Hi Anne & All

I think that alcohol wash and starter fluid methods are not likely to used by novices because you expect them to scoop up bees from the brood frames without finding the queen first, and also no novice wants to kill 300 bees.  I have watched various beekeepers including a bee inspector perform this operation and not one checked to see if they could find the queen.  Open, pull frame, scoop bees, close hive, shake jar although I’ve not heard any of them say whoops dam’t, but maybe under their breath.

Sticky boards are are a problem if left in the hive too long because hive debris falling from above makes it difficult to see the mites.  Sticky boards marked with a grid(1”- 2” squares) allows the beekeeper to concentrate on each square one at a time.  Too time consuming for large numbers of hives but not for small operators.  Sticky boards also help to show what is going on in a hive such as crop coming in shown by stripes of pollen, or where bees are working or not shown by cluttered or clean areas.

It may be that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I have been using sticky boards since varroa arrived here in the ‘90s but I often use a magnifying class to help the old eyes.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

> On 5 Dec 2019, at 4:40 PM, Anne Bennett <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
In what way are sticky boards hard to use?  Or do you mean that it's
hard to interpret the results correctly?

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html