Varroa

[T Beek]

Excellent video!  Thanks Jim, its just the kind of info we were looking for.  I think as more Beeks start raising their own queens we may yet see a decline in overall mite issues…..thanks again.

[HomeSteadDreamer]

Update- 

First if I'm going to give good observation it will be easier with good names

Lang is a weak langstroth hive that was a swarm hived last fall 2013 and has never shown much but is alive.  If the queen doesn't start a good lay pattern in a few weeks then I'm requeening with the first queen cell I can find.  This hive does have a lot of aborted brood at the bottom so I don't know if they are more hygenic or just low on resources or if their brood got chilled and died.  Didn't see signs of varroa but didn't roll they don't have many bees and they will be left to survive or not.

Nuc  top bar nuc with a champion layer.  strong. started June 1 2013

TBH top bar hive about 45" long and wide enough to super if needed.  strong with an observation window. started spring 2013


Nuc - 2/22 first peek, noticed 4 deformed wing virus (DWV) and lots of varroa, oil trays gunked and not working, replaced,  hive looks strong
3/1  no DWV  sugar roll  25 mites / 1/2 cup, hive looks strong new white wax
3/2  sugar rolled whole hive, killed lots of drone comb, 50% of drones larva had mites in cells
3/8  no DWV, sugar roll 7 mites to alittle less than 1/2 cup,  killed lots of drone larva less then 50% of drones had mites still quite a few though. Hive looks strong, new white wax

TBH
3/1  went through hive, 1 DWV, signs of mites, killed some drones 50% had mites, hive looks strong new white wax. oil trays gunked and not working replaced.
3/8  went through hive, 0 DWV, sugar toll 16 mites to 1/2 cup bees, killed almost all drone larva 50% or more had mites. Hive looks strong but girls carrying out dead drones, small pile of bees in front of entrance mostly drones.

Waiting on duster I ordered to make dusting the hive very painless.

Ok so the duster came and as of now it doesn't poof the powdered sugar the way I'd like.  I also got busy with some other things.....

I transferred the NUC into a long top bar hive as they were out growing the 13-15 bars in that box.  When transferring I tried to do a sugar roll but things didn't work out and I was in a hurry so I didn't get a count.  I did pull out some drone larva and didn't find a mite in a single cell.  This is a vast improvement from the last time I was in there and was removing drones.  I don't want to disturb them when I just moved their living space so I won't be going back in til next weekend but things looked good and they were putting on new white wax with a decent population but not so robust that they were going to swarm.

[HomeSteadDreamer]

Update.  I haven't done any treatment other then the one sugar dusting of the colony and some drone removal (2 weeks in a row) and today's  sugar roll revealed only 3 mites.

I have read that hygenic behavior may not kick in til the weather warms.  I don't know if it was the sugar roll combined with drone removal or the weather warming or the replacement of the oil in the pans but.  The hive had no beetles I saw and the mite count is way down.

Pretty happy with that.  I'll keep monitoring the mites but back to not treating or manipulating this hive for mites.  Will still manage to stop swarms and such.