They are closed on Tuesdays. They’re located in Littleton but I’m sure there’s a beekeeping supply store that’s closer to you. I bought a two treatment package for $20. You can save one of the treatments for next year.
Thank You
I appreciate your help on this!
Bill
Who advised you to get two brood boxes with your flow hive. No one told me to get two and now I wished I did.
Bill
In my conversations with my beekeeping mentor as well as via the research I’ve done. I see a few hives in my neighborhood that have a box over their brood box for honey storage. My bees don’t have enough honey stores unfortunately so I’ve taken the flow super box and converted it to a feeder box. They’re being fed a lot now: 2:1 syrup (I gave them a gallon yesterday) and I’ll add a winter patty too when it warms up on Tues or Wed. I’m not sure they’ll make it through the winter but I’m hopeful. Are you feeding your bees? Did you do the mite treatment?
Yes I did the mite treatment and did not see any mites.
My I have put in a protein patty and will put in a candy block for the winter.
I hope the wrap I used get them thru this storm. It was not a conventional wrap but a home made one.
I plan on adding another brood box next spring to the hive.
Bill
You’re lucky you had no mites. I had a ton but no indication they were there! I’ll wrap my hive when we have a longer stretch of cold weather but I did add some insulation to get them through this spell.
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Do you have your hive wrapped now?
I got a candy board to help the bees thru the winter.
Let me know how your hive is doing.
Give a call if you have questions.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Sorry for the delay; I wasn’t watching my personal email (it’s been super busy and exhausting lately at work) and didn’t see your email. I just went to Lowes today and bought insulation to wrap my hive. They only had huge sheets but then I was lucky to find a few small 2’ x 2’ pieces for $6 each. Bought two. Measured my hive and am cutting the insulation now. Will add tomorrow afternoon. The insulation is about 1" thick and is called Green Guard. I hope it’s not too thick, honestly. Will keep in place with a strap. I’ve been watching a few overwintering youtube videos and beekeepers are using either tar paper or insulation.
I’m not exactly sure when most beekeepers start to wrap their hives but my fellow beekeeper friend in Denver hasn’t done so yet. We have a warm week week after next so not sure if the insulation will stay on.
Have you wrapped your hive?
I’ve also been feeding the bees winter patties since I’m down to one box. There’s a lot of bees in there so I’m hoping they won’t swarm in the spring. Will add a second box once it starts to warm up.
Tell me what you’re doing, and hope to hear from you soon.
Genevieve
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Hello Genevieve,
I have had my hive wrapped for two weeks. I have a bee patty and a candy block in my hive. I have not opened the hive since I wrapped it. I will wait for a warm day to inspect. Since I have one brood box I added a super without the FlowHive frames for extra height so the wrap would work.
Let me know how things go.
Bill
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My hive is dead.
I treated for mites and wrapped the hive and they still died.
Bill
Please update us on the post-mortem so we can all learn from your experiences.
I was wax moth and a week hive into winter months.
Bill
Bill, so sorry to hear it. Typically the wax moths take over after the main cause of death is underway, when the colony is already weak. A strong colony doesn’t allow the moths to get such a foothold.
Colony death at this time of year is an indicator of varroa disease/weakening. The cold hits and the young ‘winter’ or ‘fat’ bees are not actually fat, having had mites on them since larval stages, sucking away their body fat and transmitting disease. You did say you treated for mites, so I wonder if it was just not well-timed or enough - this has happened to me 🥲
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Me too! The important thing is to try to learn from it, and modify our management for the next time
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Sorry to hear you experienced this as well.
I have a game plan for next spring, so I have a better hive going into the winter.
Bill
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Thank you! It was quite a while ago now. When I kept bees in the UK, we didn’t have a big Varroa problem. When we moved here, I believed the claims about “hygienic” bees not needing treating. Hmm, well, mine didn’t survive. So then I started treating but I was probably too late the first time. Finally I got it right for me. Right for you may be different, but it is incredibly important not to leave treatment too late, as both @Eva and @Doug1 have implied in their posts. Never, ever underrate Varroa, it truly is the “destructor”… 
When should you treat for Varrao?
In August or September ?
Bill
Maybe and maybe and maybe some other times too depending on your hive!
If we are talking about Oxalic Acid Vapor, I treat in February/March for overwintered hives. Three to seven doses at 5 day intervals, until the accelerated mite drop is below 25 on the core flute slider. Then I treat again as soon as I have removed my Flow super, which is about mid-July (this may be Apivar strips, depending on how high the counts are). I do a final OAV treatment in September/October.
I am looking into the cellulose sponge Oxalic Acid method for next year. I think in that case, I will place the first sponge in the hive in March, and the second in about August. The treatments last for a while, but they also take about 40 days to work, according to Randy Oliver, so it is important not to let the mite numbers build up before you start treating. 
If I install a package in the Spring (about April), I will let them get established for a couple of weeks, and then put a sponge in at that point.
I have a pretty good idea of another problem as well. No one advised me to have two brood boxes in cold weather climate. I only purchased a Flow Hive with one brood.
After talking to beekeepers and seeing what happened to my hive I can now see that two will help my chances of having a successful hive.
Bill
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