Please be kind. This is my first year, with next-to-no help. I'm learning as fast as I can. I'm using 14x12, lots of capped stores, no super, but the photo is a smaller frame I had to swap in.
I did an inspection today, and the good news is that the queen is laying again, the bad news is in the photo. Not only was there an actual mite, as bold as brass, on the surface of the capped brood, there were three on one of the pupae that were uncapped.
Given the urgency, could I do an OA dribble? I only have three patches of brood, on two frames.
I chequerboarded three empty frames further into the middle, so there’s plenty of laying space.
Could I afford to just get rid of the frame with the drone brood/varroa on it? The second photo is the other side of this frame, which I think is also drone brood (?), but it was all capped and looked ok from the outside.
Also, the brood was all at one end of the box. If I do get rid of that frame, should I shift things around to move the frame with the worker brood to the middle, with the capped stores at the ends, and the undrawn frames either side of the brood?
Sorry the pics aren’t great, I was by myself, videoing it and didn’t get close enough.
I did an inspection today, and the good news is that the queen is laying again, the bad news is in the photo. Not only was there an actual mite, as bold as brass, on the surface of the capped brood, there were three on one of the pupae that were uncapped.
Given the urgency, could I do an OA dribble? I only have three patches of brood, on two frames.
I chequerboarded three empty frames further into the middle, so there’s plenty of laying space.
Could I afford to just get rid of the frame with the drone brood/varroa on it? The second photo is the other side of this frame, which I think is also drone brood (?), but it was all capped and looked ok from the outside.
Also, the brood was all at one end of the box. If I do get rid of that frame, should I shift things around to move the frame with the worker brood to the middle, with the capped stores at the ends, and the undrawn frames either side of the brood?
Sorry the pics aren’t great, I was by myself, videoing it and didn’t get close enough.