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Date: | Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:56:17 -0600 |
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> various stores (Walgreens) sell reading glasses which fold and can be
> placed in a crush proof case ( about the size of a half dollar US.)
> which fit easily in the pocket of your bee suit. Come in many
> magnifications.
Right. I have many pairs of reading glasses, including those compact
ones which I love because they are so low-profile I can wear them and
still drive my forklift without crashing into things.
The reason I made the point I did is that I found them inadequate for
getting a truly accurate count of mites on drop boards when accuracy is
important (not always). The closest I have come to a real count, done
right, is around 80% using just reading glasses, and sometimes poorer
than that. That is after counting scrupulously and also after much
practice, too. I always use a magnifier light now.
Now, what degree of accuracy do we really need? I assume that if we are
to going use the recommendations of researchers as a benchmark, that
they did their homework and know exactly which mites to count and which
not to count and don' miss many that are on edge or in debris -- so I
assume that they are counting more mites than most beekeepers. Maybe
twice as many or more. They also have grad students to do the grunt
work like counting, and we all know that grad students are very studious
and have nothing better to do than count each board twice. As a result,
when researchers say, "25 mites" is borderline (or some such) and the
beekeeper looks at the same board and sees 5 of the 25 (no kidding),
what is going to happen?
Of course a prudent beekeeper is not going to allow his/her hives within
50% of published thresholds (right?), BUT if his/her count is off by 50%
or more??? On the low side!
I happen to be writing about these very topics in my diary these days
and what I get around to posting here is just a portion of it and
largely points I want to receive some debate on.
I have much more detail at:
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/
BTW, my drops today are half what they were the first day -- and I used
the magnifier light AND reading glasses.
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