Varroa natural mite drop

[Mike101]

Well, wasn't quite expecting such a response!

There is no doubt in my mind that the varroa population in my apiaries are significantly reduced compared to previous years. I do believe in monitoring and treating when necessary in accordance with the FERA "Managing Varroa" publication. I have however treated a proportion of "low" count hives to monitor mite drop to confirm situation, I will let you know the outcome.

ps. Be nice to each other.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

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Hive may have situation that it has no mites.

Next week drones have moved there perhaps 20 mites. Who knows.... Drones move freely from hive to hive and carry mites on their body. Sometimes I have seen how full they are mites when they come out for mating flights.

How do you explain that in my country mite spreaded 50 km a year from Russian border to West.
Totally clean hives got it.

.

Thanks for the contribution Finman - this is the first I've read of drones spreading Varroa in this way.

FERA's Managing Varroa says, on this subject "Varroa mites are mobile and can readily move between bees and within the hive. However, to travel between colonies they depend upon adult bees for transport - through the natural processes of drifting, robbing, and swarming. Varroa can spread over long distances in this way. However, the movement of infested colonies by beekeepers is the principle means of spread over long distances"

Is it not possible that the 50 kilometre movement of Varroa from the Russian Border was caused by human intervention?

Despite having very low counts on my monitoring board, I think, on balance, I shall do a HM Thymol treatment BUT I will count the resulting drop, despite Finman's advice not to - I've only got one hive so I need something to keep me occupied!

CVB

 

[ellypatt]

Put in inspection trays before I went away for a week. When I looked yesterday upon return they all had lots. Apiguard going in on Monday, I left it too late/cold last year and don't want to repeat the mistake (lost most productive colony, which was smaller going in to winter and also had a markedly higher drop from oxalic than the rest).

 

[Finman]

"

Is it not possible that the 50 kilometre movement of Varroa from the Russian Border was caused by human intervention?
!

CVB

It surely is.

If one keeper migrates his hives 25 km and another to opposite direction the same, it is 50 km. Hives get contact.

In South Africa migrative beekeeping spreaded varroa all over the country in few years. It started near harbour.

.I move every year my hives 25 km to every direction, even more like today 30 km to phacelia field.


Once it was reseached how bees forage in our sea archipelago Ahvenanmaa. Bees we marked.

One bee had moved to another isle 10 km far away and settled down to local hive.

.

 

[Finman]

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University of Kentucky homePage

Mites spread from colony to colony by drifting workers and drones within an apiary. Honey bees can also acquire these mites when robbing smaller colonies. It is best to isolate captured swarms, package bees, and other new colonies from other colonies and examine them for mites before placing them in an apiary.



Early detection of low levels of mite infestations is key to its successful management. While they can be spotted during colony inspection if present in high numbers, this tends to only identify larger infestations. ,

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Good question! Why to detect early if you do not react.
If the reason of counting is only to move treatments, then counting works against itself

On good old days 20 years ago counting had an ideA that Apistan accumulated into wax. And to reduce wax spoiling, it was counted if you could do treatment every two year. I clearly remember that.

Now today's stuffs do not accumulate into hive or wax and it is better use it with small mite counts.

Remember EARLY DETECTION - WHAT THEN

Preventive way or Beatles way: Let it be bee

 

[Finman]

.
1000 mite safe line does not meant that you keep it in it.
Think if 300 mite line is better for bees.

If you sacrifice the whole year honey yield for bee wellfare,
why you want to keep high mite level in your hives. This is to all "do nothing method" beekeepers.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I've just done ten apiguards on hives with low counts at our training Apiary, I will report back on this thread what drop we havewith the apiguard

all the hives show a low weekly mite drop and thats totally unusual for that apairy as we get a lot of drifting, but we needed to show the beginners how to apply apiguard and monitor the drop

Though the low drop is not universal as i know of one beekeeper's hive that has a natural drop of 50 in a week and 200 in a day with icing sugar, * but she used hive clean instead of winter oxalic

Average over a two week count is a drp of 250 per week on non swarmed hives and 90 per week on hives that had swarmed (natural counts between zero ti one per day)

the beekeeper with a 50 in a week natural drop has a apiquard drop of 2000 in the first week ?!!!!!

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Average over a two week count is a drp of 250 per week on non swarmed hives and 90 per week on hives that had swarmed (natural counts between zero ti one per day)

the beekeeper with a 50 in a week natural drop has a apiquard drop of 2000 in the first week ?!!!!!

Since the start of this thread, I too decided to treat my 14x12 hive (swarm from early June treated with icing sugar and HiveClean early on) with Hivemaker's Thymol mixture despite having modest natural drop on the inspection board. After 11 days of treatment, I've counted 103 mites, so it's in the same range as MM's report - not very many but that 103 mites that cannot double up in a week or a month or .... whatever...

Will MM be doing a winter treatment on the apiary hives after the fairly small drop from the Apiguard?

CVB

 

[Queens59]

My highest drop when treating in 2 weeks was 12 varroa! Others were 6, 3 and 2. VM suggested bees were immune to Bayvarol - but checked locally and found that as I last used it 2-3 years ago this shouldn't be an issue. Put on another different treatment on largest hive and drop in 4 days was zero...Think I am OK

 

[pargyle]

My highest drop when treating in 2 weeks was 12 varroa! Others were 6, 3 and 2. VM suggested bees were immune to Bayvarol - but checked locally and found that as I last used it 2-3 years ago this shouldn't be an issue. Put on another different treatment on largest hive and drop in 4 days was zero...Think I am OK

That's a brilliant result Queens ... I think there'll be a few more like this reporting in before the month is out.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Think I am OK

That's great and good to know you don't have to open the hive for Oxalic after Christmas.

 

[Tom Bick]

Average over a two week count is a drp of 250 per week on non swarmed hives and 90 per week on hives that had swarmed (natural counts between zero ti one per day)

the beekeeper with a 50 in a week natural drop has a apiquard drop of 2000 in the first week ?!!!!!

MM was this count from the swarm or from the original hive.