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Date: | Sat, 14 Oct 2000 13:26:10 -0600 |
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Here are our preliminary results:
In ten yards we obtained 45 mites from two to four hives by sugar shakes, using
about a cup of bees per hive with all the sugar dumped into a single bag per
yard for later analysis by dissolving the sugar in water.
We then immediately placed two Apistan(r) strips into each of the same tested
hives and inserted sticky boards with screens. The strips and boards were left
in the hives a minimum of 24 hours and a maximum of about a week (see data).
The sugar gave us 49 mites and the boards returned 2384 mites for a ratio of
about 49 mites dropped by Apistan for each mite found by sugar in the same
hives, however one must consider that some individual hives and some yards
returned zeros for both tests and therefore a simple ratio like 50:1 cannot be
used. A quick glance reveals that the ratio varies from around 15:1 to
infinity:1. Several hive groups that gave zero results from sugar shake
subsequently yielded mites in the hundreds.
Here is the raw data:
Board
P/u Yard Name Sugar Result Sticky Result
Date Shake (Mites) Board (Mites)
O5 BCNE S28 0 S28 0
O5 BCSW S29 0 S29 0
O5 BCSE S29 0 S28 13
O5 Jahns' O5 3 O5 0
O5 Taylors' O5 0 O5 1
O13 Vanovers' O10 0 O10 28
O13 KadarE O6 0 O6 235
O13 KadarW O6 3 O6 235
O13 ButlerW O10 0 O10 162
O13 ButlerE O10 0 O10 41
O13 Pisco O11 0 O11 204
O13 Hainsworth O11 0 O11 63
O13 Dixon Bush O11 28 O11 421
O10 Wilson O10 4 O10 288
O11 Dixon O11 8 O10 22
O12 Beckwith's O12 5 O12 72
O12 Schlags Hill O10 0 O12 213
O10 Schlag CS O10 0 O10 2
O13 Rattai O12 1 O12 381
Key: O13 is October 13, S29 is September 29
The work was done by our competent commercial beekeeping staff while going about
their normal activities, following standard procedures. Our location is east and
north of 51.1 N, 114.02 W or around halfway between Lethbridge and Edmonton,
Alberta CANADA.
I would be interested in comments from scientists and extension people as well
as beekeepers on what to make of this.
allen
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A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/Diary/
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