Low Varroa in ‘23

[user 819]

OMG not here. Drop count after first 24 hours of Apilife Var.

The other 3 hives were much lower though.

Looks much like my varroa board this pm, 24 hours after the second vape of my garden colony. The second vape catching the mites from recent emerged cells.
At least you know the product /treatment is working.

If one pain stakingly counts them, there are likely to be over 300 mites so a good result, the mite fall will ebb and flow as the bees emerge over the next week or two.

 

[elainemary]

Whilst I agree board drops are not necessarily accurate, I’ve found they give a good indication of relative problems and comparisons between colonies. I started to treat my ‘worst’ apiary 3 weeks ago, after a sugar shake revealed around a 3% infection. Huge drop after the first day with formic pro.

The biggest factor with varroa I’ve found, is nothing to do with weather, it’s down to proximity to and density of, other beekeepers nearby. I’ve still not treated my home apiary yet, as drops between 1-3 a day. I will treat though, as even with this low level I’ve counted drops of 400 mites during treatment in the past.

 

[Erichalfbee]

OMG not here. Drop count after first 24 hours of Apilife Var.

The other 3 hives were much lower though.
View attachment 37530

That's OK....really

 

[markb2603]

Thanks for the reassurance, I was shocked when I saw the drop as I hadn’t noticed any major signs of a high mite load - deformed wings, capped cells with little holes in them or the mites themselves (any others I should look out for?) - but now that I think about it, the activity in that particular hive has been slightly behind all season but I had put that down to a rather long brood break due to a failed requeening in May.

Another question, I noticed some of the notes still moving slightly on the inspection tray which is fine when using an OMF, but I do have a solid UFE on another hive, do I need to lift the brood box off the floor and give it a quick sweep or will the bees sort it?