At 11:37 PM 6/25/98 -0600, you wrote:
 
>After your last post on bee-l, I just have to ask you, do you treat
>your hives with Apistan for Varroa mites (after the comments you
>made about the pesticide merry-go-round and the "dustys" I wonder),
>or do you use some alternative treatment.  Also, do you make your
>living as a beekeeper, or is it a hobby for you now so you can
>afford to lose bees if they have one problem or another.  I, of
>course, am a hobbyist,
 
Howdy Aggie, and Bee Friends,
 
I am in a forced retirement from the bees. I never had a real job other
then the bees if you don't count the $.50 a hour I got for herding Ducks
for the neighbors as a kid. Actually I spent most of the time cleaning up
after them. I was a Duck Pooper Scooper.
 
I never treated for mites of any kind. The levels of Varroa mite in my
hives was less then in my neighbors who treated his a few months after he
treated. We were keeping bees in the same area about a mile apart at the
nearest.
 
Yes I lost a lot of bees and if I did not rebuild the hives as the queens
failed or the hives died here in Central California they all would die
within 3 years if not sooner and that was years before any mites had been
found in the US. At the last it would take only one season, so things were
getting bad. Today most of the commercial beekeepers here treat with the
strips and are continually re queening and rebuilding hives as they had to
do before mites.
 
>and I would hate to think I had to make a
>living from beekeeping with all the problems and unknowns these days,
>and one reason I'm willing to do it is that I want to learn how to
>solve the problems or how to live with them and what they actually do
>but I don't have so much invested that I can't afford to lose ALL my
>bees and still start all over again from nothing.
 
I suspect that if you do nothing in your area your bees will die in time.
But I also suspect that if you keep young queens by making nucs and divides
you will not lose them all. I would treat if everyone else is treating in
your area, but I would try some of the alternatives such as MO.
 
No area of the world that has honeybees introduced to it if it has suitable
bee pasture has ever reported then all disappearing for long. Most of the
reports seen today in the US such as 90% of the feral bees dead, or 1/2 the
4.5 million hives in the US are dead are just false or based on BS, Bad
Science, or out of context or to hype some other activity such as selling
you something you may not want or need to treat your bees with. Even in
limited areas such as an Island miles from the mainland attempts to remove
all bees by any method may look successful in reducing the total numbers
but natural restocking will take place the first good bee year.
 
>I've seen varroa climbing around on the comb and quite a lot of bees
>with thread-like crippled wings and I suspect it because of a Varroa
>infestation.  Do you have a recommendation besides Apistan?  They'll
>probably die, I'm afraid, because they are probably very susceptible to
>the mites.  If you have any advice you're willing to share, I'd really
>appreciate it.  Thanks,
 
We seldom see this much damage here in California even when the hives are
dyeing and it is said to be from Varroa? I would without looking suspect a
hive in that conditions has already had a dramatic loss of population and
would be very hard to bring back with any kind of treatment. Why not try a
few lines of mineral oil on a paper towel over the brood combs and see what
happens. As the bees tear up the paper they spread the oil around and it is
said to kill the mites. You can use this anytime as there is little chance
it will get in the honey and if it did it would not be a big deal. But like
I said I never have treated with anything other then TM for EFB.
 
Good Luck,
 
ttul, Andy-