On 17-Mar-15, at 12:40 PM, Peter Loring Borst wrote:

>>
>
> Having done thousands of ether rolls and hundreds of sticky boards,  
> I would point to the major flaw of the sticky board: it cannot  
> distinguish between a healthy hive with low mites and a nearly dead  
> one with low mites. In other words, colony population has to be  
> factored in.
>

Hi Peter and All

I believe I have overcome this disadvantage of sticky boards.  My  
method, however, is even more time consuming so not likely of interest  
to larger operators.  I start using sticky boards on all of my hives,  
except nucs and splits, in June.  I follow up with additional sticky  
board counts every two weeks until autumn.  By looking at the growth   
in the number of mites in each hive I can predict which hives will  
need treatment and when, before the counts get to the critical stage.   
My wife would disagree but I do have a life without bees and I  
sometimes miss a check and get surprised by a high count.  I almost  
never find mites in June, but early springs change that.  Warm weather  
starting in late March or early April will guarantee high mite counts  
in August and poor goldenrod flow in my experience.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

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