I am starting to do alcohol washes in preparation for late summer
treatment.  I washed 3 bee yards today and saw a good bit of variability
with numbers ranging from 0 to 10.  The good news is I did not see any
really high numbers.  I have a lot of new hives started from 3 frame nucs
this spring (using queen cells) and most of them checked out low, though I
did get one that washed 10 mites in a 300 bee sample.  Established hives
were variable though they were last treated in December with oxalic
acid. In N.C we had a cool, late spring and we have had a very wet summer
so far.   I am doing about a 25% random sample in each yard and saving the
washed bees for Nosema spore counts.  A question I have is if I find even 1
or 2 relatively high mite counts in a yard of 24 hives is it best to treat
the whole yard?   I am inclined to treat the whole yard, and I use formic
and thymol in rotation.
I worry about my bees robbing out someone else's bees and bringing home
their problems.  There are a LOT of new beekeepers in this area and I
wonder about the level of management that goes in beginners....    I
thought I was isolated but picked up 2 bad AFB cases 3 years ago.  The AFB
was bad enough that I could smell it when I walked past the hives.  I had
not had an AFB strike in 25 years.  As I pulled out of the bee yard I saw
pallets of bees in a cucumber field a quarter of a mile away, and I know
those bees had been in almonds in California, though I am in rural North
Carolina.  It  is a small world sometimes, too small.

Bill Lord
Louisburg, NC

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