cstroud
New Bee
I have one of my hives which seems to be really suffering from a high level of varroa at the moment. They hav'nt built up very well so far this spring and the brood is patchy. They probably have 5-6 frames of brood which is weak compared to the others.
I had a good look at the bees on Saturday and a significant number had deformed wings. I had put the patchy brood down to a poorly mated queen although I bought her last year from KBS, and was feeling hard done by. I looked at my defra leaflet on varroa and the symptoms match. I know that all my bees have varroa but up until now I have managed to keep the numbers down. I have put apiguard on yesterday to try and dent the population of mites, as I don't have any supers on at the moment. I use varroa floors on all my hives and dust with icing sugar when I remember. I treated them all with apiguard last autumn.
just hope they pull through- will send a photo if I get chance.
Chris
I had a good look at the bees on Saturday and a significant number had deformed wings. I had put the patchy brood down to a poorly mated queen although I bought her last year from KBS, and was feeling hard done by. I looked at my defra leaflet on varroa and the symptoms match. I know that all my bees have varroa but up until now I have managed to keep the numbers down. I have put apiguard on yesterday to try and dent the population of mites, as I don't have any supers on at the moment. I use varroa floors on all my hives and dust with icing sugar when I remember. I treated them all with apiguard last autumn.
just hope they pull through- will send a photo if I get chance.
Chris