Varrora mites

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irishguy

Field Bee
Joined
Dec 26, 2012
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865
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Location
ireland
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
2 over wintered nucs
Seeing as varrora is quite common now, is there anyone here who's been lucky to avoid them in your hives. The reason why I'm asking this is that I still haven't came across it in my hives. One thing that has me worried is after chatting to my neighbour 2 months ago about beekeeping, he became really interested in them. I was pleased with this and told him I'd make him a hive for free and help source him bees. Now I'll have someone close with same interest in bees to learn of each others hives.

Now the scary part after chatting to him, he knows a guy who's going to give him a free nuc from a commercial hive( the one i gave him was a national). The nuc has been waiting on him from last week but its full of varroa! I'm wanting to know, when he brings the nuc home, am I a cert to get varroa quicker than without this nuc sitting a few acres away from my hives.
 
Your colony is pretty certain to have some varroa already. The mites are quite hard to spot especially if you haven't had much practice and the level of infestation is low.
 
Your colony is pretty certain to have some varroa already. The mites are quite hard to spot especially if you haven't had much practice and the level of infestation is low.

That's not always the case ... I had zero varroa last year ... started with a swarm in June and checked religiously with Inspection board, drone cell uncapping, sugar rolls and alcohol washed ... zippo ! Got a few this year but they seem to be coping with it ... natural drop at present is single figures but ...

Back to the original question ... the proximity of a hive stuffed with varroa is going to heighten the prospect of more varroa in your colony ... but, they are likely to get infested at some point anyway so you just have to deal with it.

The question is:

Why is your friend taking on a nuc that's full of varroa ?... there are options:

First thing I would suggest is shook swarm them into a new box with empty frames... foundation or not .. at least you get rid of the mites in the cells and you can deal with the phoretic mites with a variety of treatments that go from icing sugar through to MAQS or OA vapour ... he then starts with a colony that is at least low on varroa, if not free of them. He's not going to get a honey crop off a Nuc this year so better to get them into a strong healthy state this year to overwinter and look forward to next year. He's going to lose a bit of brood but in a Nuc it's not going to be a lot and the upsides far outweigh taking on an existing problem and trying to sort it with brood in the chamber.

Suits you as well ....
 
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It is better that nuc does not have at all brood frames. It it only has bees and frames. So it is easy to kill mites and save frames.

But a very beginner starts to treat mites.....how it finally goes
 
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As Finman. I would not be shook swarming a nuc. Not even a commercial one, if at all avoidable.

As for likelyhood of spreading varroa. Think. 10 miles, one mile, close or immediately adjacent. Which one is more likely?
 
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If it’s really bad then there is obviously an increased risk of your bees picking up more varroa, your bees may rob out a sick and weak hive, drones from that hive may enter your hive.
If your friend wants the nuc then he with perhaps your help should first assess the level of varroa and then start some form of treatments to save the nuc because if it is bad then perhaps it is going to fail and I agree shook swarm for me would be a last resort.
 
Just a quickie, a nil drop on a varroa board does not mean no varroa! One hive last year nil drop till I treated and then .... Pow.... I think they were just long lived and good at hanging on!
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That's not always the case ... I had zero varroa last year ... started with a swarm in June and checked religiously with Inspection board, drone cell uncapping, sugar rolls and alcohol washed ... zippo ! Got a few this year but they seem to be coping with it ... natural drop at present is single figures but ...

We have two competing hypotheses here:

- Your hypothesis is that you had zero varroa in your first season

- My hypothesis is that you didn't see any mites because they're hard to spot when you don't have much practice, and the level of infestation was low

No way of proving which one is correct at this point.
 
I had a colony with zero mite drop. I took a bee sample of bees for a microscopy course and killed them by freezing. Lots of varroa fell off the frozen bees. I now take samples in the spring and from collected swarms to check for varroa and tbh, I don't bother with the varroa board at all.


Thinking inside and outside the box
 
The 'inspection board' on an open mesh floor is good for decreasing ventilation for thymol treatment. That is about all it is good for as far as varroa is concerned.
 
We have two competing hypotheses here:

- Your hypothesis is that you had zero varroa in your first season

- My hypothesis is that you didn't see any mites because they're hard to spot when you don't have much practice, and the level of infestation was low

No way of proving which one is correct at this point.

With all due respect .... Although my first season with bees I was handling them well beforehand and I knew what Varroa looked like. I agree that relying on an inspection board is not enough ... Hence my other measures for checking mites ... Whilst you may not believe it ... And that's your prerogative ... I know that there were no measurable levels of mites in my hive last year because my proper methods of inspecting for varroa never found any. Same methods I've used this year which have showed that I have some ...

Anyway back to the original question. As I've said often I'm averse to chemical treatment ... If the nuc (after proper inspection for mite levels) is as infested as the OP suggests then I'm still of the opinion that shaking them into a new box is an option to reduce the mite load ... Warm weather at present so any treatments that are based on evaporated substances are going to be pretty aggressive on the bees. if theres only a couple of frames of brood in the nuc I would suggest a change of box, keeping any frames of stores but losing any capped brood is going to give them a clean start .... along with something to knockdown the phoretic mites ...
 
@op when you say full of varroa what do you actually mean. Do they just have mites or is it a very high drop rate
 
@op when you say full of varroa what do you actually mean. Do they just have mites or is it a very high drop rate

If you see mites on bees with bare eyes, they are too many. And it is only June now. Mites douple themselves in every month.
 

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