plumberman
House Bee
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2009
- Messages
- 470
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Surrey
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 5 and ahem "a few more"
One of my strongest colonies has shown a persistently high varroa count ( about 12 daily ) over the past three months. They missed apiguard last autumn ( superceded late and I was concerned that apiguard might have reduced winter bee rearing), but got oxalic acid in the winter. They had a brood rearing break of about a month in May when I did an artificial swarm. I had hoped this might have helped keep mite numbers down. My other 4 colonies have a mite count of less than 2 daily.
I regularly cull drone brood ( there is a super frame in the brood box) although last time there were a fair number of mites in the drone brood.
There is no sign of any varroa related conditions: lots of healthy brood, no obvious wing or body deformities and they are piling honey into the supers.
I thought I would giving icing sugar a go: they are on brood and a half so used about 1.5 cups altogether.
Mite drop remarkable - video clip shows the varroa once I had scooped them altogether off the screen board. Quality is not brilliant, but you can clearly see the movement.This happened within about 3 minutes after the treatment. Bees not hugely impressed and some 'ghost' bees hung around outside for a bit as you can see in the clip. They have now all gone in and it would appear to be business as usual.
I accept that this is not a "major" treatment and not a controlled scientific test, but given the lack of signs of disease and assuming an ongoing monitoring regime, it does seem to do the trick in a reasonably spectacular fashion . I would estimate there were about 300 mites present after the treatment. DEFRA ( if that is what they call themselves these days) seem to suggest that >1000 mites per colony would have been accompanied by signs of varroa infestation. I think reasonable to assume that these 300 mites seen instantly may represent 20 -30% of the total population, a result that at least will check the mites for a period. The other advantage is that I can keep the supers on.
On the assumption I see no evidence of any problems related to the icing sugar, I will probably repeat in in 14 days or so depending on the varroa count. All being well they will get Apiguard in the late summer and oxalic acid again in the winter.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYZ5sdC5j5Q[/ame]
I regularly cull drone brood ( there is a super frame in the brood box) although last time there were a fair number of mites in the drone brood.
There is no sign of any varroa related conditions: lots of healthy brood, no obvious wing or body deformities and they are piling honey into the supers.
I thought I would giving icing sugar a go: they are on brood and a half so used about 1.5 cups altogether.
Mite drop remarkable - video clip shows the varroa once I had scooped them altogether off the screen board. Quality is not brilliant, but you can clearly see the movement.This happened within about 3 minutes after the treatment. Bees not hugely impressed and some 'ghost' bees hung around outside for a bit as you can see in the clip. They have now all gone in and it would appear to be business as usual.
I accept that this is not a "major" treatment and not a controlled scientific test, but given the lack of signs of disease and assuming an ongoing monitoring regime, it does seem to do the trick in a reasonably spectacular fashion . I would estimate there were about 300 mites present after the treatment. DEFRA ( if that is what they call themselves these days) seem to suggest that >1000 mites per colony would have been accompanied by signs of varroa infestation. I think reasonable to assume that these 300 mites seen instantly may represent 20 -30% of the total population, a result that at least will check the mites for a period. The other advantage is that I can keep the supers on.
On the assumption I see no evidence of any problems related to the icing sugar, I will probably repeat in in 14 days or so depending on the varroa count. All being well they will get Apiguard in the late summer and oxalic acid again in the winter.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYZ5sdC5j5Q[/ame]