Viewing post #1153528 by GardenGoober

Mindy03 said:We don't treat our hives anymore either. The bees are doing fine. We have lost hives due to cold winters and sometimes they got sick during the spring thaw but no mite problems so far.

I did a search on the active ingredients in the mite medicines offered. Only seen two with ingredients I recognized as natural ones in two of them. They both had thymol. The second one also had menthol and eucalyptol and camphor. The study I read said the extra ingredients didn't seem to make much difference than the one with just thymol.
So I'm wondering if planting thyme which the bees do visit when in bloom would help?

Good observation. Although so far, so good, I'm going to plant some thyme.

Mindy03 said:Tori it's only expensive if you keep adding to the bee yard

So true!! lol.

Mindy03 said:It is true most bees like to travel to find their food but I have found that certain plants attract them in the yard every year.
Lavender
Crocus
Sunflowers
Blue hyacinth
are the most visited in my yard every year without fail unless I don't have them growing

I have lavender ... and privet (which they seem to be fond of) and tulip poplars (but I don't know if they visit them since they're so high up). I scattered some raw sunflowers seeds but I'm pretty certain the birds ate them up. I love Hyacinth. I planted a bulb that's been in my garage for a couple of years. Pulled it out of the garage and set it on the porch with the intention of planting it and it started coming up but that won't be blooming till next year. Still working on amending the soil (clay/rock) so I can plant more bee-friendly stuff.