Varroa free?

[Andy Duff]

A couple of weeks ago I got talking to a beek in N Yorks who keeps Carniolans like I do, and he informed me he has been 3 years varroa free, I am 2 years varroa free and that got me wondering how many other beeks are as lucky as we have been?

 

[jakethedog]

Totally free or being controled by the bees to some extent?

 

[VEG]

I doubt there are any bees without some varroa.

 

[Onge]

 

[3bees]

No such luck for me. What is your secret?

 

[Hivemaker.]

I am 2 years varroa free and that got me wondering how many other beeks are as lucky as we have been?

There is only one other that comes to mind in England,and that is in Birmingham.

 

[iand]

yes low mite numbers but I have one or two hives which insist on dropping half a dozen mites some months. Vigilance is the watch word stick with your ipm or whatever system you have.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I also have hives that drop a dozen a month under natural drop...but drop 3000 under Apivar Amitraz and not a lot less with thymol

my personal view is that by using OMF that we are selectively breeding varroa that don't drop off but are still there hanging on...but i am not a biologist

 

[boca]

I know several people who are varroa free.


... They don't have bees either.

 

[CB008]

Both my friend and I thought that we were virtually varroa free. Neither of us saw a mite under our OMF for months. Guess what - Apiguard managed to find loads when we treated !

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I've had a very low mite drop (3-4 per week) over the summer, and a comparably low drop even with thymol treatment.
So, either my bees are pretty varroa-free or the treatments don't work

Personally I put it down to living in a fairly isolated valley with very few other beekeepers nearby.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have had a low natural drop on my three colonies all year and a low drop after apilife too (about 10 or so total).
I have had the trays in for the last five days and no mites.
In two minds whether to oxalic.
It was a similar situation last year and after oxalic one colony dropped 13,one 4 and the remaining one zero.

 

[BeeMoustashe]

Found this myself too. Averaged about one mite drop per day late summer, not a great deal more with Apiguard, and two weeks ago did a monitor and in 6 days I found one mite dropped. If it wasn't for the low drop with apiguard I would be worried about Rambo mites clinging on no matter what.

Of course, it may have helped that my colony, already small (new), superceded their queen in June, and gave me at least 4 weeks without brood.

 

[drstitson]

"superceded their queen in June, and gave me at least 4 weeks without brood."

why no brood? surely the whole point of supercedure is that HM is still laying? or did you lose her in a swarm?

 

[Winker]

I have one hive that has 1 or 2 mite drop. I did the apiguard and didnt see much more mites drop in this hive. I will OA in a few weeks time and see what drops. I have another 2 hives right next to this hive and they are infested with mites. Funny enough the mite free'ish hive is Carniolans. The infested hive's are Italians

 

[For want of a better word]

My Carniolians are dropping around 9 over three days.. the New Zealands 2 or less over the same period.. all double Brood National.

( when I say NewZealand,, I mean a light yellow bee that was derived from a queen a few seasons back that was sold to me as a 5 framed nuc)

Presume the Apiguard worked ... but will vaporise with OA when the stars are in the correct alignment!

 

[BeeMoustashe]

"superceded their queen in June, and gave me at least 4 weeks without brood."

why no brood? surely the whole point of supercedure is that HM is still laying? or did you lose her in a swarm?

Funny story... New queen hatched on 16th June (checked on 15th still sealed), and on that same day I was by the hive and found the old queen wandering around about 6 foot away from the hive, no attendees etc., just completely rejected, it seemed to me. Put her in a mini nuc with a feed and a few hundred workers, but she was gone from there too within two weeks, vanished this time. Workers all still there though and with no eggs in combs.

So I had a virgin queen in a full colony, who took her time to get herself mated and laying- didn't find eggs in any quantities to stop me worrying til about 6 weeks after hatching. Probably great for mite control but hell for my nerves.

 

[BeeMoustashe]

...just for the record, mine are also derived from carniolans.

Still intending to OA later in the month to give me as low a mite count as possible in spring- probably don't need to but I'd rather start the year with as close to no mites as is possible!

 

[alanf]

I've had a very low mite drop (3-4 per week) over the summer, and a comparably low drop even with thymol treatment.
So, either my bees are pretty varroa-free or the treatments don't work

I had low drops over the summer, a drone brood sample showed low levels too. Apiguard in September dropped a couple of hundred per colony. I was in two minds whether oxalic would be worthwhile in a week or two so I put the drop sheets back in for a few days. They are dropping 1.5 to 2 mites a day which the FERA calculator tells me is nearly 1000 mites in there.

The FERA leaflet suggests that the mite numbers double per month of brooding, that suggests around 2-300 were still in after Apiguard treatment and they were increasing though the autumn warm weather even though the drone brood was at a low level. I'm left with either the September thymol treatment being not very effective or the drop monitoring is giving misleading numbers. Maybe both to some extent.

Whichever, I'll try another monitor session and get the oxalic ready.

 

[Tim1606]

There is only one other that comes to mind in England,and that is in Birmingham.

There's not any other i know who goes through and removes each one by hand