skydragon,
The varroah will be emerging from the cells as the hatching brood open the cappings and join the flock. About 80% of the colony varroah load will be in capped cells at any one time, while there is lots of brood rearing - the other approx 20% will be sucking haemolymph from bees and spreading nasty viruses around the colony.
Those are the ones in your most recent mite-drop count and it probably won't change appreciably until all the capped brood has emerged. The rest of the treatment is to knock down those few mites which might have managed to get into a capped cell and avoided the first 'zap'. Any that might arive on roaming bees, or bees from badly infested colonies which are collapsing, or robbing, etc. can quickly re-infect the colony (the reason why the whole apiary should be treated at the same time)
That is why doing a mite count during the treatment is, IMO, really a waste of time. A daily drop will be somewhat less than ten percent of the hive loading. Varroah will emerge later if drone brood is present (and in larger numbers than from a single worker cells), so the brood may be emerging for over a fortnight, as will the varroah. The actual times might vary from the norm, so to be reasonably sure the treatment is usually extended to about 3 weeks.
Sooo, if all the apiguard is cleared out in the next seven days you may be left with a somewhat higher residual infestation than could be attained for a slightly longer treatment. In other words you may be starting with a day's worth of varroah (or worse). That would represent a poor result for the cost of treatment and if that was the case, winter oxalic acid treatment would almost be certainly required. I hope this helps you understand how the system is supposed to work.
Regards, RAB
The varroah will be emerging from the cells as the hatching brood open the cappings and join the flock. About 80% of the colony varroah load will be in capped cells at any one time, while there is lots of brood rearing - the other approx 20% will be sucking haemolymph from bees and spreading nasty viruses around the colony.
Those are the ones in your most recent mite-drop count and it probably won't change appreciably until all the capped brood has emerged. The rest of the treatment is to knock down those few mites which might have managed to get into a capped cell and avoided the first 'zap'. Any that might arive on roaming bees, or bees from badly infested colonies which are collapsing, or robbing, etc. can quickly re-infect the colony (the reason why the whole apiary should be treated at the same time)
That is why doing a mite count during the treatment is, IMO, really a waste of time. A daily drop will be somewhat less than ten percent of the hive loading. Varroah will emerge later if drone brood is present (and in larger numbers than from a single worker cells), so the brood may be emerging for over a fortnight, as will the varroah. The actual times might vary from the norm, so to be reasonably sure the treatment is usually extended to about 3 weeks.
Sooo, if all the apiguard is cleared out in the next seven days you may be left with a somewhat higher residual infestation than could be attained for a slightly longer treatment. In other words you may be starting with a day's worth of varroah (or worse). That would represent a poor result for the cost of treatment and if that was the case, winter oxalic acid treatment would almost be certainly required. I hope this helps you understand how the system is supposed to work.
Regards, RAB
