2 Comments

1. 

   In your bee video, you mention that you didn’t want to give your bees antibiotics. I’ve never heard of that. I’m a natural bee keeper, mine don’t even get foundation. I never add chemicals of any sort. Is antibiotic use on bees common in your area?
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     Sylvia,
     Thank you for your question, please excuse my late reply. Our family of 4 farm is now down to one as kids are grown, and husband travels for work. So unfortunately, this fell by the wayside. Yes, when we got into bees it was common practice to feed antibiotics, not just for commercial keepers, but small beekeepers as well. In fact, when we purchased our first packages, we were told “we needed antibiotics”. We chose not to, and when the kids and I would volunteer at local festivals in the bee booth, I was always surprised how using antibiotics was common practice. It has since been ruled that a beekeeper must have a prescription from a local vet. But in talking to other beekeepers, I don’t think they fared any better with overwintering hives, and perhaps worse, than we did without antibiotics.