looks great in beekeeping catalogs, but not my style

I want to maximize my beekeeping experience, do no harm, and keep only the essential set of beekeeping gadgets. Catalogs, in general, display colorful items that look so pretty/exciting/unique/flashy/nice.   Sometimes the gadget evaluation requires more than my imagination, but actual experience.  Here is a short list of items that look great in beekeeping catalogs, but after testing in my backyard (in-town Atlanta apiary) are just not my style:

• leather bee gloves
• bee brush
• boardman entrance feeder
• hive top feeder
• pollen substitute

I am not saying that a particular gadget is harmful or bad.  Yeah, it is embarrassing to admit that I purchased all these items, oh well.

small hive beetle sizes

AJ Beetle Eaters contents are logged for several weeks in side-by-side hives.   After emptying the AJ Beetle Eaters on to white paper, a log is kept of 1) the number of adult beetles and 2) length of each adult beetle (nearest millimeter). Sounds easy, eh?  It's messy, oily, and the clubbed beetle antennae can complicate the length measurement.

Do the adult small hive beetle populations change over time?

• Probably in response to cooler fall weather, less adult small hive beetles are captured over time
  
• I'm surprised--the hives maintain their unique small hive beetle size profile over time

How do the hives differ?

• Hive A is weaker (less flight activity) than hive B
  
• Hive A is younger (swarm capture) and hive B is older (early spring nucleus hive)
• Hive A has larger beetles than hive B.   Perhaps weaker (less flight activity) hives offer more small hive beetle treats (nutrition).

Unanswered questions:
When does the small hive beetle population peak?  Had I started the log sooner, then I could have captured the small hive beetle population peak.  Oh well, something for next year.  I'll wait for a further decline of the small hive beetle numbers before offering tasty (to small hive beetles) dry MegaBee pollen substitute to the bees.

2009 wish list

Where does reading get me? Reading about bees is very satisfying and builds my vocabulary, but how much is appropriate to the tiny Atlanta in-town apiary? I mostly rely on listening to my Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association (MABA) friends, re-reading Keith Delaplaine's book "First Lessons in Beekeeping" and of course trying to learn from my mistakes. Here is my 2009 wish list:

• Running two AJ Beetle Eaters (+vegetable oil) per box, not one per hive as in 2008
• Purchasing nematodes (Southeast Insectary in Perry 877 967 6777) for spring SHB treatment
• Replacing concrete blocks with new hive stands that lift the hives higher and let more light reach the ground
• Painting a unique entrance for each hive as described in The Buzz about Bees by Jürgen Tautz
• Trying a bucket syrup feeder and certainly repeating the baggie feeding
• Purchasing more queen excluders and running a single deep brood chamber, not two as in 2008
• Trying a queen marking kit and practicing on a few drones
• Purchasing swarm traps (+lures), not the reactive ladder based swarm capturing as in 2008
• Trying MegaBee served dry using a bird (meal worm) feeder--no protein served in 2008
• Trying SuperBoost brood pheromone during the summer
• Trying Honey B Healthy (+water) for front entrance boardman feeding--not letting the neighbor water my bees using their salt water system swimming pool as in 2008

Why am I changing so many variables--not very scientific? My goal in 2009 is to reduce the SHB population and cover the single deep brood chamber with lots of bees during the summer SHB strength.