Removing the Apistan Strips

Well its week seven and we planned to removed the Apistan strips this week, the plan was if this weekend was bad weather (which to be honest in this Auckland Winter that’s most weekends), we would remove them next weekend. But we woke this morning to a nice clear sky day with no rain predicated until tonight so we Carpe diem (seized the day) and removed the Apistan strips (two per brood box) Honey 1 is very busy with loads of coming and goings and Goldie was very quiet and has been for a while, I did think it was a dead hive. But opening up the hive we had a full cluster of bees in the upper brood box. So hopefully its all going to last until Spring. Honey 1’s Brood was clustered in the lower brood, both hives still have loads of food. I didn’t do a full inspection as I didn’t want to chill the hive, even thou its around 15 degrees at the moment here in the Waitakere hills. I removed one of the frames from Honey 1 which broke apart, must remember to glue all my frames. I replaced this with a ¾ frame from our stores to feed the bees. Sad to see the pile of Bees in front of Honey 1, fallen heroes of the hive that must have been expelled from the hive due to the winter weather. I also put in the inspection boards on both screened bottom boards and will check the mite count tomorrow. Hopefully the strips have made a difference to the mite count.