>  What strain of bees are you using


These queens are raised from an SMRxCarniolan breeder from Glenn apiaries.

Another note...

Yesterday, I did a workshop for the Vermont Beekeepers Association. Busy 
day, eh? Checking nucs from 8-11. Workshop from 12-3. Checking nucs from 
4-7. The presentation was on honey removal, and Varroa treatments. There 
are two groups of bees in our demonstration yard, two colonies in each 
group. All were started from over wintered nucs.

The first group are Russians, selected for Varroa tolerance. The local 
queen breeder hasn't treated in several years.
The second group are these SMRxCarniolan. They were made up last summer 
from varroa infested colonies. They were never treated.

As part of the presentation, we scooped out drone brood with a capping 
scratcher, and counted the number of infested pupae per 100 pupae removed.

The Russians were very infested, with one having nearly 100% of the drone 
pupae infested. Unbelievable how many mature female mites were on each 
pupae. This colony was showing a high level of PMS.
The SMRxCarnis had about a 20% infestation rate, and were showing no PMS.

The difference between the two groups was striking. This is all very 
encouraging to me. My focus in the last few years is getting my bees to the 
broodless period in November, with a low mite load. This will enable me to 
treat with Oxalic acid, without colonies crashing beforehand. I know that 
there were only 4 colonies in this yard, but I'm seeing low mite loads in 
my production yards, too. Up to a month ago, when I got too busy making 
nucs and raising queens to be scooping much drone brood, I was seeing 2 - 5 
infested pupae per 100. I'm resisting treating my colonies until I use the 
Oxalic in November. Even if I do have some colonies crash, I have nearly 
400 nucs for use as replacements next spring.

Mike


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