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Subject:
From:
bob harrison <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Mon, 15 May 2000 23:30:40 -0500
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Bob Harrison wrote:
>
 I can't rule out the fact
> they might be a recent swarm in a old nest varroa killed out nest.

I believe they are in fact a swarm of a few weeks ago in a varroa killed
nest by the total brood area.A over wintered colony should have had more
brood and i believe i would have got a varroa mite out of three rolls.

 To make
> a long story short i am tearing apart her barn wall Monday and extracting
> the bees and comb.

Took most of the day working by myself. The bees were between 2x4 on
16in. centers. 3 1/2 in. - comb 7-8 combs across and total area of comb
94 in. in length. I was able to put 5 deep frames of worker brood in new
frames by inserting two pieces of 3 1/2 together. The queen was young
and looked Buckfast. Dark yellow with black tip. Solid pattern with out
mt cells. Very little honey but a lot of comb. All medium dark but small
section with sealed and unsealed honey.

I put the  queen and brood in single box deep box,queen excluder and MT
deep shell with honey comb.
I put two strips in bottom box between frames  and sticky board to test
for mites. I will check sticky board tomorrow for mites. I don't really
expect to find any or many. I rolled three jars before i started and
zero mites. I believe they are a swarm from a treated colony.
There was melted wax on the  bottom of the colony  like there had been a
meltdown back in history and evidence of wax moth damage.

The only strange item is there were a huge number of drones but the
queen had only a mininum amount of drone brood. I tore all apart and no
varroa. The drones were of two distinct strains. Italians and carniolan.
All the black drones had tatered wings and the italian drones looked
young with fuzzy backs. The old drones seem to stagger about. I believe
TM might be the problem in the old drones but haven't tested yet. I
pulled a few bees apart and saw white midguts. Will test for TM &
nosema  later with microscope.
I could be wrong. Have before! But i believe i still have yet to see a
feral colony which has survived varroa in Missouri untreated.
>
> Bob Harrison
> Missouri,U.S.A.
> [log in to unmask]

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