Hypothetically speaking.......

[taff..]

If I was talking to a beek that had hives not far from mine, and he told me something along the lines of....

well I had a bit of a problem with the old varoa mite at the end of the year, so I dusted them down with icing sugar............



and knowing that he either combined or lost, 5 hives into 1 towards the end of last year.


how much of a problem could his lack of proper treatment represent to my colonies? I know that there are a lot of assumptions such as weather his one colony survived the winter.

can 1 local hive with a huge mite load affect my treated colonies?

 

[VEG]

As long as you keep on top of your treatments you should be ok.(and tell him what he should be doing)

 

[Poly Hive]

Straight answer is a lot.

You might want to have a little chat with this er.... person. He is sadly a "beehaver" not a beekeeper.

PH

 

[buffalow]

well I had a bit of a problem with the old varoa mite at the end of the year, so I dusted them down with icing sugar............



and knowing that he either combined or lost, 5 hives into 1 towards the end of last year.

whats wrong with icing sugar BBKA day on disease at Shrews bury last year was very pro icing sugar ,recommending its use and how to use, and how effective its use can be , and no harmful chemicals involved..

it is quite possible the loss of 5 to 1 could be for other reasons than varoa.

have you checked your stock for varoa , have you treated accordingly , you can only treat your own bees if you have a known problem or as a preventative measure,

 

[Hombre]

You will have to engineer a conversation that inquires how he would feel if his neighbour were to burn all his garden waste to save composting or taking to the tip, and in the process the smoke were to daily blow all over his house and washing.

He will probably tell you that he would get the neighbour sorted out in short order.

Good point. Oh and about your varroa problem . . .

It could be argued that varroa is the problem that you know about. Hypothetically speaking.

 

[Black Comb]

I've seen a Canadian study which said icing sugar was a waste of time.

sorry, but can't find a link.

I've seen it mentioned on here before though.

 

[sherwood]

Veg is quite right. However as the drones from his hives are highly likely to be visiting yours you will probably get reloaded with mites quicker than normal. Take him under your wing and do the treatments in conjuction with him.

 

[taff..]

whats wrong with icing sugar

weekly treatment may or may not help depending on which study you read, A single dusting is going to do bugger all for a heavy mite loading.

Veg is quite right. However as the drones from his hives are highly likely to be visiting yours you will probably get reloaded with mites quicker than normal. Take him under your wing and do the treatments in conjuction with him.

I'm a nooob just going into my second year, he's been beekeeping 10+ years................

 

[taff..]

It could be argued that varroa is the problem that you know about. Hypothetically speaking.

I know that the SBI visited his apiary this summer, that brings some comfort

 

[oliver90owner]

Quick reply is depends on whether your bees were robbing his weak colonies. Your bully-bees may have come back with some of his varroa, if that were the case. If they were not robbed then probably little effect. If he united before they collapsed, he probably kept all his varroa. By that token he will probably not be a problem for much longer as they will succumb too.

Drifting bees would most likely affect adjacent colonies, so his, not yours.

So probably depends a lot on what you mean by "not far from mine".

'Treated' colonies will get a varroa load again, that is pretty well for sure. That is why one checks and monitors one's colonies on a continuing basis. All it might mean is that one needs to treat again just a little, or a lot, earlier than otherwise.

Your only question:can 1 local hive with a huge mite load affect my treated colonies? is answered as follows. Only if it gets robbed out. That is based on the assumption that your colonies are not really 'that' close.

Inappropriate treatment should should not be blamed for it's failure. Unless he removed all capped brood at the treatment time he may have got a good kill and removed, what, 20% of the mite load? Hardly worth the time and certainly a waste of good icing sugar.

RAB

 

[taff..]

So probably depends a lot on what you mean by "not far from mine".

RAB

sorry, I should have put a figure to it.

about 500M, maybe a little more but not much

 

[buffalow]

weekly treatment may or may not help depending on which study you read, A single dusting is going to do bugger all for a heavy mite load.

True reccomended 3/4 treatments at 21 days to coincide with the development of the mites and bees inside the cells , this was removing a high percentage of varoa,

ok if treating with icing sugar you can easily attract robbers which then causes another problem with mites being re introduced,

any treatment is better than none ,or is it?

 

[Black Comb]

Ok here's the link about efficacy of icing sugar.

http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/20090217_5

 

[oliver90owner]

Well now, that was a really useful link.

Method of application?

Effect on the 80% of varroah in the capped brood?

Any results of removed mites?

Quotes of 2 decimal places for variability of results?

I am not be very confident that the full cost of 20 quid to read the full article would be worth it. Certainly the abstract was not very enlightening.

Not exactly rocket science to try it oneself. Treat the colony (or a portion of it) and then a representative portion (or the same bee sample) of the bees with a 100% mortality method. Work out efficacy.

This method is only applicable to brood-free colonies, as far as I am concerned and requires more than just 'dusting'. Anything different and it is a waste of time. Sounds to me like their efforts were flawed from the beginning and the experiment was simply a means of demonstrating they could do the statistics, etc.(to 2 dps!).

There are also reports of near 100% efficacy. When done properly.

Jennifer A Berry used the icing sugar method for an investigation (linked from this site about 4-5 months ago). She would not be using a method that was not able to be demonstrated as effective.

RAB

 

[oliver90owner]

Here is the link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...9258595842918#

 

[buffalow]

Ok here's the link about efficacy of icing sugar.

http://www.ibra.org.uk/articles/20090217_5

Thanks peter,

Also thanks to bbka for letting me sit through a lcture on using icing sugar to controll varoa last summer at Shrewsbury... when this was released in january... what a waste of money and drinking time not to mention the icing sugar

I have used icing sugar through the summer this year and oxallic in December , i do not have a major problem that i know of
if varoa is present in the empty brood cell an sugar is applied the bees clean the cell for the queen to lay and at the same time remove varoa in the celll NO?

was anyone else at the Shrewsbury Disease day? as i have been to bed a few times since the lectures i might be missing something here

Mark

 

[Black Comb]

That's only one opinion.
here's another, which is fairly recent.
It isn't a test of efficacy but does mention it as being effective. (near the bottom of the article)

http://researchmagazine.uga.edu/aa/winter2008/bees.php

 

[Hombre]

Here is the link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...9258595842918#

Sorry RAB, but the link was not good. Is it a link that may have become dated? Does it still work for you?

 

[Bcrazy]

With ref to the sugar dusting i believe it NOT to bee a waste of time as I carry this out each time i hive a swarm into a nuc. the sticky cardboard extracted from the bottom of the Nuc tells me its well worth doing. Give it a try!

Regards;

 

[Tom Bick]

If I was talking to a beek that had hives not far from mine, and he told me something along the lines of....

well I had a bit of a problem with the old varoa mite at the end of the year, so I dusted them down with icing sugar............

If he has been a beekeeper for 10 years then he will be experienced in dealing with varoa and may treat his hives throughout the year.

His problem might be not you taff but the other beekeeper down the road from him with no understanding of varoa or the feral colony in the tree.
Best to talk to him about your concerns he may have the same over you.