AS for varroa control

[aberreef]

Despite autumn and winter treatment (thymol and oxalic) and application of Hiveclean for several weeks, my hive still has a high mite count and quite alot of DWV.

With this in mind I've decided I'll do an AS to try to sort things out before the summer 've read through the DEFRA varroa leaflet and the AS seems like the best way to procede. I plan to move the hive 4m away as advised but can only go in front or behind the original hive due to space restrictions.

My questions:-
What should I use to treat the bees after the AS and how long should I leave before treating?
How do I treat the bees in the original hive before reuniting? I'm figuring I need to get them all out of the supers and allow all the brood to hatch first.
When I come to reunite, I'm planning to put the old BB on top of the supers on the AS with paper to seperate. Does this sound right?


Any other tips would be most welcome. This is my first time doing an AS, last year I used demarree for swarm control. I checked he hive yesterday and no signs of swarm cells, I just need to sort the varroa DWV issues

Cheers
Huw

 

[Tom Bick]

What is your Varroa drop and over how many days have you monitored

 

[aberreef]

What is your Varroa drop and over how many days have you monitored

Staggeringly high unfortunately. Through the active season so far the daily drop has been in excess of 15. Following Hiveclean, the drop rate rises to the hundreds and when the weather turned for the worst my bees stopped laying for a few weeks. I treated them during this period and had drops numbering close to a thousand

Last week, following treatment, only 50 or so mites dropped.

The brood area is now back to 8 frames of sealed brood but I noted probably 30-50 workers with deformed wings yesterday and could see a few mites on some of the bees.

The problem with the hiveclean is that, although it is effective in killing the mites on adult bees, is that it doesn't touch those in sealed cells. I believe these are hatching out and reinfecting the hive with their mite load.

 

[Luminos]

My mentor suggested I put an empty super frame in the brood box, and the bees build drone comb on the bottom, so that when it is sealed, it can be cut off and disposed of.

 

[Tim1606]

My mentor suggested I put an empty super frame in the brood box, and the bees build drone comb on the bottom, so that when it is sealed, it can be cut off and disposed of.

This is what I do in all my brood boxes as part of my pest management.

 

[MJBee]

You can use the AS manipulation to seriously dent varroa numbers.

Make sure that the frame you transfer the queen on has open brood (eggs/larvae). As this frame is the only brood initially a lot of the varroa will use it to mate. Once the queen is laying and this frame is sealed it can be removed and culled. That takes care of the Q+ side.

After 25 days all the brood will have emerged in the Q- side. The queen will have emerged but even if she has mated she will not be laying so the introduction of a frame of larvae at this stage will attract most of the varroa and can be removed and destroyed as soon as it is sealed. That is the Q- side sorted.

 

[aberreef]

You can use the AS manipulation to seriously dent varroa numbers.

Make sure that the frame you transfer the queen on has open brood (eggs/larvae). As this frame is the only brood initially a lot of the varroa will use it to mate. Once the queen is laying and this frame is sealed it can be removed and culled. That takes care of the Q+ side.

After 25 days all the brood will have emerged in the Q- side. The queen will have emerged but even if she has mated she will not be laying so the introduction of a frame of larvae at this stage will attract most of the varroa and can be removed and destroyed as soon as it is sealed. That is the Q- side sorted.

Great advice. Thank you

Something I may have read wrong on the leaflet (may have been elsewhere) was to move the queen without a frame of brood and to 'trap' her in the BB by placing a QE beneath the box. Is this a good idea?

 

[MJBee]

Both methods are OK but I prefer 1 frame of brood because:-

a. It allows the culling of varroa and

b. The presence of brood is less stressful for the bees.

c. Finding the queen and then carefully transferring the frame she is on ensures minimum risk of damage/injury.

 

[oliver90owner]

A quick dose of thymol under the right condtions will knock down the phoretic mites without resorting to disposal of full frames of brood. Followed by forking out the first patch of sealed brood will have the same effect on the mites as losing two full frames of brood - and she may be laying over more than one frame, so really needs to be trapped on a single frame.

Consideration needs to be given to any honey supers, of course.

RAB

 

[Polyanwood]

I am using hivemaker's thymol oasis treatment on all our collected swarms as an experiment. I let them settle down for a couple of days, as I don't want them to abscond immediately, and then I apply it. I was worried that it would stop the virgins mating and stop them laying, but it doesn't seem to affect them adversely.