I'd really appreciate some feedback on what's in this video. Thanks.


 around the 9.50 mark he talks about the mite being pregnant.  
 
In my opinion that’s not what that is,  that mite is a brand new mite,  just emerged. 

When the mites feed on pupa they become very engorged like that  just like a tick,  then slim down after time.   Normally they are also a bit lighter in color  so that’s a bit different.   I have yet to see a phoretic mite that is engorged,  but several mites that have been in Royal jelly for some time seem to also engorge again.   This can be confirmed very easy by opening a few capped cells in a fairly healthy hive and looking at mites.   You will see this engorgement on mites ready to emerge.




May be some other thoughts, packages come from many sources,  so it is possible yours came from a yard that’s been using Apivar,  and do have some restiance,  but you could also have some bad Apivar?

It appears to me the hive is also suffering from a severe lack of nutrition.  As it slowly dwindled the problem gets to be a self sustaining issue.  No food,  sick brood/ increased mite ratio.  So the question is of course which came first?


It seems to me just as an VERY casual observation,  this one was about timing.  Varro problem not caught anywhere near early enough to fix,  and then treatments failed for whatever reason,  again not caught in time to fix.....

The EFB concern is usually cleared up with good food,  and PMS often look like EFB,  but just my 2 cents worth.


Charles
 

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