Diagnosis please

[JWF]

The attached picture was taken this morning, and it's a hive which seems otherwise healthy. I haven't done a full inspection yet, but looking through the clear crownboard reveals a healthy looking colony, and the inspection board indicates maybe 5 seams of brood. The queen is from last year and she's the daughter of one of my other hives.

They were treated for varroa by vaping three times at new year, a week apart. Drops were similar to my other two hives.

I've seen persistent low level signs of DWV on this hive, though it doesn't seem to have had any significant negative impact.

This morning the landing board had some dead bees, complete with DWV, plus a white corpse which has presumably been pulled out of a cell by the nurse bees for disposal.

So, the DWV is an ongoing issue, but what is the way to resolve it when varroa levels don't seem high (drop of a few/week).

And is the white corpse anything to worry about?

 

[Cazza]

Varroa drop counts can be deceiving.
I would suspect higher levels of varroa than you think and treat now.
Cazza

 

[Hivemaker.]

Looks like there are dead varroa mites all over the alighting board as well.

 

[JWF]

Looks like there are dead varroa mites all over the alighting board as well.

It does look like it on the pic I admit, but they're little blobs of propolis.

 

[Hivemaker.]

It does look like it on the pic I admit, but they're little blobs of propolis.

Apart from one bigger blob of poo or propolis, all of the other hundred or more blobs of propolis are of exactly the same uniform size and shape.

 

[Karsal]

You say you've five seams of bees in this hive. Then five or so dead bees on the landing board isn't such a significant number of mortality.
If you are concerned about varroa then oxalic acid vaping three times in a fifteen day period at five day intervals should kill the little beggars.
Clear the landing board of the dead bees and keep a count of ejected dead each day.
Hopefully there should be just a few now and again.
Good luck and I hope it improves.

 

[JWF]

Apart from one bigger blob of poo or propolis, all of the other hundred or more blobs of propolis are of exactly the same uniform size and shape.

I'll take a closer look in the morning to check.

 

[JWF]

Very helpfully there was heavy rain overnight and I couldn't see anything on the landing board this morning - I'll vape over the weekend and see what happens.