Hive suffering from varroa

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cstroud

New Bee
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
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Location
uk
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
15
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
 
have you actually counted the number of varroa falling over a number of days?
 
I treated with Apiguard when honey was taken off last year- but still got quite a drop with Oxalic- looks like Apiguard only denting the varroa population- Note for next Autumn /Winter :xmas-smiley-010:
 
I treated with Apiguard when honey was taken off last year- but still got quite a drop with Oxalic- looks like Apiguard only denting the varroa population- Note for next Autumn /Winter :xmas-smiley-010:

yep, same, through out our apiaries we thought it was resistance biuld up to thymol, but problable according to bee inspector..weather...circulation above apiguard tubs i know one was treated with apistan being the worse case ...big drop, . think it was quite a problem herts, st albans, cambridge and Barnet

i wonder if it was a bad batch or old stock of apiguard as our BKA purchases apiguard for us and we all treat on the same weekend
 
Its interesting to read that a few members have had problems with Apiguard last winter yet I have not been told of any problems from those that use made up Thymol.

Anyone?
 
I did'nt use oaxlic through the winter, as i'd hoped that my other combined methods would keep numbers low enough. I hav'nt been counting the drop of mites lately, and I have put a solid floor on while I treat with apiguard. I've put a stake at the back of each hive which the hive is strapped to because of my recent security issue (kids throwing stones and missiles which knowcked them over). This makes it impossible to use the inspection tray. They hav'nt been touched for about 6 weeks now so I will probably take the stakes away.

thanks for the input, I have heard of apiguard affecting the queens laying, so hopefully that won't be the case.

many thanks
Chris
 
Its interesting to read that a few members have had problems with Apiguard last winter yet I have not been told of any problems from those that use made up Thymol.

Anyone?
Had very poor results with apiguard,hence the reason i don't use it at all.
 
We had very good results with Apiguard. The hives originally had zero mite drop, but we dusted with icing sugar, and got 1 in 24 hours - so we treated them. We then got 50+ every 24 hours for the next few days.

Oxalic at christmas.

We just checked some drone brood, and zero out of 40 had mites.
 
Apiguard last autumn, oxalic dribbling in early January, and I still have a Varroa problem in my weak survivors!

Perhaps either:

- the Apiguard wasn't effective and the oxalic too late (mites in brood), and/or
- a collapsing colony (some time between Sep and this month) in a castle nearby re-stocked the hives with Varroa

G.
 
Yes, we did put the board in after oxalic, and we got a few, but nothing like the drop that we got with Apiguard.
 
Varroa

I have seen an apiary of 6 hives treated with Apiguard, feed with fondant and all hives have chronic varroa, mite drop 40-100 every day.

I have seen an apiary of 4 hives where Apistan used 6 weeks in Oct/Nov, fed with thymol all winter zero drop NO MITES.

I have also seen a hive not treated with anything but fed with thymol all winter. Mite count around 2-10 every 3 days, treated with Apistan about 100 in the 1 day, 5-6 there after then zero around 3 weeks mark.

So make your own conclusions, I know where my money is!


Regards


Busy Bee
 
And no 'resistant' mites either?

My hives have come through the winter with very little varroa 'drop' after thymol treatment in the autumn. Guess where my money is - in my pocket!

Much cheaper to monitor, rather than treating unecessarily. Mite drop, drone brood checking, observing mites on bees, deformed wings etc, costs nothing. The last option is actually far too late, so is indicative of urgent treatment required, but was included.

The choice of treatments is wide enough, so no particular need to get in a position where extra pesticides are added to the already stressed bees.

Regards, RAB
 
Hello,
I would cage the queen for 15 days and then treat again with oxalic in 22 days from the day you caged her. This works well and I think that you will be surprised at how the colony improves the day after treatment. Cull all drone brood before you release the queen and cull any queen cells.

Best regards
Norton.
 

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