wilderness
House Bee
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2008
- Messages
- 413
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- South Oxfordshire
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 4 + 1 nucs
I mowed the grass around the hives yesterday and today I've seen about 20 to 30 bees walking. I guess this might have been happening for weeks but the length of grass was hiding them. They were about 30 feet away from the hives and heading away from the hives. I took note of 2 or 3 with deformed wings but the others appeared OK.
I've been monitoring for varroa all summer and only found the odd mite on the insert so assumed there were not many in the colonies.
This morning I treated with Hivemaker's recipe and had 30+ mites fall in 1 hive within 4 hours (not checked the others yet).
Do you think all the walking bees are varroa damaged or something else like Acarine?
I do have a dozen of the "walkers" in a container in the freezer.
I've been monitoring for varroa all summer and only found the odd mite on the insert so assumed there were not many in the colonies.
This morning I treated with Hivemaker's recipe and had 30+ mites fall in 1 hive within 4 hours (not checked the others yet).
Do you think all the walking bees are varroa damaged or something else like Acarine?
I do have a dozen of the "walkers" in a container in the freezer.