​>​
> M
> ​edhat Nasr
>
> ​>​
> In Alberta I ask any beekeeper reporting dead hives and claiming he did
> everything correct to kill mites to take a sample of 300 bees from the.dead
> bees and wash them. In most cases they report high numbers. If there is
> live colonies in the same yard. I ask him to do the same thing and check
> 300 bees.
>

​We have been encouraging the locals beeks here to do an alcohol wash on
dead outs and report the mite counts.  I do not know what the analysis of
the numbers mean but  in general, the deadout mite counts are high.  In the
range of 15+ (usually +) per 300 bee sample​.

Although the mites die with the bees,  I do not know how the mites are
distributed among the dead bees.

Another observation this spring:  We use screen BB with a solid monitoring
board beneath.  In the surviving colonies, the mite drop on the BB has been
higher that previous years per observation.  We are in Western NY and the
weather at the beginning of March was warm and we observed brood rearing
and we are just leaving a 2-3 week period of 20 degree F temps.  Our fall
treatments were 2 treatments of OA vaporization 1 week apart.  Colonies
alive but mites on the BB.

Dennis
very Western NY
Energizing the bear fence today

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