- Joined
- Jun 29, 2023
- Messages
- 91
- Reaction score
- 39
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 8
I am going to try TF ala Westerham association. So a I'll go for the slow start utilising the queen frame traps next Jul. Most of my 8 colonies are in a mix of diy UFE and nucs so I have no way of really seeing the varroa count post sublimation recently. Two hives have mesh floors and boards which I describe below. I wasn't really looking for any of the key resistance markers through the year as I've only made the decision in the last few weeks to try TF. I don't think I've seen any evidence of larvae being cannabilised.
Last year I had only two colonies and they both had very few varroa post miticide treatment (20 ish per hive), around 1 or 2 post sublimation in Dec. I had already decided to scrap the miticide this year as an experiment, so the first treatment this year was the sublimation late Nov. This was done at 12ºC outside temp.
The first hive was created from a split in mid May and has had a few bees taken for starting apidea in Jul. It was made up of all but one of the brood from the split and also all the flying bees but had to make its own emergency queen cells which took a while to mate in the poor weather. A frame was also moved into another hive to start it from scratch. The new queen didn't start laying until around 20 Jun. That's about 5 months for the varroa to multiply.
The second hive was created early Jul from a split of my evil hive. It also had various brood frames added from other hives and a queen kindly donated from someone else.
I never really saw any mite drops on either of the boards during the year, but at the same time I seem to have very few mites at the end of the season. Is it the manipulations that have caused the low varroa counts or have I got a good starting point for trying to go TF? According to models (Randy's excel sheet) I should be having an 600 or so dropping in Dec, but that is two years running with very few varroa dropping post treatment.
Next year, I plan to do more extensive monitoring and am designing some UFE that will have screens. ( or I might just buy the boards from abelo). I also have the sugar shaker ready to go.
Last year I had only two colonies and they both had very few varroa post miticide treatment (20 ish per hive), around 1 or 2 post sublimation in Dec. I had already decided to scrap the miticide this year as an experiment, so the first treatment this year was the sublimation late Nov. This was done at 12ºC outside temp.
The first hive was created from a split in mid May and has had a few bees taken for starting apidea in Jul. It was made up of all but one of the brood from the split and also all the flying bees but had to make its own emergency queen cells which took a while to mate in the poor weather. A frame was also moved into another hive to start it from scratch. The new queen didn't start laying until around 20 Jun. That's about 5 months for the varroa to multiply.
The second hive was created early Jul from a split of my evil hive. It also had various brood frames added from other hives and a queen kindly donated from someone else.
I never really saw any mite drops on either of the boards during the year, but at the same time I seem to have very few mites at the end of the season. Is it the manipulations that have caused the low varroa counts or have I got a good starting point for trying to go TF? According to models (Randy's excel sheet) I should be having an 600 or so dropping in Dec, but that is two years running with very few varroa dropping post treatment.
Next year, I plan to do more extensive monitoring and am designing some UFE that will have screens. ( or I might just buy the boards from abelo). I also have the sugar shaker ready to go.
