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Date: | Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:04:35 -0400 |
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I am starting to do alcohol washes in preparation for late summer
treatment. I washed 3 bee yards today and saw a good bit of variability
with numbers ranging from 0 to 10. The good news is I did not see any
really high numbers. I have a lot of new hives started from 3 frame nucs
this spring (using queen cells) and most of them checked out low, though I
did get one that washed 10 mites in a 300 bee sample. Established hives
were variable though they were last treated in December with oxalic
acid. In N.C we had a cool, late spring and we have had a very wet summer
so far. I am doing about a 25% random sample in each yard and saving the
washed bees for Nosema spore counts. A question I have is if I find even 1
or 2 relatively high mite counts in a yard of 24 hives is it best to treat
the whole yard? I am inclined to treat the whole yard, and I use formic
and thymol in rotation.
I worry about my bees robbing out someone else's bees and bringing home
their problems. There are a LOT of new beekeepers in this area and I
wonder about the level of management that goes in beginners.... I
thought I was isolated but picked up 2 bad AFB cases 3 years ago. The AFB
was bad enough that I could smell it when I walked past the hives. I had
not had an AFB strike in 25 years. As I pulled out of the bee yard I saw
pallets of bees in a cucumber field a quarter of a mile away, and I know
those bees had been in almonds in California, though I am in rural North
Carolina. It is a small world sometimes, too small.
Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC
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