Varroa natural mite drop

[user 6228]

In this Asgard, Finman is determined to cast himself as Loki. perhaps he should look at Loki's fate.

 

[Excession]

What is it with all the Fin bashing? A bit of tolerance would be nice!

Stop acting like children!

 

[Liam C Ryan]

Would it damage or hinder a hive if one treated it with apiguard even tough the hive had a very low mite count.
Regards
Liam C

 

[Heather]

I have had little varroa drop in 10 hives, so far- (seen 5 varroa) but wont leave to chance. I have put Apiguard on.. 3rd day now ... and NO drop. What is going on??
I wont do a repeat in 14 days, but will start with slow syrup feed with Nozevit as most of my hives have been v slow this summer and I am querying Nosema.

Are bees beginning to cope with varroa and disposing? Yep, on OMF but still none seen..

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

What is it with all the Fin bashing? A bit of tolerance would be nice!

Stop acting like children!

 

[Swarm]

Seconded.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I have had little varroa drop in 10 hives, so far- (seen 5 varroa) but wont leave to chance. I have put Apiguard on.. 3rd day now ... and NO drop. What is going on??
I wont do a repeat in 14 days, but will start with slow syrup feed with Nozevit as most of my hives have been v slow this summer and I am querying Nosema.

Are bees beginning to cope with varroa and disposing? Yep, on OMF but still none seen..

Did you have a recent brood break in the colder spell

 

[oliver90owner]

As I have just posted on another thread: natural mite drop is only one of several indicators of mite loading.

Go figure.

 

[REDWOOD]

This is the cr@p I hate on this forum, It does nothing for beekeeping and everything for men's egos

Definition of "With All Due Respects"
A term that is used to diffuse the impact of an insult. This has been used, albeit to poor effect, in parliament.

 

[Heather]

Did you have a recent brood break in the colder spell

Not at all, plenty of BIAS. even though some colonies seem to have little nectar.

and am i missing something???why have all got an 'ignore tag' except me......trouble t'mill me thinks.

 

[BeeJayBee]

and am i missing something???why have all got an 'ignore tag' except me.....

You can't easily ignore yourself, so you only have the option to ignore others.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

On another thread, it was reported that ants had been seen absconding with a Varroa Mite from the Inspection Board. Has the good weather increased the ant population to the point where they're foraging for food in unusual places - including our inspection boards?
If counting natural drops is not proving accurate, is killing drone brood and counting their infestation a better method of assessing the extent of Varroa in a colony? What's the minimum number needed for a statistically significant assessment? My book suggests 100.
On another matter, what are these little bugs in the photo I've found on my inspection boards - there were several found on my last check.

CVB

 

[RosieMc]

Last week I had to uncap 6 supers and 3 brood frames due to a drone layer and did not find a single varroa mite.

I've only been beekeeping for 4 years, but have never seen such little varroa drop.

Neither have I seen so few wasps around - could there be a connection here?

 

[Finman]

What is it with all the Fin bashing? A bit of tolerance would be nice!

Stop acting like children!

Question is not about tolerance. I have corrected their false information and they try to take revenge on me.

I know them allready.

I have been on forums 10 years. They are same everywhere.


What I tried to say with those numbers is that even if mite numbers are low, they rise-
Varroa douples itself in one month

If some 4-hive owner has mite tolerant bees, it does not mean that orther have. I wonder how mitetolerant bees can be in the middle of untolerant genepool. It is impossible.

I believe only on academic reseaches. Individual persons may let what ever frogs from theye mouth.
There is a big difference with academic reseaches and personal writings.

 

[Finman]

I (and others) have never treated, and I have never lost a colony by not doing so.

And what is the idea to deliver your "do nothing" advices.


I have had mites 30 years and I have treated them since 1987. I know very well what varroa does. Mite has become all the time worse than it was 10 years ago.

I am here on this forum to deliver facts about mite treatment. That I have done here 7 years . at least. I have not invented not a single facts. All data is from original trustfull rerearchers. I have allways datalinks to my facts if needed.


Our main menthor in Finland said 2 years ago, that he is going to look a beeyard where every single hive out of 150 hives are dead. The beekeeper had 30 y experience. And the menthor has 1000 hives.

What he found there was a huge amount of varroa. The treatment had been too light. So he said.


And guys, who now again try to attack on me, it is better just to look for type errors from my writings. My knowledge about varroa is good enough to be in this forum. I need not invent my own to the issue. Guys, get a life

.

 

[Heather]

Finman talks sense... and the tw.ts who 'correct' his grammar (you know who you are...) let us see your chat in Finnish .... so shut up the lot of you who yatter on about other than bee keeping. Get a bloody life!!
Sometimes they 'correct' who know little!!

And why are we seeing so little varroa?????

 

[Erichalfbee]

**

 

[Erichalfbee]

**

 

[Finman]

.
Guys correct my grammar in Finland too. Finnish people are about 5 million and you in UK about 60 million. You have much to do with me.

How to write "do nothing" correctly?

= Under recent circumtancies, and considering our economical future, we may say, that it is not necessary to treat mites so far. Treatment costs per dead mite will be too high. If we wait that mite drop is 100 bigger, the cost per mite will be 1% compared with "do it at once"-method.
To say it in another way, with same costs we are able to get 100 bigger mite harvest.

 

[oliver90owner]

Finman,

You yave brought the wrath of the forum down on your head because you are so adamant that varroa is always going to kill the colony in the next few weeks and you must use 3.2% oxalic acid every winter and all beekeepers are two hive owners ... and so it goes on.. At last some are seeing through your methods as purely commercial, and that given lots of good healthy bees going into winter is enough to ensure a good healthy colony in the spring - maybe with some varroa, but certainly not a dead-out as your posts appear to warn. I know exactly what you mean; oxalic allows you to not treat again for some time, even until the autumn, after harvest. But your posts do not take into account the hobby nature of the many beekeepers on this forum with just a couple of hives. Those of us with more than twenty or so colonies can easily afford to test out the alternative treatment regimes and I, for one, have repeatedly reported minimal winter losses without winter oxalic treatment - much to your chagrin.

The current situation may not be as good as it appears from the posts here, but it may demonstrate that the situation for the likes of Chis Luck and others in France is not all outlandish lies and mis-information.

In a lot of cases the varroa will likely bite back. I, too, have seen less varroa than in previous years but I will be sorting out some of the little critters to ensure healthy winter bees as far as I can. That may or may not be a full four weeks or more of thymol vapour in the hive; we shall see.

I most certainly do not and have never suggested that a single natural mite drop is the only evidence required to assess the varroa loading. It is an indication and if a high drop is found then likely the loading is high. Many do not notice the other evidence of varroa numbers throughout the season or do not connect the earlier assessments with the likely varroa population some months later.

However, both this and last year have shown much reduced varroa infestation and this may be (like Chis in France) down to fewer inspections at critical times - yes, I have noted the large number of unexpected swarmed colonies reported on the forum; an indication of missed inspections. I most certainly left my colonies alone earlier in the season because they were so late in developing.

Because of that, I will likely leave them with loads of winter honey as I do not need the crop, particularly as some will be OSR and will cause blown frames if extracted. I know I can sort that little problem next spring if it arises; some would not and some want to collect their first crop in two seasons!

Your winter season is long and brooding will be curtailed far longer than in the UK where, on occasions, brooding may not stop throughout the short winter season. The mite problem starts to multiply far earlier in the UK, than for your bees, and has a longer season to get to critical numbers. Yours are different - no increase until late April/early May and perhaps only five months at most for the little horrors to double each month.

A somewhat different scenario to the UK where doubling can start in February, or earlier, and continue throughout the rest of the season, unless a treatment is given. I can see this even if the new beeks and many others are oblivious to these real differences.

The simple fact is that there is a reduced varroa problem this year, but that is likely an average and will catch out some or even a lot. All I am interested in is having healthy bees going into the winter. I know then, that as the varroa loadings are low, they will survive the winter without losses due to varroa or oxalic acid trickling. Simple isn't it?

But, never mind, you getting a drubbing maybe keeps some off my back for a few days. They say there is always a silver lining to every cloud. Happy days

RAB