deformed wing virus

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Nopants

House Bee
Joined
Jun 10, 2009
Messages
120
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Location
northants
Hive Type
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Number of Hives
30
I have noticed one of my colonies has deformed wing virus. I have deliberatly left this hive to its own devices and not united it with any other colonies this autumn. Does any one know of away to to irradicate the virus. Im using open mesh floors. I suspect this colony may die out which is a shame. Its getting weaker as queen has not laid for a couple of months. would requeening earlier in August have made a difference? what experience has any one else had of this virus. I have several colonies so can take a loss.
 
I Had this from a stupidly bought in carni nuc earlier this year.( I fancied trying a different type of bee) Not much use to you now but I removed the queen, so no brood, treated with thymol and then requeened. It worked but just.
 
Apart from the OMFs, what anti-varroa measures have you been taking?
 
Same as itma - just having an omf means SFA DWV is connected to varroa levels - it's a bit late now - although you can hope to trweat with oxalic at the end of this month - but did you Apiguard them in September?
 
Had a similar problem in August/September with a colony that was close to collapse, slapped some apiguard on and removed all sealed brood (fed to the chickens) and donated some brood frames from other colonies and dusted with icing sugar, hopefully they will pull through winter/ spring.

But try some oxalic....
 
DWV is a sure sign of a high Varroa load. Were you monitoring Varroa levels? Did you notice any increase in the autumn and treat appropriately?

Here is the DEFRA leaflet on Managing Varroa.

I don't think re-queening would have made any differerence. The varroa feed on the bees from larvae throught to adult. Whilst the type of bee may make some small differences (yes there are reports of Varroa resistant bees) if the Varroa load gets too high then the colony is in big trouble.

Bobster
 
DWV is a sure sign of a high Varroa load. Were you monitoring Varroa levels? Did you notice any increase in the autumn and treat appropriately?

Here is the DEFRA leaflet on Managing Varroa.

I don't think re-queening would have made any differerence. The varroa feed on the bees from larvae throught to adult. Whilst the type of bee may make some small differences (yes there are reports of Varroa resistant bees) if the Varroa load gets too high then the colony is in big trouble.

Bobster
DWV is a virus; one vector being the varroa mite. Once the virus is loose in the colony , DWV can be present without the infestation being heavy but I agree , the lower the varroa counts the less the impact of DWV.:)
VM
 
Lots of bee colonies will carry DWV; the virus only really showing itself with high varroa loads and colony malaise.
 
:-(
I have it in one of my colonies too and its heartbreaking. Dead bees with no wings everyday its flyable. Just waiting for the long chill and then OA but maybe too late. I did do Apiguard in Sep/Oct to all colonies and only this one is suffering for some reason. Only a week or so to go. Good luck with yours. I do hope they pull through.
Rich
 
I have used hive clean and apiguard in the Autumn. I think I will use oxalic acid if colony isnt too weak
 
I did notice varoa drop was low in all my colonies after treating with Apiguard. Next Autumn I will try a different treatment. However I had another colony with high varoasis all though again low drop with apiguard this was on a solid floor and a very strong colon . Nothing to lose and low brood I decided to use oxalic acid treatment early in October. I have had a higher mite drop with this colony. I think the Varoa are obviously building up resistance to the treatments. I do share the Apairy with another beek who has 40 hives and uses solid floors.
 
"I think the Varroa are obviously building up resistance to the treatments."

You don't get resistance to thymol based treatments.

How exactly did you use the apiguard and when?

"I did notice varroa drop was low in all my colonies after treating with Apiguard"

i presume you mean DURING treatment? the drop AFTER treatment should ideally be zero.
 
I have noticed one of my colonies has deformed wing virus. I have deliberatly left this hive to its own devices and not united it with any other colonies this autumn. Does any one know of away to to irradicate the virus. Im using open mesh floors. I suspect this colony may die out which is a shame. Its getting weaker as queen has not laid for a couple of months. would requeening earlier in August have made a difference? what experience has any one else had of this virus. I have several colonies so can take a loss.

Your question indicates poor husbandry - probably failure to treat with autmnal thymol based product and maybe even left off the oxalic last Xmas. Get some reading done and download the FERA leaflet on "Managing Varoa" as a priority. Too late for Apiguard now but Oxalic within next month essential. Probably too late to save the bees but worth a try.
 
Nopants,
Requeening would not have helped if you have a high varroa count which is likely. You should know this sort of thing if you have 30 colonies!

Unless you are going to (ling) heather then its best to treat as soon as the honey comes off. With no heather I remove my supers at the end of July and treat with thymol during August / or going into September for a few hives. Thymol feed, Apiguard or Apilife Var will all work in a similar fashion if done properly. If you leave it until later the mite numbers continue to increase as the quantity of bees reduces so the loading gets very high indeed.
 
Well a month on and the bees seem to be recovering, what i think i have had with this particular colony is bee paralasis virus. Their wings were splayed open like flies. Varoa drop has been quite low in this colony an to suggest poor husbandry is an insult in my opinion. I always treat with Apiguard in the Autumn and have used Hive clean through out the summer.My bees were inspected by the NBU in May, all colonies were disease free apart from some sack brood. We should all be aware of new viruses that are attacking our colonies. There is no advocate for using winter treatments such as oxalic acid and this can do more harm than good. However I have experimented with diffeernt treatments on different hives and can find no benefit or adverse affects to what ever i do. I have found that the one hive that was very prolific and good producer of honey faired better on a solid floor but was absolutly rife with varoa. I am now keeping this colony on a open mesh floor to see if this helps. Oh and to make it clear I have recently passed my basic bee certificate in apiculture. I was mearly sharing experiences and exchanging ideas as we are not all experts in disease management, hense beekeepers of 30 plus years losing bees because of unwillingness to try something different
 
Hi nopants
Quite a number of years ago I became painfully aware that mite drop or seeing the odd mite on a bee is usually indicative of possibly a higher mite load. It was spring, the colony not growing away, and still getting that spring surge?????? Can't see a problem only one two mite in the drop so what to do?. Treated with apistan result thousands dropped.
Previous few years deformed wing virus was an indicator of mites this last season not so, it was sac brood (reported by beeks keeping 3-4000 hives). Why ?? Season maybe varroa just spread what virus's are there.
Artificial swarms/splits/nucs break in brood rearing, mesh floors, and an essential late summer treatment are part of the armoury, but don't dismiss oxalic, it is quite an important fail safe/catch all last ditch if you like treatment to make sure you go into next season as clean as possible. With is it 70 hives on your winter site plenty of opportunity for reinfection.
Following this regime in reducing mites or just good luck, I have just got the results of the fera survey, clear of virus but still waiting IAV & KV results.
Well done on the basic bee cert

ian
 
I'm becoming more suspicious of monitoring methods. In my first year I was checking drone brood, found not a single mite and yet when I treated I had a heavy infestation. Someone on here has suggested that with OMF we are selecting for mites that hold on tighter. While a heavy drop indicates a heavy load, lack of indications cannot I feel be taken as a sure indicator of a light load.

I think I'm right in saying that Finman doesn't monitor at all, just assumes the worst and treats accordingly.
 
I have never specifically monitored for varroa. I use a drone brood frame on an ongoing basis during the season and treat with Apiguard(autumn) and oxalic(now if it gets a bit colder). Obersavation during weekly inspections as well. But it's everyone to their own, whose to say what's right and what's wrong?

Peter
 
Nopants - the poor husbandry "insult" was probably simply a comment responding to the initial information provided by yourself: "I have deliberatly left this hive to its own devices". Which i also read as meaning "untreated".

If full details of all manipulations AND treatments had been provided then perhaps less "insulting" responses might have been forthcoming.
 
"I think the Varroa are obviously building up resistance to the treatments."

You don't get resistance to thymol based treatments.

I have my doubts but only anecdotally

I have a mix of hives in my apairy some treated in winter/spring 2010/11 with Apivar(amitraz) and some treated in the winter 2010 with just apiguard

Now i treated both batches of hives in autumn 2011 with apiguard (3 tubs on 14x12 from 15 August) and the drop varied over the apiary ( brood levels/hygienic behaviour etc) the final drops all below 2 per week at week 7

Now the drop levels monitored last week are very puzzling, ALL the 2010 apivar(amitraz) batch and all nuc taken from them have drops of Zero to 2 mites a week BUT all the 2010 apiquard only batch have drops 20+ to 40 per week, even though ALL hive had the same treatment in 2011 of 3 tubs of Apiguard

now that is not a scientific study becasue no mite remaining % test carried out but the apivar seems to have an effect on what type of mites remain in the hive to be killed by apiquard thymol the next year...so if it is not reistance is it behaviour of the mite (viz futher into the bees exoskeleton out of the way of thymol, learnt bee hygienic behaviour, mites that transfer quicker to host or just a blip)

Cambridgeshire, hertfordshire and North London reported in 2009 and 2010 that apigurard did not seem to work well, was it all down to weather ,bad batch or something else?

Also drop, could the natural drop be reducing as we are selecting non drop mite behaviour?
 

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