Starting over again for the fourth time

[Robo]

This one works for me.  Every time I bought a new queen I quickly graft daughters from her.  This will allow the local genetics to mix in.  Having local bees will help stabilize your hive faster.  Overwintering should not be an issue either if you have a healthy bee population without the mites.  These are the local adapted bees!  Try to get to the 4th generation if you can.

I like your approach but with a few concerns.

Depending on the area one is located there may be more non-local stock then local.   In our area, they bring in 4000 packages of bees from the south each year.   Not to mention all the commercial pollinators we have coming  in for apples.

When I first read this I somehow assumed you were talking packages, but after re-reading I see that is not the case.  The other concerns where related to package strength, etc....

So do you dispatch your purchased queen after grafting from her?  I know a lot of folks would have issue doing that.

[beepro]

To answer your question, no.   Keep the bought queens for brood factory supplying your
locally reared queen production hives.    If they die then requeen otherwise keep them for another season or 2.  Why waste good
resource?   But don't let them make the drones.   Instead donate drones from the local bee stock.  I keep them in small nuc hive.

Each beekeeper's location and bee stocks are unique to their bee environment.   After the almonds run the carnis bees are back.  Right
before the almonds run they are not near my apiary.   Using the Cordovan bees as genetic markers, I'm able to discover this little local
bee secret.   During this time is when I get to keep my local stock uncontaminated with their undesirable stock.  Also during this time when
they are at the almonds that I rear my own local queens.   This way my Italians bees are safe and not diluted with their stock--local carnis is 95%.  The
window of opportunity to rear good local Italians queens only happen 2 months out of the year unless I somehow flood my local DCAs with my local
Italians stock.  Until then I have to work with what is open during the early Spring days here.   
To solve your Southern bee issue you have to either find this window of opportunity like I did or move your hives to an isolated yard to rear your own
 local queens.   I'm happy that I'm able to maintain my Italians bees this season.   If not then I have to find another bee yard to keep my local bees.  So have you identify your local queen rearing opportunity yet?   Maybe when they move the southern bees away.  You have to find out for yourself.   Local beekeeping is always a unique situation.

[Troutdog]

Nope, into my 6th year of beekeeping I'm still consider a newbie.  This is because I have not learn all and experimented all on this hobby.  As long as I'm still learning and not feel comfortable in keeping the bees alive without much intervention then I'm a newbie. 
For your situation I would advise on doing some swarm control to keep the mites to a minimum.  To do this take a hive that is about to swarm and brush off all the attaching bees from the cap brood frames into the original hive.  Original hive will be fill with the drawn frames without the cap broods. Then donate the cap brood frames into another active hive.  This will remove 90% of the mites from the original hive. 
In the original hive you will have drawn comb to replace the cap brood frames taken away.  Now with the original queen and her bees in place they will restart the colony with new broods in the drawn comb.  This will take the mites out of the hive and stop the swarming in the process.  The queen will lay new eggs to replenish this colony.  If you want a 100% mite free colony then take 1 frame of developing brood about to be cap from another colony without the attaching bees into this hive.  All the remaining free running mites will go into these cap broods within a few day.  Doing so will remove many of the mites from the hive.  Repeat this for other hives as well.  Also do a mite check on every bee emergence cycle to give you an idea of the infestation.
When these mite free hives are booming then graft queens from them.  Repeat this process for at least 2-3 generation.  That means once the new queens are laying choose the one with the most solid laying pattern to graft.  Repeat this from the grand daughter queen to source the local bees genetics.  Better than the package queens that are treated most of the time.  So it does not matter where you source the original package bees from just graft at your location to get the local bees genetics.  Without this your package bees will not survive that well in the winter time.  Only the local bees can survive your cold  and snowy winter!
During the winter time pack this hive with lots of new winter bees to ensure their winter survival.  Give them plenty of food like sugar bricks and high protein patty subs for the winter.  Put wind proof material around the hive in the winter time.  Also try to source the tf queens or survival queens for genetic diversity on your bee yard.
For future expansion you can also use some new drawn comb so add some for them to draw out also.

Never give high protein in winter.
Best use dry pollen substitute in a feeder if they need it.
Winter is the mother of brood breaks why stim brood rearing in dec or jan.
I'm in the north so my winters are longer than most here.

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[GSF]

Hey Flex,

Sorry to hear about your losses and it's good to see you're still swinging! At the sake of repeating a lot of what has been said I'd like to throw a couple thoughts out there.

There's a saying down here in the south. The biggest killers of bees are mites and starvation. I have always used OAV for treating my bees in the late summer to early fall. I vaporize once every seven days for 3-4 times. (probably an overkill) I don't remember the last time I saw a deformed wing. I tweaked Lori's fortified syrup to my liken and found out it is no less than awesome! Thanks Lori - who ever you are :) One of the ingredients is vitamins and electrolytes plus by Agri-labs. This alone does so much for the health of the hive it's hard to believe. A friend of mine looked at it and explained what all those minerals and vitamins did for the workers and for the queen. I started out with 33-35 hives this spring. I sold 13 whole hives, 12 nucs, lost about 10 swarms and now I have 40+ colonies that are packed with bees - except for a few small after swarms. If you can't find Lori's formula let me know. Once I'm on the home computer I'll post my tweak of it. There's got to be something to it. I'm also convinced that I'm in a good area.

[Ben Framed]

Hey Flex,

Sorry to hear about your losses and it's good to see you're still swinging! At the sake of repeating a lot of what has been said I'd like to throw a couple thoughts out there.

There's a saying down here in the south. The biggest killers of bees are mites and starvation. I have always used OAV for treating my bees in the late summer to early fall. I vaporize once every seven days for 3-4 times. (probably an overkill) I don't remember the last time I saw a deformed wing. I tweaked Lori's fortified syrup to my liken and found out it is no less than awesome! Thanks Lori - who ever you are :) One of the ingredients is vitamins and electrolytes plus by Agri-labs. This alone does so much for the health of the hive it's hard to believe. A friend of mine looked at it and explained what all those minerals and vitamins did for the workers and for the queen. I started out with 33-35 hives this spring. I sold 13 whole hives, 12 nucs, lost about 10 swarms and now I have 40+ colonies that are packed with bees - except for a few small after swarms. If you can't find Lori's formula let me know. Once I'm on the home computer I'll post my tweak of it. There's got to be something to it. I'm also convinced that I'm in a good area.

I hope you don't mind my chiming in, but I sure would like that formula!! Sound conviencimg !! Thanks .Phillip Hall

[beepro]

I live in a mild winter area in zone 9b with a semi-desert like condition.  The day and night time temp can
be 30-40F degree difference.  It is a bit cooler than zone 9a.   During our winter I can still raise broods with
stimulate feeding patty subs and sugar bricks.   These hives are headed by the late mated Autumn queens.  Over here I
can afford to raise the early Spring and late Autumn queens taking advantage of the 2 mini flows we have every season.   There is no shortage of queens if I don't keep on killing them on accident.   What the OP need is a proven bee program that fit into his local bee environment.   In another word find a niche that
will enable his bees to survive the winter there.   Without a bee program in place he cannot adjust to his bee environment when the yearly weather fluctuate.  As our climate change more and more it will be harder to raise his bees without such a program already in place.  My bee program is already set all I have to do is to follow it every season and make adjustment according to our local weather when it changes.   Every year it is going to be a bit different from now on.   Do you already have a bee program that you can follow successfully each and every year?   If not then it is time to think about it more.   

[GSF]

Benframed, I'll try to get that to you tonight. Once again I got home and had two swarms to deal with. Although I started the season out with 25-35 extra supers and all the extras, I am now almost down to my last super. I'm having to build tops, inner covers, spacers for feeding, and bottom boards every time I catch a swarm. I'm not complaining - just whining..,

[GSF]

I found it on my ipad. I tried to keep this at an exact science for a couple of years, then I realized close enough is close enough;


1 teaspoon "vitamins and electrolytes plus"(mfd by agrilabs) per 3 or 4 quarts, sometimes more.
1 teaspoon organic apple cider vinegar per quart
1 teaspoon "real" lemon juice per quart
(my wife's measuring spoons)
1 smidgen ascorbic acid per 4-5 quarts
1 pinch citric acid per 4-5 quarts.
water/sugar = 1/1


I've always read don't let your sugar get scorched or it will kill the bees. I mean I've read that a lot. I can't say one way or the other if it's truth. The apple cider vinegar helps adjusts the ph of the sugar water to prevent nosema, the real lemon juice (and maybe the ascorbic acid as well) adds more vit C which I understand helps to keep viruses at bay, and enhances/helps(or something to the effect) the queens egg production. The vitamins and electrolytes plus pretty much provides a phone booth for Clark Kent to change in. From my understanding it's an atomic bomb of health for the bees. With bees it's about numbers and feeling good. They can do much more with a lot of bees in the colonies. However if those bees don't feel a hundred percent they aren't going to perform at a hundred percent. Kinda like when we get a small cold. Hope this helps

[beepro]

Cool, a super charged sugar syrup!   I don't feed any vitamin to my bees.   They are too overly active already that I
scare they might sting me one day.   Do vitamins make the bees too edgy?   Some kids on too much sugar will become hyper.