Deformed wing virus

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

clare

New Bee
Joined
Jul 30, 2010
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Location
East Devon
Hive Type
WBC
Number of Hives
2
Two hives all going fantastically well both working on their second super, but I found several bees in hive 1 with tiny chewed wings ... miserable looking . I used apivarlife (autumn) and OA (winter). I read a recent thread which suggested a shook swarm followed by OA syrup. There are just a few things I don't understand:

1. How do you make OA syrup?
2. What do I do with the supers?
3. If the infected bees are still present wont the virus persist, the process can't get rid of all of the varroa.
4. Is there an alternative? I have only seen Six or seven affected bees in a heaving hive. To be honest I find it heart breaking to destroy all the brood, all the hardwork. (this is the colony I started with this time last year, I will have to toughen up!)

Thanks for any help, Clare

Just an after thought. I kept my hives snug in inches and inches of kingspan all winter does this aid the mite population?
 
Last edited:
This sounds like a varroa problem have you done a mite count lately? you don't need to destroy all the brood try dusting with icing suger each time you inspect the colony this sould send the bees into cleaning mode so they knock of the mites which will take care of your problem
 
which will take care of your problem

The concensus of opinion is that sugar dusting is not much more useful than a chocolate teapot. With likely more than 80% of the mites hiding safely inside capped cells and steadily reproducing at the same time, it doesn't bode well for efficacy of the method.

RAB
 
So many opinions and so many solutions
all very well saying in your opinion it as much use a a chocolate teapot but you have not given a solution to the problem
Without knowing the mite drop per day we don't know how bad the problem is
Theres always going to be a amount of varroa in a colonly and past exserience has shown that dusting will eradicate the problem plus you can destroy any drone brood which the mites so say prefer to worker brood
If there is a major drop one of the other options is to treat with formic acid with the brood or do a shook swarm and treat with oxalic acid with out the brood
 
well

as it appears to be fools jump in where angels fear to tread day, i have a few ideas but not tried them:svengo:

i have had enough gin and Tonic not to care

if you are otherwise happy with the health of hive 1 then clear the super and transfer all the super and honey to hive 2

immediately do a shook swarm onto fresh foundation and treat with either purchased lactic acid spray or purchased oxalic acid ( dont make it yourself just buy it made up)

then if you want, clear the super on hive 2 and transfer back to hive one, then shook swarm hive 2

if you want to save brood, then you could try a Queenless dirty hive of all brood, treating it day 14 before any scrub cells hatch , you might get 50% emerge as you would get some chill brood , shook swarm it before supers next year
 
chickendave,

Please don't misquote. After all my post was not even on a different page.

I said concensus of opinion. I said not much more useful.

Let's get this straight - from how many hives have you eradicated the varroa problem with sugar dusting?

The FERA booklet on Varroa or downloading a copy from their internet site is a far better entry to IPM than a passing comment that sugar dusting will eradicate the varroa problem.

Frame trapping, drone culling, treating during the A/S procedure and others are all individually more useful than pouring icing sugar over the bees at every opportunity, but none will eradicate the problem. The problem is on-gouing and the whole range of IPm controls need to be used to keep the varroa under control.

Fitting a mesh floor might be a much more useful item to suggest before expecting these few varroa, dislodged by grooming, not to reinfest the very same bees in a very short time.
 
Oxalic acid/syrup trickling is for winter and when bees are clustering. The relatively small amount of syrup is intended to work over the bodies of the bees. Nowhere reputable is it suggested that OA/syrup trickling is used during the high point of the bee season. How many bees do you think will contact with syrup if you trickle it into a swarm ... not many.

Broodless bees can be treated with 15% lactic acid spray. It gives the higher coverage needed at this time of the year.
 
I saw sugar rolling/dusting recommended in a thread yesterday as being helpful towards getting rid of mites........Regular contributer....
 
The latest research says it is pretty much useless. (sugar dusting)

To eradicate is to remove totally. No treatment of any description can achieve that so....

Might the OP say what sort of mite drop the colony is suffering from?

PH
 
I saw sugar rolling/dusting recommended in a thread yesterday as being helpful towards getting rid of mites........Regular contributer....

Perhaps it was this one?

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10256

If so, it appears to be obviously beyond your comprehension to understand the difference between 'sugar rolling' and 'sugar dusting', and the not too subtle difference between the two situations.

I think there are some on the forum who would be better occupied reading and learning a bit about beekeping, then they may be able to understand replies to other posters.
 
Back to Clare's questions.

1. OA syrup would be the usual winter syrup dribble (100ml water, 100g sugar, 7.5g oxalic acid dihydrate - and no arguments anyone on the recipe please!).

2. You could perhaps shift the supers to another hive for a week or so while you treat?

3. Yes, the process will not rid the bees of all the Varroa. It will remove most, so virus levels will drop dramatically.

4. Me too. I wouldn't. Try some other way, perhaps Apiguard or if the colony hasn't already made much drone brood then trap and destroy Varroa in drone brood which they will build under super frames put in at each side of the brood nest. Not so effective if they already have scattered drone brood through the hive, but one alternative might be cutting out such sealed drone brood. The drone trapping should buy you time until the June gap when you can take off supers and use Apiguard or ApiLife Var. You might get away with doing nothing until the June gap. All this of course assumes that you will have a June gap - and this year in England it may start early.

Kingspan? No effect.

Powdered sugar. I'm with RAB. No useful effect - unless maybe if you apply after a shook swarm when broodless, but oxalic would be more effective.
 
No need to destroy all the brood to clear up a mite problem,do a A/S all under one roof,new box on bottom with drawn combs and any open brood,treat this box for 48 hours or so with thymol....parent colony on top of board with entrance to rear..treat this box until all brood has emerged...breaking down emergency cells after 10 days and adding frame of open brood and eggs from lower box,break down cells again after ten days and unite top box with bottom...also rake out any capped drone brood in top box.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions. I will have a short ponder and probably go for one of the less radical suggestions, rather than destroying all the brood. Hive maker I guess I have no option to employ your suggestion as the colony is in a WBC. Any way I could achieve the same effect?

One of the things I love about this forum is the willingness people have to share their ideas so generously. As I am just starting my second year it is all immensely valuable ( and I can see I will be needing help for the next 30 years or so until I get this beekeeping thing nailed!) Thank you Clare
 
I saw sugar rolling/dusting recommended in a thread yesterday as being helpful towards getting rid of mites........Regular contributer....

Perhaps it was this one?

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10256

If so, it appears to be obviously beyond your comprehension to understand the difference between 'sugar rolling' and 'sugar dusting', and the not too subtle difference between the two situations.

I think there are some on the forum who would be better occupied reading and learning a bit about beekeping, then they may be able to understand replies to other posters.

Like I said.... Somebody recommended sugar rolling/dusting... as I didnt have time to look up who or where, and I couldnt remember it if was rolling or dusting which is why I said rolling/dusting......
So good of you to point me in the correct direction.........
Now to figure out if either method is any good for anything....
 

Latest posts

Back
Top