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I've had thousands every year, but not counted exactly becuase at some point it's just "need to treat". It makes me despair. In my first year I attributed that to not putting on Apiguard until late Aug, which nearby beekeepers do but wouldn't have been above the temperature threshold by the end...

I have my varroa inspection boards in most the time, at a low position, so I can get some idea of what's going on without opening up the hive. At times like now when the bees are bringing in a lot of pollen, I see a large number of dropped loads on the board. I'm wondering if walking on the mesh...

In my (limited) experience and understanding, the total number of mites falling is not relevant - it's what they level off at that's important. If you get hundreds of mites initially but the counts level off at 10 per day then you still have a problem according to NBU advice, but if you only got...

Thanks for that. My late August Apiguard failed last year so I put it on mid-August this year. It still failed even though it was well above 15 degrees at least for the first tray. Reading that encourages me to abandon Apiguard and try something else.

Sorry if this is posted somewhere else that I didn't spot. I'm not currently a member of BIBBA but they have a series of webinars which it seems that anyone can register to view. https://bibba.com/webinars/ You can either watch live, or watch the video afterwards. I found the first one useful...

I've read lots of information about uniting colonies using the newspaper method. However, I haven't found anything about the need for a super containing stores for the bees above the paper. If the brood box has hardly any stores, wouldn't they need a separate food supply to keep them going while...

I've used Maisie's "rock bottom" hives which are available outside sale time. I can sometimes see why they are seconds but I haven't had anything I can't use, and for the cost saving I'd always go for those if I want wood not poly.

Thanks beeno. I have seen some pollen going in now so hopefully that's them sorted just slightly slower than yours.

Yes, that's correct but they were split five days ago so I will destroy all but one queen cell in each in 2 days time. (Queen in nuc has frame of stores and frame of brood, mostly sealed when I put it in, and drawn comb plus one frame of foundation as I didn't have any more drawn. Also with...

I didn't go into that because I didn't think it was relevant to my question. The queen is in a nuc and the original and new hives, created from a double brood split, have queen cells. They will be checked a week from the split to leave just one queen cell per hive.

I split my hive last week and I only have one site so I knew the foragers from the new hive would return to the hive in the original position (which can't be moved). I shook in extra frames of bees to help make up for this, and gave them syrup in addition to the frames of stores. Until...

I've had that problem and largely solved it by putting a "skirt" of the mesh I use to protect my brassicas from butterflies around the base of the hive.

I initially thought I couldn't vapourise because the equipment was too expensive but then I found a basic vapouriser for £18 on Ebay (new). May not be the best but it's allowed multiple treatments this winter after my late summer Apiguard treatment failed and the colony wasn't going broodless...

Here's a paragraph copied from NBU North East Region 2019 Season Overview which I think it relevant: "Reports from around the regionfrom the inspectorshave givenme reason for concern, many of you are using Sugar dusting as your main or only form of Varroa control. The inspectors havereported on...

I bought one (new) from ebay for about £30 because I thought I would be only using it rarely and not handling bees myself. I actually turned out to be doing more than I expected but the suit has been fine so far. I'm sure its limitations will become apparent with greater use but if you really...

jenkinsbrynmair - I did count every mite. The total is made up of multiple counts - I didn't have 2000 on the board at once. I have a vaseline-coated correx board and can easily scrape the mites off and re-coat with vaseline between counts. I thought all oxalic acid treatments were done when...

Another newbie question... On 29 Aug I put in a tray of Apiguard. Just a few dry crystals were left after a fortnight and I put a second tray in. I removed that 17 Oct and there was still some gel left, despite me stirring it a few times as per the instructions. In the time the Apiguard was in...

Thank you. The more I read the more I do fret!

Back when I had the inspection board in for varroa monitoring, I noticed there was what seemed like a lot of pollen on it, at the entrance end. I made the mesh floor from a mesh inner cover that I'd been given so I'm wondering if that mesh is unsuitable and somehow causing the bees to lose their...

Thanks very much - that's all reassuring.