I originally sent this to Allen Dick... then realized I could ask the whole group.
 
Just curious... when inspecting a hive, if you pull a frame and scratch off some drone brood to check for mites, what sort of numbers do you expect to see?
 
Just had the local bee inspectors come out (at my request) because we're moving a few hives, and I'm "buying" the hives from my mentor (I bought his old house).  
 
In the process of inspecting, one inspector checked a lot of drone brood for mites... and as far as I know, he found none.  Zero.  Zilch.  I haven't done any mite treatments this spring... they asked if i had done a formic acid pad treatment yet... I haven't.  
 
The one inspector says he expects to find one mite on each drone he checks... bad mite loads are 3-4 mites per capped cell.  
 
Opinions anyone?

 

 

Doug.

 		 	   		  
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