Allen;

I am at 34 degrees N about 120 miles inland from the Atlantic.  I saw
pollen coming in this weekend and one yard had cotton nectar coming in at
one yard, though thankfully that is the only yard I have near cotton.  I am
pulling the bees for alcohol washes from the second brood frame from the
outside in the top of a double deep.  You are right I am using the Amrine
board and I still like it because I can vary the dose according to hive
strength.  I cut 90% formic down to 50% and load the 50% into 1 liter
bottles.  I then measure the formic for each hive in a clearly marked
graduated cylinder I have marked for hive size using heavy black marks.
Using formic forced me to upgrade my equipment so I can get a tight seal,
so I ditched the screened bottoms and retired a lot of older boxes.  My
wash numbers are about the same as last year though I had about a 30%
loss.  Good discussion on the perils of robbing.  We have a bit of a fall
flow that helps deter robbing but now I am thinking I had better go around
and do washes again in early October and see if mite numbers have rebounded
from robbing.

Randy, enjoyed your new mite article in the new ABJ.  My technique is to
wash the bees in a pint narrow mouth mason jar for at least a minute,
though I don't see many stingers, so you must have pretty good wrist
action!  I then change out the lid and dump the alcohol/mite mix onto a
large kitchen strainer with a coffee filter line perched on top of a 1
gallon bucket.  I can see and count the mites very quickly on the white
filter paper and by the time I get back with another sample (maybe not up
to your four minute mark) most of the alcohol has drained into the bucket
for reuse.  I too wonder about how many mites get trapped in the dead bees
as I strain them out though the mesh top.  I also think we need a better
measuring cup measure to get closer to 300 bees, say a 3/5's cup?  Does
anyone know of a common cup that will hold pretty close to 300 bees?

Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC

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