Bees get last dose of Api Life Var for 2012

The weather on Sunday was not pleasant, it also looks like its going to be wet and windy for the next couple of days.

I applied the last dose of Api Life Var which I did successfully, even though it was raining. I had no choice really the treatment must be applied every seven days and this was the last dose.The reason for the regularity is, if you can hit the varroa mites every week for 4 weeks you are attacking the varroa for the entire justation period of a bee; from when the egg is laid to when it emerges from it cell. If the varroa mite can be reduced for this period then the new bees that emerge have time to develop and should be stronger to fight of the any varroa that are still in the hive.

Bees are never happy when you enter the hive when its raining. I entered all three hives and to my surprise the bees wern't that aggressive, even though it was raining lightly. The fondant that I gave them last week has been greatly reduced, I would guess that about 3 kgs of the fondant has been eaten. I may need to get more fondant this year.

The orchard is pretty quite the leaves are begining to to fall and I reckon that in a couple of weeks all the leaves will have fallen from the trees. I have also seen large amounts of horse poo in the orchard. It looks like the horses from the stables have been getting into the ochard. They seem to keep themselves to the far end. It's worrying, but they seem to have kept to the grass and not touched any of the trees. I need to talk to the stables owners and find out whats been going on. In reality I don't mind the horses eating the grass, it will bring it down, as it has grown out of control. However they should not touch the trees. I would hate to lose any growth on the trees.

I also worry about the horse poo, I would prefer bovine manure in the orchard and at this point I do not want to build fencing around the trees. Perhaps in a couple of years I will get sheep and they will keep the grass down.