My father used to take care of bees as a teenager, he told me that we seem to have freshly hatched hives which need to thrive a little more. And one hive is slightly more populated than the other (I have already mentioned in a post before that from observation one seems more ‘active’ than the other).
There was a varroa prophylactic cardboard which was inserted between the frames in each hive.
We did not see any varroa.
Since it’s may, and we’re considered in ‘late’ flowering seasons (which begins around February in Lebanon). My father suggested that we put a feeder with some syrup ( 2 : 1 sugar to water with some salt and camomille).
I’m waiting for my syrup to cool down I’ll show the shape of my feeder (it’s an extra frame you put on top of the hive).
Finally, I would like to thank you for reading this far and taking interest in my beekeeping experience.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you guys (especially Peter and Eva).
See ya.
Ah, I forgot to mention something, in the ‘more populated’ beehive there seemed to be around 7 cells of drone brood. I don’t know if it means anything or it’s just normal, anyway I’ll post a picture of it.
I tried to see if there was nectar in the cells but need a closer photo. I would expect to see more capped brood as your near to Summer so maybe they need some feeding to build up in numbers. Feeding syrup will stimulate the queen to lay more eggs, no harm in feeding them syrup and keep it going till the bees are finding enough nectar and they will leave the syrup. If your strong hive is really strong you could take a frame of capped brood and put that in the weaker hive and an empty frame from the weak hive into the strong hive so that in a week or two both hives are about equal in bees.
Cheers
There are some nectar cells but there aren’t many. Unfortunately I have no photos of the nectar cells.
I’ll try feeding the bees for now and wait and see what happens.
But there isn’t this big of a discrepancy between the 2 hives but if I notice a big enough change in number then switching the brood frames will be an awesome idea. Thank you Peter
Thanks for all the photos Joe! I agree with Peter about feeding, good you are already prepared with equipment. Your nectar flow might be good but because the hive populations are still a bit low, they can’t do enough foraging to keep up. I’ve never heard of using camomile and salt in sugar water - how intriguing! But it sounds like it could be beneficial, could you ask your dad to tell us about it?
Thank you Eva for your feedback !
Yes Eva, concerning the nectar flow you have a point the more the population grows the more they’ll store nectar so let’s wait and see.
Concerning the Camomille (some may use thymn leaves) it might help to control mites, and for the salt we just add a pinch just to give the bees some extra minerals that might also help.
Hello joe.Im from lebanon and I just started beekeeping. Maybe we can help each other. I live in Batroun and if you want to hit me up my number is 76107830.
Ok great, what’s your name ?
My name is Alexandre Nahry
Nice to meet you Alexandre.
I’ll be posting any noteworthy updates of my beehives on this thread. You’re welcome to share anything too if you want.
Ok no problem. I actually posted on this forum just minutes ago if you could help me out with my problem.
This is awesome, so cool to see people connect! Just a tip, be careful to use the private message feature when deciding to share your digits - regular forum users won’t bother you but there is the occasional bot or scammer around 
Yes eva you are right. I shouldnt be so open on a public forum.
All good hopefully! And welcome to the forum by the way 
Hello Peter, I hope you’re having a nice day.
I checked my hives today and they both seem to do well : good brood patterns, some capped honey, larva etc … I even witnessed a bee coming out of its cell !
Anyway, I looked for nectar and it seemed to be more than last time, and next to the nectar I found brownish/mustard color cells of pollen too.
So thank you Peter for pointing out this to me last time.
P.S : I didn’t notice any varroa.
Excellent news Joe, it all sounds good that the hives are going well.
Do a bit or research into doing a ‘sugar shake’ for testing for varroa mites, it seems the most popular way of testing numbers. Australia is so lucky that we don’t have it here yet.
Cheers
Well noted, I’ll look the ‘sugar shake’ up.
Thank you Peter.
Peter I just learned about the technique it seems to be pretty efficient to spot varroa. However, given that my hives so far seem to be clear of any mites, I don’t want to bother my bees or put them into stress if there’s no need to.
But in case I ever suspect anything, I think I will adopt the sugar shake.
Again Peter, thanks for the great suggestion .
Testing and treating for mites becomes a major part of beekeeping anywhere the mites have invaded. The sugar shake method is good but not as reliable as the alcohol wash method. The alcohol unfortunately will kill your sample of bees, but you will see the most accurate number of mites. Many new beeks believe that they don’t have a problem because they haven’t seen them, but if you do begin to see them on bees’ bodies easily with your naked eyes, the infestation is already critical and your bees are most likely to become overwhelmed by weakness and disease. Here is an article describing the alcohol wash and some other key points for beekeepers in areas where varroa mites are prevalent:
Here’s more about using oxalic acid towels or pads inside the hive, as opposed to vaporizing the OA - the latter has been a very effective mite treatment used by many beekeepers - the towel or pad method of delivery is being tested and developed further:
Yes Eva you’re right, I should be more vigilant regarding this matter especially as you said that once we see the mites with our bare eyes it’s already kind of late.
I will read the 2 articles, thank you for providing them.
On a bright side, when I bought the hives (and as I have mentioned before), there already were 2 prophylactic cardboard tainted with I don’t what exactly to repel varroa.
My father suggested we bring some new cardboard to repel the mites as a prophylactic so we can date them and do a more exact follow up.
So what do you think, updating my prophylactic cardboards or sacrificing some bees in an alcohol/sugar wash ?