Thank you Reiner
Maybe your right and they weren't Varroa after all. These were really tiny and fast crawling. They were mites, I just assumed they might be baby varroa's. Sorry for my lack of knowledge but when you haven't seen one before in real life it is difficult. I also am probably over worrying.
Since you have seen bees with deformed wings, you almost certainly do have varroa in significant numbers. Probably enough to require treatment, UNLESS they were treated immediately before you took them on, and the treatment was successful. You'd need to test, by counting, to tell whether or not you have an ongoing problem.
Varroa are fairly small, about 1mm.
But though they can move abruptly, they don't move far.
Truly "young" (immature) ones are out of sight in capped cells (and white).
Looking for them in capped brood can come later - start simple.
You need to learn what varroa look like before you can monitor them by counting them on the board.
And that is very important for beekeeping (keeping your bees alive) these days.
Clean off the board completely, give it a wipe with cooking oil (to make it very slightly sticky) and insert it - and note the date in a diary.
Then arrange to have another beekeeper point out the things you are looking for. Whether that is at your association's apiary, you visiting another member, or vice versa -- it is very important that you know exactly what you are looking for.
After a few days (at least 3, no point more that 14) count the varroa on the board, and divide by the number of days to find a daily average drop.
More than 10 a day is a real problem.
MAQS treatment is not to be undertaken lightly.
But a natural varroa drop of more than 10 day is an idication that the colony won't last long without treatment.
/ says a man who has spent his Saturday learning more than he needs to about varroa ...
