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Last Formic Pro Sale of 2021

Time to stock up on Formic Pro!

We have a batch of Formic Pro with sell by date of July 2021. We have set a deeply discounted sale price so all units will find a home (or hive) before that date!

Once Formic Pro is sold out this year, we may not have any more Formic Pro until spring 2022.

The sale price will be active as long as supplies last. We do not ship Formic Pro, so it can only be bought for “pick up at store” and you will need to pick it up before the end of July.

If you buy more than what you need for this year, you can store the leftover in the freezer for a long time. We just cannot sell the product past the sell-by date, but you can buy it and store it at low temperatures beyond that date.

Formic Pro is the only mite treatment that kills the mites even inside the capped brood cells. It can be used with honey supers on the hive.

This treatment has Organic Certification: https://nodglobal.com/organic-certification/

Formic Pro can be bought here: https://www.beemaniacs.com/product/formic-pro-strips/

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Sold out of live bees for the 2021 season

Thank you to all the beekeepers, experienced and new, that purchased bees through BeeManiacs.

This year we tried a couple of new suppliers.

The packages were high-quality and this new supplier had the highest queen successful introduction rate we ever experienced. The small number of queen issues where quickly resolved.

Nucs were pretty succesful too, with some issues on queen rearing down in California and new queen introduction. We will make adjustments for the 2022 season, as our goal is to have zero issues with nuc installations.

We should start taking live bee orders for the 2022 season in January or February, 2022

Packages
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New Products at BeeManiacs

We just added a couple of products to our store.

HopGuard 3

HopGuard® 3 is the new and improved generation! It comes in packs of 5 or 12 doses.

HopGuard® 3 Properties:

  • Naturally derived from hops,
  • No chemical residues,
  • Safe during honey flow,
  • Easy & effective,
  • Safe on bees – deadly on Varroa mites,
  • Easy – AND SAFE – to use

For more information follow this link: https://www.beemaniacs.com/product/hopguard-3/

Deep Frame Pro Feeder – 1.5 Gallons

We already had in stock the regular size 1 Gallon feeder, but some beekeepers wanted to add more feed on a single trip.

This Deep frame size (9 5/8″) inline feeder fits on a regular Deep size Langstroth box.

It’s 2 1/2″ wide and holds 1.5 gallons (it may take the space of 2 regular frames)

For more information follow this link: https://www.beemaniacs.com/product/deep-frame-pro-feeder-1-5-gallons/

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Package pickup schedule 2021 – Rain or shine

Please take extra precautions to transport the packages as they should not get wet and have rain in the forecast.

Please check your email since we have sent 11 email updates with information about the pickup schedule, transport tips, and installation recommendations.

Package pickup hours are from 7:30 am to 1:00 pm on Sunday, April 25 (for beekeepers that preordered bees)

The table below shows the suggested hours for picking up packages, based on which letter your name starts with. These are just suggestions to spread the number of cars during the whole pickup schedule, avoiding a traffic jam and longer wait times. If you cannot come at the recommended time, you can come at any time between 7:30 am and 1:00 pm.

For example, if your name is Lisa, we recommend that you come to pick up your packages between 10:30 and 11:00 am. 

Drive-Thru process

  1. You can enter BeeManiacs from the main entrance and head towards the Big Barn where the drive-thru line forms
  2. While in the line, a BeeManiacs employee will approach and ask for the name of the person that placed the order
  3. At that point, BeeManiacs staff will set your packages and any material you pre-ordered online at the pickup area
  4. Stay in the line and continue driving until you reach the pickup area (concrete area outside the Big Barn)
  5. You may now get out of your vehicle and load your bees/material
  6. To exit, continue driving around the garden and BeeManiacs store building until you reach the main road

Please note that our store remains closed for in-person visits. 

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New Items at the Store

Starter Kits

We usually recommend beekeepers to buy hive parts individually, picking and choosing the style and quality of parts that fit their beekeeping style.

On normal years new beekeepers attend a beekeeping class and after taking the class about hive material options, they can place the orders. Since COVID hit one year ago, many classes and meetings have been suspended.

To make things easier, we have created a couple of starter hive options that include the hive items needed for installing a package or a nuc of bees:

Live Bee Transport Mesh

Many of our customers transport their nucs or packages inside their cars.

To keep the bees locked in, while maintaining ventilation they need during transport, we have released this new mesh, which fits one nuc, or up to two packages:

High-Quality Plastic Nuc

The designers of this plastic nuc kit were able to add many features to improve over the traditional nucs.

The lid includes ventilation options, a couple of feeding connectors (for different bottles or jugs sizes), and locks to prevent the frames to rattle during transport (frame movement during transport kills bees).

The nuc is made of durable plastic and it doesn’t require painting.

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Formic Pro on Sale!

Time to stock up on Formic Pro!

We have a big batch of Formic Pro with sell by date of April 2021. We have set a deep discounted sale price so all units will find a home (or hive) before that date!

The sale price will be active as long as supplies last. We do not ship Formic Pro, so it can only be bought for “pick up at store” and you will need to pick it up before the end of April.

If you buy more than what you need for this spring, you can store the leftover in the freezer for a long time. We just cannot sell the product past the sell-by date, but you can buy it and store it at low temperatures beyond that date.

Formic Pro is the only mite treatment that kills the mites even inside the capped brood cells. It can be used with honey supers on the hive.

The 2-dose packs can be bought here: https://www.beemaniacs.com/product/formic-pro-strips/

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2021 Live Bees Available to Pre-order

You can start preordering bees for your 2021 season right now.

You can find information about packages and nucs on each product page and place an order or join a waitlist here:

https://beemaniacs.com/product-category/live-bees/

For 2021 we have (while supplies last) Carniolan and Italian packages and nucs.

At the time we write this post, nucs show as sold out for the 2021 season. We’d recommend you to order packages while they’re available. If you are only interested in nucs, we’d recommend that you sign up for the waitlist, since we may be able to get a second batch of nucs this season.

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Join the Waitlist for 2021 live bees!

You can start signing up for the waitlist on the live bees for the 2021 season right now.

You can find some information about packages and nucs on each product page and join a waitlist here:

https://beemaniacs.com/product-category/live-bees/

You will be able to enter your email address and the website will send you a notification as soon as the 2021 season live bees become available for pre-order (you can decide if placing the order or not at that time).

Live bee sales would become available in early 2021 and we will have limited quantities. Pre-orders will be first-come-first-served.

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Time to Treat for Mites!

It’s very important to treat your bee colonies for varroa mites before they make their “winter bees” at the end of the season.

Varroa mites feed on larvae and cause honey bees to have shorter lifespans. If your colony raises winter bees while they have mites in the hive, those winter bees will not survive through the whole winter. As bees die earlier, the winter cluster gets smaller and at some point, the colony doesn’t have enough bees to keep warm through winter (even though they may have plenty of honey nearby, they cannot reach it because the cluster is too cold).

If you still have honey supers on top of the hive, we recommend Formic Pro Strips or Hopguard, as they can be used while you have honey supers on.

If you already removed supers you can still treat for mites with the same two products or even use Oxalic Acid.

Formic Pro is more convenient for the beekeepers that have one to 10 hives, with Oxalic acid becoming more convenient for beekeepers with more hives.

This link will take you to the section of of the online store that shows the products and tools we have available: https://beemaniacs.com/product-category/bee-health/