Two beekeepers inspect hives using a pine-needle smoker and HopGuard, a mite control product made from brewing hops. They place natural mite strips in each box, noting that even non-toxic treatments disrupt bee communication, then consolidate frames to prepare for winter.
Hey everybody, I'm getting ready to go into my hives here. Got my smoker going with some good pine needles. Pine tends to make a little bit more smoke, and the smoke is used in case the bees are wanting to defend their hives and sting. It makes them retreat into the hive. I try to use the smoke sparingly because I think it's, it's actually While it calms the bees in terms of stinging and coming after you, it's actually, I think, panicking them, thinking there's a fire, and then they retreat into their hive. Anyway, it does help keep you from getting stung. I'm going in, and they are more prone to sting this time of year because they're protecting their honey stores. I use this right here called HopGuard. I don't use any chemicals to control mites in my my hives. Hop Guard is actually made from the same kind of hops that put in beer. Um, and, uh, and so there's my update. Um, time to, uh, go into my hives. See ya.
So you can see, this is after my mite treatment. These are the— those are the mite strips there. You're supposed to do 2 per box, and I'm taking out some of the empty frames, kind of concentrating the honey. I'll do that one more time before I— for wintertime. But you can see that, uh, you know, whenever you do a mite treatment, it makes it a little bit inhospitable for the bees. Again, the mite strips that I use are not toxic, they are natural, but still it is an agitating thing to the bees. It certainly disrupts their pheromone system. So anyway,
