Treatment for mites:
        One concept that I would like to add to the discussion on
treating for mites is that one cannot deal mainly with individual
colonies but must deal with the apiary. If the apiary has mites, you
must treat the whole apiary.
        If one hive has excessive mites in summer and you treat it
then, it is out of sync with the others, like you described. So it is
liable to get reinfested when you are treating the others in fall.
You must always consider drifting. Drifting is far mar common than
most people suppose.
        So, I would suggest keeping strictly to the regimen of
treating in the fall after the supers come off. Get them off early
and any extra honey gathered will go into the hive for winter. Treat
the whole apiary. If some hives die before treatment, that must be
expected.
        An alternative would be to take non-producing hives to a
"hospital yard" where again, all hives are being treated. Also, one
should always raise nucs in the summer. If you have new colonies
coming along, you will not despair of losing a hive now and again.
        Beekeeping is about percentages. You try to have a high
percent of your hives working,  cull out the failures, and keep
making increase. Many beekeepers lose 50 percent of their numbers
annually and plan for this by doubling their spring count, etc.
        Finally, the truth is we cannot even afford to deal mainly
with apiaries but we must deal with beekeeping as a whole. It would
be far better for everyone if everyone was treating the same way at
the same time.
        When bee inspection was common, there was an legal method of
dealing with disease and all beekeepers were expected to follow it,
in order to control disease throughout the country. Now it's every
man for himself (an old expression not intended to be sexist), and
almost nobody agrees nor follows the instructions on the label.
        I am constantly baffled by beekeepers who state simply that
they will not use coumaphos. If fluvalinate fails to work after a
while and you don't use something else, the bees die! Fortunately we
have a much better alternative in formic acid, which should be
readily available soon. But I would suggest we use every *legal*
method to keep the bees alive.
        It used to be against the law to keep diseased (AFB) hives. I
am not saying we need the laws back, but we do need uniform
recommendations that are followed throughout the entire beekeeping
population.
        Treat in producing colonies in spring and in fall (or late
summer in some areas), and if you have nucs, you can treat these in
summer for 6 weeks and again in fall. If you have mites after
treatment, you may need coumaphos or formic the next time.
Furthermore, if a hive is crashing in late summer, nothing will help
it as much as the addition of four or five frames of healthy brood
and bees and a new queen added at that time.



Peter Borst

[log in to unmask]

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/plb6/