queens aren't so hygienic unless you raise them in drone saturated areas with hygienic traits. I later confirmed that with Dr Spivak herself.

Minnesota Hygienics got a bad rap in some circles because of this. When they were first introduced many producers bought breeders and sold open mated daughters leaving a bad taste in some folks mouths. If I were to get this stock again I'd search out one of the few producers that Dr Spivak handed off her stock to when the university got out of it.

great post thanks

I am in my 7th year of beekeeping and self taught. In that time, I've lost 2 hives and have NEVER treated my bees with any type of chemical. Granted, I don't have a lot of hives (10) but I have people asking me all the time what I'm doing and why my losses are so low. Some of my fellow beekeepers call me the "bee whisperer" poking fun at me because I seem to have a natural talent at successfully overwintering bees. There are lots of resources out there, lots of opinions, and lots of experts... Let your bees teach you is the best advice I can give...