DWV bee on alighting board.

[bjosephd]

Just seen a poor DWV bee trying to make a go of it on the alighting board.

NOT a good start. Dread to think what's going on inside.

Does that represent the tip of a grizzly varroa iceberg?

Otherwise the colony seems healthy and are super busy flying on nice days.

(obviously I haven't dug through it, also this hive does not have access to the tray due to a wall... need to work out a way of looking at drop from the front of the hive... yes, badly placed hive)

 

[JWF]

I've got one hive which has had a few DWV victims on the alighting board on a regular basis but appears fine otherwise - varroa drop on treatment was similar to my other hives, seems like a decent size cluster when viewed through the clear crown board. I'm not overly worried, and in reality there's nothing I can do anyway, bar making sure they get fed etc when they start building up in a few weeks time.

Time will tell!

 

[bjosephd]

I didn't treat last season...

Two hives, both new swarms last year, both had queen fatalities, so both went broodless for a while (one for a long while) which is why I was not keen to treat as wanted to get them fed up and laying winter bees as much as possible to get their numbers up... felt I couldn't afford a break in brood again in autumn!

I was hoping (like a typical closet hippy newbie) to explore a treatment free approach... but not if it means having dead hives before I've even got started in my first full season!

Just cross fingers, feed up, and see what I find in mid/late march when I investigate their home properly frame by frame?

Thanks,

B

 

[Millet]

Just seen a poor DWV bee trying to make a go of it on the alighting board.

NOT a good start. Dread to think what's going on inside.

Does that represent the tip of a grizzly varroa iceberg?

Otherwise the colony seems healthy and are super busy flying on nice days.

(obviously I haven't dug through it, also this hive does not have access to the tray due to a wall... need to work out a way of looking at drop from the front of the hive... yes, badly placed hive)

Can you not spin the hive around slowly over a period of time, so you can gain access to the inspection tray, when i put my hive in its permanent location i made sure i had plenty of access all the way around.

 

[bjosephd]

It's possible... I could also poke some sort of inspection 'tray' in under the front as it is chocked up off the surface ever so slightly. I'll go investigate. I'm aware that varroa drop is far from the whole story. But it's a story all the same.

(It's badly placed as I plonked it close to the house baited up last year, but was informed by a local beek that I would never in a month of sundays attract a swarm... I believed him so was just keeping it there (being scouted out on a daily basis!) until I got my hands on a swarm or nuc or wotnot and placed it correctly. WELL... one swarm later...! And as it never got very big it was rather née watching the bees come and go through the windows from the comfort of the conservatory.)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CG5VuEDWwAIXY_p.jpg:large

Hopefully link above works.

 

[bjosephd]

Righto...

I've managed to slot a tray in under the front with a modicum of witty jiggery pokery...

 

[thenovice]

I am not sure if my reasoning is correct but I would expect the colony to rid themselves of DWV infected bees very fast as they mean a drain on the stores with not much in return. having relatively low levels of brood, I would expect the infection rate higher than in summer. Finding DMV on the entrance board means your colony is effectively getting rid of the runts. not too late to vape some oxalic and kill some mites

 

[bjosephd]

Indeed... that makes sense.

A local lord high beek here 'vaped' his hives for the first time this year and I understand the drop was very dramatic... if it's due to the effectiveness of the vaping, or as a result of the very mild winter.

The fact I have a DWV bee wandering around outside the hives tells me that the queen was laying mid to late january! Especially as I read that DWV bees really don't live long at all.

(just about to place a big last day of the sale order at Mann Lake... what have I forgotten to buy?!)

 

[Millet]

Righto...

I've managed to slot a tray in under the front with a modicum of witty jiggery pokery...

IMO it needs moving Joseph , if you work the inspection tray from the rear you are out of the way of the bees.

 

[bjosephd]

IMO it needs moving Joseph , if you work the inspection tray from the rear you are out of the way of the bees.

It's a fair point

 

[Chriszog]

DWV, DMV? Have looked in the glossary but not there?

 

[theeggman]

Deformed Wing Virus

 

[Chriszog]

Deformed Wing Virus

Thanks and DMV?

 

[theeggman]

Thanks and DMV?

Possible typo.

 

[mbc]

Just read this thread and I would suggest begging the local Lord high beekeeper (rofl) to pop round with his vape kit pdq to give your bees a chance. Now that they will be brooding possibly begging a further two visits five days apart would help give your bees a decent chance of surviving if it's not already to late.
The closet hippy hoping for tf bees sounds like unnecessary suffering for your bees if you're already seeing dwv casualties.

 

[birdsandbees]

As you mention DWV, it was relatively mild here today so I had a quick health check of my Nuc which I know had Veroa going into winter but lowish levels, I treated them two weeks ago with Oxalic Vapour but they've been pretty active and have been taking in Pollen for a good few weeks so thought I'd have a check as I suspected brood and therefore capped Veroa hiding away.
I was right, young bees emerging, brood at various stages and capped brood, spotted a few newly emerged bees with DWV so after sealing up and waiting til they had settled down (flyers back in for the night) I have treated them again, fingers crossed I've got a few more poxy mites to give the brood a better chance.

 

[bjosephd]

The closet hippy hoping for tf bees sounds like unnecessary suffering for your bees if you're already seeing dwv casualties.

I know... it's more evolution and adaptation than hippydom to be honest.

I can't help but think that in the long term we are simply breeding super mites and weak treatment dependant bees. Each time we knock down 90% of the varroa in a hive and class it as a success, we are basically inflicting the extremely high level of selective pressure to the varroa that the varroa should be inflicting on the bees. Remaining varroa that can withstand treatment then breed. We all know this.

But when you see a DWV bee struggling to exist, and want to at least have a season with some actual beekeeping it becomes a terrible conundrum.

Which approach contributes, in the long term, to the future of bees, and which contributes to the future of varroa.

Treatment can be seen as a very human thing because we want honey NOW and want to play with our bees NOW.

Which is the strong choice? Which is the selfish choice? I can't decide if actually to treat is to give up the fight against varroa. It's a sticking plaster.

BUT will I be saying that when I have a hive destroyed by varroa? What will I be saying when SHB makes it over here?! I fully accept that I might change my tune very quickly when I actually witness devastation. Or will I be scared and crumble and treat because I am told to, and never question the paradigm enough to see the other side?

 

[Millet]

Just move the hive and gas them problem solved, if you put the hive in accessible place to start with you could have monitored the inspection board through out the season, which would have give you your mite load reading a bit easier.
I'm new to this bee keeping also but i have very little varroa drop and definitely no DWV present, it maybe due to me being able get to my inspection board and see what is happening, without pulling the hive to bits.

 

[bjosephd]

Hi Millet...

Indeed... but if you read my previous post, is it problem solved at all, or problem exacerbated?

I have another hive with a board that's very easy access (I now have managed to get a board in under this hive also to have a look in a day or two).

However, as I understand it, mite drop tells you very little unless it's to see how much varroa you have knocked down post treatment. It basically tells you how many varroa are falling out of the hive, but tells you nothing of how many remain.

Sans treatment a high count could mean you have very hygienic bees who scrub off their varroa meaning many land on the screen, OR you have an infested hive full of varroa and they are simply everywhere. It's easy to draw opposite conclusions from the same mite count.

If there's many varroa on the inspection board, then maybe that means there are now less in the hive... a small drop without treatment is apparently good, but a big drop post treatment is also apparently good.

Surely you would find more ejected varroa in a hive with VSH and grooming bees. The very bees you in theory do not need to treat.

 

[Millet]

The best of luck with them..