Don't forget Zach's mite zapper -  it kills mites with heat.
 
I've years of data from hives fitted with multiple temp probes.  When a colony swarms, just as the bees start boiling out, the whole thermoregulation inside the hive goes tilt.  The hive core temperatures display a rapid heat spike, exceeding 36 degrees C, usually higher, up to 50 degree C.  After the swarm has exited and things settle down, the hive core temps come back down to normal - usually within 1/2 hr.
 
I don't know if the bees just quit thermo-regulating when a swarm is exiting, or whether it's an artifact of the chaotic activity, or maybe a behavioral response.   

However, I've wondered whether the heat spike (and we have seen it many times, more or less every time a swarm leaves) combined with swarming functions to depress mite levels in the source hive.  

I've seen for both tracheal and varroa mites, bees absconding, flying, or walking out in mass from heavily infested hives.  So, if one assumes that some portion of swarms are not simply production of a new colony, but a mite purge (with old, infested bees flying off), then a swarm would lesson the mite load in the hive and a 20-30 minute heat spike might have the same effect on remaining mites as Zach's mite zapper?
 
 
 

Has anyone seen a
similar
sun/shade/mite study replicated?




 
 
J.J. Bromenshenk
Bee Alert
Missoula, Mt
 
 
 

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