What did you do in the Apiary today?

[linoleum bonypart]

First vape of the winter....sunny .... no breeze

 

[Etton]

Bees out flying today for a short while, still bringing in pollen. Bright orange pollen.

 

[Etton]

First vape of the winter....sunny .... no breeze

Are you doing just the one vape per hive or 3 over 5 days to cover the brood cycle?

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Yes multi vapes.... inspection boards in

 

[Etton]

Yes multi vapes.... inspection boards in

If now a broodless period is there a need to do multiple vapes?

 

[Eyeman]

If now a broodless period is there a need to do multiple vapes?

Guess work unless you do an inspection?
You may get a clue from whether there are cappings on the inspection board. I don't have info on how reliable this is.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Cleared out a dead nuc; the last of a once thriving colony hit by CBPV.

 

[madasafish]

10C with 10mph winds gusting and varying from Northerly to Southerly every 3-4 minutes.
Vaped all hives...which was an interesting exercise due to gusting , I wore a P3 mask and glasses.. Despite the mask I had a horrible smell of OA in my nose..It proved impossible to avoid (diluted) fumes no matter where I stood within 20 meters of the hives.

Not a pleasant experience.

 

[Insy]

Went to heft the hives, thought quick in and out no need for suit ......

 

[Beefriendly]

Ditto....vaped all of mine today as well, but wearing a 3m 6000 half series mask with acid vapour filters and P3 filters had no problems with the OA vapour getting through. Figure it was a sound investment. Now that's the bees done and dusted for this year. One or two hives may be a little light, but nothing some fondant in January won't sort out.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Checked mite drops..... failed to catch a clever rabbit

 

[madasafish]

Reassembled a nuc blown apart in winds. Bees appear OK.

 

[fatshark]

12C last night when I treated (Sublimox) in the dark as Storm Caroline piled in. Today windy, 4C and colonies in another apiary clustered, so dribbled.

Checked one strong colony in poly and it was broodless as I'd hoped (and expected based on recent weather)

All looking good, but ages to go yet.

 

[B+.]

12C last night when I treated (Sublimox) in the dark as Storm Caroline piled in. Today windy, 4C and colonies in another apiary clustered, so dribbled.

Checked one strong colony in poly and it was broodless as I'd hoped (and expected based on recent weather)

All looking good, but ages to go yet.

I know this isn't pertinent to all, but, I recorded the following mean figures in my 2017 test group,:
Natural mite drop (20/2/17-13/03/17) = 0.78 mites/day
Soap test (1st week in July) = 0.11 mites/g
As a consequence, none of these will be treated for mites again this winter. In fact, it is a condition that none of the potential breeding stock are treated the previous winter in the breeding group I am a member of (www.beebreed.nl)
I believe that, by continuous treatment, we can not identify those colonies that are really worth propagating.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Natural mite drop (20/2/17-13/03/17) = 0.78 mites/day
Soap test (1st week in July) = 0.11 mites/g

I believe that, by continuous treatment, we can not identify those colonies that are really worth propagating.

Would an accelerated drop using OAV (so just the once) be acceptable do you think B+ ?

 

[B+.]

Would an accelerated drop using OAV (so just the once) be acceptable do you think B+ ?

OK. Let me be more precise.... the methodology I use does allow for a treatment when the nuc is first set up. This allows all colonies in a test group to start from a low base and develop under comparable conditions during the performance test the following year.
I find that all my bees have such low mite levels that I don't need to do this though.

You can measure progress as the colony develops all through the season and you'd get a line of best fit that you could extrapolate out to see if/when you needed to treat (if you remember, I posted a chart from LLH Kirchhain some time ago that told you where on the line you might need to treat. All you really need though is two points to draw a line. The gradient of that line tells you if you have a problem (or whether it's manageable). In my case, the gradient is less than one (and I'm well within the recommended range) so I don't need to treat

 

[charlievictorbravo]

I know this isn't pertinent to all, but, I recorded the following mean figures in my 2017 test group,:
Natural mite drop (20/2/17-13/03/17) = 0.78 mites/day
Soap test (1st week in July) = 0.11 mites/g
As a consequence, none of these will be treated for mites again this winter. In fact, it is a condition that none of the potential breeding stock are treated the previous winter in the breeding group I am a member of (www.beebreed.nl)
I believe that, by continuous treatment, we can not identify those colonies that are really worth propagating.

Is that a typo (mites/g) - what is it that you're recording with the soap test - mites per gramme of bees? Even so, the figures are remarkably low - well done!

CVB

 

[B+.]

Is that a typo (mites/g) - what is it that you're recording - mites per gramme of bees? Even so, the figures are remarkably low - well done!

CVB

That is correct.
The soapy water test takes a sample of bees (at least 30g), kill them by placing in the freezer overnight then soaking in a soapy water solution before washing the phoretic mites off the bees with a forceful jet of water into a double strainer. The upper section holds back the bees and the mites are washed into the fine mesh bellow.
An alternative is the sugar roll test, but, I prefer the soapy water test
Positives:
- You can freeze the sample until it is convenient to complete the test.
- The sample is secure. Nothing can affect the sample once it is stored safely in the freezer. If you did a sugar roll test and there was even a slight breeze, some of the mites might be blown away while you did the test
Negatives:
- You kill a small number of bees at a point in the season when the population of the colony is at its highest.

The figures I quoted were the average for the whole 2017 test group. Obviously, individual colonies showed different results. For example, the colony which had the lowest natural mite drop had 0.09 mites/day (2 mites over a 21 day period) but the colony with the highest NMD had 79 (3.76 mites/day over a 21 day period). With the soapy water test, the lowest number of mites came from a colony that had 0.00 mites/g (0 mites in a 101.6g sample) while the largest number came from a colony with 2.71 mites/g (12 mites in a 44.3g sample).
The figures I quoted initially were the means for each test for the whole test group as I think that is the best indication of how the programme is going.

 

[B+.]

Even so, the figures are remarkably low - well done!

CVB

The test group contains imported queens from other members of the breeding group alongside my own. When you read all this BBKA/BIBBA crap about restricting the entry of bees from other countries, you should realise that they're asking you to close the door to better bees.

 

[fatshark]

... restricting the entry of bees from other countries, you should realise that they're asking you to close the door to better bees.

Sometimes B+. Just like here, some of the imported stuff is really rubbish. Some imported bees are better, but just because they're imported doesn't make them better.

I'm not disagreeing, I'm just qualifying the statement.