Pics of mite drop after Oxalic Acid Vapor treatment. One hive to die.

[van from Arkansas]

I will presents 4 different pictures of bottom boards, each with the details.  All hives treated Nov. 2, with provap 110V and 1gram of acid per deep.  Fourth treatment of the year.

This picture is of the bottom board of a 2019 queen purchased for genetics diversity.  I doubt this hive will make it, to weakened by mites and will dwindle and die by March.  Diatomaceous earth on bottom board, wax capping, there is a moth for size comparison, LOOK AT ALL THE MITES.  Many more to fall in the next few days.

To many mites to count!



I am not proud of this pic, it horrifying but I must show the good with the bad in all honesty.

[van from Arkansas]

Clean bottom board just before treatment.  Very few mites. 2018. queen, my original stock, Alpha daughter.

[van from Arkansas]

Queen, Alpha, my breeder queen, 3.6 years of age.  Five dead hive beetles killed by diatom earth.  Look hard, few mites.



Van

[van from Arkansas]

Alpha?s granddaughter:

[van from Arkansas]

Three generations of same queen line:
1.  Alpha

2.  her 2017 daughter,

3.  her 2018 granddaughter.

Find a good queen and breed her.  Alpha showed hygenic qualities form the beginning, along with gentle offspring and good honey production.

Out of 14 hives, only one was horrific with mite drop as shown in the top pic.  Every year I have to purchase some queens for genetics.  The top pic was one of those purchased queens. 

[van from Arkansas]

I enlarged a small section of the first pic with all the mites.  Kinda blurry but look at all the mites in an area the size of a dime.  Almost 40 mites are shown in this small area picked at random of the bottom board. 

[Ben Framed]

Good post Mr Van. One of the good things about AI breeding is you can pick the drones that you would like to breed to. Hopefully making steady improvement with your genetic line of bees.  Good Job on killing be mites Mr Van. You are definitely on to good things.

[van from Arkansas]

This hive did die prior to 11/18/19.  Temps currently in the 60F range so I was able to check on this hive hit so hard by Varroa.  Last week we had temps is the teens and the bees froze to death.  Dead bees on the bottom board by the hundreds.  Only a small handful clinging to a brooded frame remain.  The bees to weakened by Varroa to deal with the low temperatures.  The hive had 7 frames of capped honey and 7 frames of bee bread and sugar syrup.

Other factors that affect hive health were not detected such as Nosema, chalkbrood, foul brood.  Remaining hives appear healthy, very active.  The queen was a 2019 cordovan itialian purchased for genetic diversity. The queen was a heavy layer which contributed to large numbers of Varroa as ever time I treated with OAV there were many frames of capped brood and as most realize OAV does not affect mites under the protective cap of wax.

As always, I strive to breed from the strongest hives and the weaker hives, as described here, are culled.  This is a continuous process of weaning out the weaker hives.

Van

[Ben Framed]

This hive did die prior to 11/18/19.  Temps currently in the 60F range so I was able to check on this hive hit so hard by Varroa.  Last week we had temps is the teens and the bees froze to death.  Dead bees on the bottom board by the hundreds.  Only a small handful clinging to a brooded frame remain.  The bees to weakened by Varroa to deal with the low temperatures.  The hive had 7 frames of capped honey and 7 frames of bee bread and sugar syrup.

Other factors that affect hive health were not detected such as Nosema, chalkbrood, foul brood.  Remaining hives appear healthy, very active.  The queen was a 2019 cordovan itialian purchased for genetic diversity. The queen was a heavy layer which contributed to large numbers of Varroa as ever time I treated with OAV there were many frames of capped brood and as most realize OAV does not affect mites under the protective cap of wax.

As always, I strive to breed from the strongest hives and the weaker hives, as described here, are culled.  This is a continuous process of weaning out the weaker hives.

Van

Thanks for this mini series Mr Van.