>
> Hello Bob,
>
>    Looking forward to hearing about your experiments with this colony.
>
>                                         Yuuki
Hello Yuuki,
I will give you my findings and let you draw your own conclusions.
I had rolled three jars of about 200 bees before removing the colony
from the wall of the barn. approx 600 bees-1 varroa mite.  I said in
prior post there were no Varroa in the rolls . I was wrong as i did find
one by going thru the three jars contents on white paper.

After hiving the colony in modern equipment i installed 2 coumaphos
strips and a dewitt varroa test sticky board with screen. 24 hours later
i removed and found three dead varroa mites. Approx 20,000 bees-3 mites.
I disected about 200 bees from the colony. Killed by freezing.
I found Italian workers to have about  9% tracheal mite.
I found the Italian drones to have about the same level.
I found the old tatered wing carniolan drones to have tracheal mites and
nosema in every sample. 50%+ with very high tracheal mite and nosema
concentrations.
I found nosema in about 15% of the Italian workers-drones.

Your guess is as good as mine as to what the answer is here. I will put
forth my theory and see if you find it feasible.

Three years ago a swarm of Carniolan took up residence. Built the dark
comb and survived until last fall. Last fall or spring the queen died
and laying workers produced the Carniolan workers OR possibly the queen
was a drone layer. Anyway the drones wintered over. Hence the old black
drones with the tatered wings. Untreated last three years the carniolans
had high infestation of TM and nosema. lack of varroa on black drones
and in colony is a puzzler.
About four weeks ago a swarm of Italians(buckfast?)swarmed into wall of
barn. All to resist were the black drones which wouldn't and the bees
probabbly wouldn't evict in the spring. The new swarm queen started
laying in the old comb. Because of the high level of TM and nosema the
new swarm is starting to show slight signs of both. First thing i
noticed when removing the comb was the old black drones stagering
around. i could be wrong but i believe the key to solving the puzzle
lies with the black drones with the tatered wings. I saw no black drones
emerging. Only Italian. The queen i removed from the colony was young. I
can't say for sure this years but i believe less than a year old. There
was no surplus honey in the colony except for about five combs of white
comb with what i believe to be this years locust honey.

The most obvious conclusion would be the old queen died and they raised
a new queen. I don't believe thats the case here because of the old
drones from last year still around in huge numbers. Lack of heavy varroa
infestation.The new swarm comming from a spring treated for varroa hive.
Three years untreated would certainly have at least a 5+ mite per 100
bees varroa infestation. Evidence of wax moths and evidence of comb melt
down from not being strong enough to ventilate hive at some point in
last three years. the owner says she is sure that the original swarm
came three years ago. I transfered with my bee vacumm about 20,000 bees.
About what a month old awarm would be up to and about ten solid 3 1/2
in. worker brood comb into five deep frames held by rubber bands. About
what a swarm would be up to but half what a overwintered colony would
have now. After hive is established in modern equipment i will put these
above excluder to hatch and then harvest wax.
Tell what you think might be the senario. Also what further tests i
should do on this colony.

Tonight is our beekeepers meeting and i am going to ask if we can sell
our "removing Bees from Buildings tape"to the public. The tape is 45
minutes long and has everything you need to know about removing bees
from buildings,trees,stumps and 55 gallon drums. Several house removals.
Bob Harrison U.S.A.