colony loss

[pbh4]

yes exactly. i lost last Autumn my 4 strongest colonies. the system goes so that they were huge hives
. They had much mites too. In those hives there was a brood brake in late summer.
When a new queen started to lay, mites rushed to winter brood. A huge mite load destroyed hives and I knew nothing at once.

Finman,

That is interesting. I have read elsewhere about a brood break being used to control varroa. The system described at http://www.mdasplitter.com/docs/OTS.pdf advocates making the colony queenless during the main honey flow to increase yield (the bees are supposed to concentrate on bringing in nectar rather than brood rearing). The broodless period is said to break the mites' breeding pattern and leave the colony stronger going into winter. You seem to be suggesting the opposite.

Paul

 

[Erichalfbee]

If there has been a break in brood and there are mites on the bees as soon as brooding begins it's seems obvious that all those mites will dive under the cappings. A sensible time to sacrifice that first frame?

 

[Hivemaker.]

A sensible time to sacrifice that first frame?

A sensible time to treat the bees, while they are broodless.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes, that's probably what I would do but some people don't like to treat with oxalic

 

[Hivemaker.]

No need to use oxalic.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I was just going to edit my post...you beat me to it.
I had a colony with a brood break and they had one week of Apivar.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I have many that are broodless after the heather flow,three or four days of thymol treatment works well.