The post states that it's a small colony with evidence of deformed wing virus, so possibly other problems as well.
No. It’s a cut out. It’s got varroa like a lot of bees living in ceilings and soffits.
That's a bummer.
Yes, do it now. You'll never have a better chance this year and no need to vape in mid winter
That is what you should expect if vaping with brood present. You should vape 4 times, 4-5 days apart (total 12-15 days) to cover a capped brood cycle. The OA will not kill any varroa in the capped brood, you can only get them after the brood emerges. So you get drops each time.
#Yes
This is the usual mis correlation of actions
)) the only reason OA trickling/single vape is done midwinter is because there's a chance of finding the colont broodless - not because the colony needs a mite treatment at Christmas. I treat mine at the end of the summer and that's it. I only occasionally vape around Christmas if I'm bored and the weather is nice, and then only apiaries that I can drive up to - you won't catch me lugging heavy kit over saturated fields just because 'the book' says I have to OA the bees at the solstice.
So what have you replaced her with?Have a nasty colony. Genuine stingers and have been for a while. Been determined to kill the queen for a very long time. Loaded up the smoker and gave them an awful lot of smoke right in the entrance.... a vengeful amount. Opened the lid and........lambs.
Anyhow, decided to proceed with the kill "knowing" that their behaviour this time was just a one off. Followed all Beekeeping Forum recommendations (thanks), splitting the hive into parts and putting another box in its place.... and in due course found the queen, which was something I couldn't do with them this time last year.
Walking back across a couple of fields, I initially had half a dozen following and pinging me, and there was one persistent one zapping my veil until I was well across the second field. I was thankful for it actually, as it was reassuring me that I had done the right thing killing the queen.
Then I realised it was inside the veil trying desperately to get out.
Well.....an Italian queen, bred by queen rearing experts.. from one of these cages. They have around 7000 colonies and start about 1400 cells a day through this time of year.
