On 11-Jan-16, at 12:59 PM, Justin Kay wrote:

>>  a varroa control method (we
>> now enjoy quite a nice tool kit of these) that they can employ when  
>> a hive
>> encounters problems with varroa.  What frequency and method do you  
>> suggest to those starting out to monitor for mites?
>

Hi Justin, Deborah and All

I am not a treatment free advocate.  I do, however, only treat for  
varroa if my monitoring indicates a need.  2015, for example, was a  
year with very low mite sticky board counts here.  My only varroa  
treatment was oxalic dribble in early December.

I have noticed that when we have an early spring here such that a mild  
March continues into summer, the bees build up early and so do the  
varroa so that varroa treatment in August is necessary.  2012 was a  
year like this and my mid July sticky board counts were high(109, 27,  
67, 20, 99, 128, 16, 10, 10 from 9 hives).  I used formic acid mite  
wipes from Jul 28 till Aug 16 on all hives.  After taking a break for  
my other life(visiting family) I rechecked two hives and found high  
counts again(64,44) so treated all hives with apivar(first time using  
chem strips since '90s).

All of my hives have screened bottom boards that I operate open to the  
ground except when taking mite counts.  I asked Keith Delaplane about  
open screens which he thought would be perfect for breeding SHB(we  
don't have yet), but he thought they would be great with an oil tray  
underneath.  Permanently installed screened bottom boards make sticky  
board monitoring a piece of cake, leaving them open to the ground  
eliminates the hive junk that collects on the solid bottom boards.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html