Varroa drop from nuc

[boatspeed]

Installed a 5-frame nuc on Sunday, and have been monitoring the varroa drop. It's currently 2 per day, but that's based on a sample of 2 days, which isn't statistically that useful; I'll have a better figure by the end of the week.

Anyone have a view on what constitutes a "significant" drop for a 5-frame nuc at this time of year? The current literature suggests that 6/day is enough to be serious at this time of year, but that's for a full colony.

What's the consensus on whether I should treat the nuc? I'm torn between not disturbing the bees (especially as they have a newly-introduced queen), and wanting to knock down the varroa levels before they get too high.

A few thoughts:
Bayvarol/Apistan aren't recommended for June, but since I'm not expecting to harvest any honey that may not be valid
Thymol-based treatments may cause a lot of disruption
Non-chemical treatments (eg drone brood culling, icing sugar) either not practical at this stage, or will cause significant disruption

The nuc was supplied with a new queen (recently liberated from her cage) and no varroa treatment in situ. (Not ideal I know, but was all that was available at time of ordering).

I'd be grateful for any opinions.

 

[RoofTops]

Two a day from a nuc is two too many I think.

You could give them a good dusting with icing sugar. It won't really do much for the mite numbers in my view but it will give another indication of how many mites you have.

Depending where you live the Apistan type treatments are probably fairly ineffective now due to resistance. If your nuc supplier is still using it that would explain the varroa problem.

Treating a nuc with Apiguard can be a bit tricky as it is easy to overdose them and they all end up hanging outside.* My suggestion would be about a 1/4 of a tray spread on a bit of card laid on the top bars.

If you can get it 60% formic acid would be very effective and 15ml dribbled onto a bit of card or J Cloth above the top bars of the brood will do the trick. The treatment can be repeated after a week.

* Re-reading your post I guess you have put the nuc in a full sized hive? In this case hlf a tray of Apiguard could be tried.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ahhh
I installed my 5 frame nuc 27th May and just thought I'd have a quick one day count 5 days later and overnight there were three mites
In my naiveté I expected to see none
On the first inspection 3 days later I treated with Hive Clean and the overnight mite fall was SIX.
I will do a 1 week count at my next inspection this Friday.
I will probably be back looking for advice.

 

[andypigeon]

i have tryed them hive clean sticks this year and they seem to be doing ok with them and a lot cheaper than most treatments