Randy Oliver,
I just went thru this on the Organics List for beekeepers
there, talking about broodnest turnover period and, with
that the switch from short-lived honeybees to long-lived
honeybees that happens then, like in the spring when our
bees turn from long-lived honeybees to short-lived
honeybees.

At this time beekeepers look for bees dying off from
preceeding season and then firing up in waves with small
patch of brood and then with each succeeding wave of brood
layed and cycle, more and more.

But what most beekeepers don't key into is the fact that
there are short-lived mites and long-lived mites that
coincide with the honeybees, and the mites dying each
session of turnover, hence a spike in their deaths when the
broodnest is cleaned and resterilized with propolis. For
the broodnest acts like a living liver in a beehive and all
pests, predators, and diseases of the bees broodnest is
thus filtered and cleaned thru it come turnover time of
brood.

Other then that the bees go in a holding pattern with the
drones protecting the colonies by adsorbing the problems
themselves first, to give time to the workers to raise
brood the queen lays, and forage for food for the colony.

Now with the upswings of brooding and food coming in the
bees do more work associated with that. But on the
downswings of brooding aka the lulls and food coming in,
then the bees periodically chewout and clean and maintain
the broodnest somewhat, but the main push for recleaning
and resetup normally comes twice a year (spring and fall).

Then the mite turnover of for example the short-lived mites
like in the late summer HAVE TO GO SOMEWHERE and MUST DIE
to turn over. It is a spike for lack of other words and yet
few look at it this way, nor consider what is happening.

For if the short-lived mites don't die......then where do
they go? It's as simple as that, and large mite counts are
therefore good to see at least for me and the FIRST
regression down cycle in the fall is the hardest to explain
to a new beekeeper to go thru for they are told it is bad.
But in actuality it is good, for if you don't see the bees
cleaning out the mites following an active year of
regressing size down as much as you can for the bees to
have smaller comb to help against varroa reproduction, then
the mites go on. Seeing them thrown out and chewed out is
good. Also, helping the bees to adjust back down to 10-15%
drone cells is also good for it strengthens the chewing out
phase and broodnest cleaning/turnover phase. This way first
turnover with SC you get massive chewing out of varroa and
I have talked about this much with seeing when we did it
back in 1997, whole sheets of purple eye pupae looking at
us, like someone had taken a hot knive and uncapped the
worker brood. But this is not bad to see, for it means the
bees are working for all they can to save larvae and pupae
from varroa. Mites being taken out from both cells and off
the bodies of bees are then seen in mass and this is
nothing to be afraid of. You need and want to see it to
know the bees are cleaning. Then by the time the broodnest
turnover phase is done, the chewing out and mite drops slow
down and is lesser come the following spring, and then
progressively gets better the more the whole hive is
converted back to a more natural sustainable system.

Talked about it here even and it is in the archives I am
sure, though you would probably have to add in the
short-lived and long-lived mite part for understanding
whole picture as back then I just talked about the massive
chewing out of varroa and though everyone would understand
what I was saying without getting more deep and specific
into the turnover thing.

But again, think about it. It is logical, it fits the time
period and it is what is happening. The bees are throwing
out/cleaning out the short-lived now fading away
short-lived mites and knowing that colones turn brood at
different timings means some start earlier and some later
and while chewing off mites during the non-brooding lull,
the as the brooding slowly restarts and gains speed, the
bees then to keep them from reproduction during the firing
up, then chew them out. Prior to that the drones took care
of the problem by accepting the badness upon themselves,
but during turnover the poor drones are sacrificed like
offerings now and thrown out with duties done, until they
are allowed to restart back up again to again work for the
benefit of the hives with guarding besides mating
priveliges.

So be happy if on first regression down to SC if you see
large mite counts and the bees working to get rid of them
by chewing out. 

Now in saying this...........with LC the problem is
unchanged and the problem worsens. For the tergits are
better for the phoretic mites to get between and eat blood
meal and the blood meal in late summer has a higher JGH
level and hence better for reproduction. Then too many LC
bees also don't chew out varroa like with SC bees haveing
been thrown into a triggering mode to do so. So with mites
having a blood meal to maintain high JGH levels and then
with brooding restarting back up you get more mites left
alive going into the few LC worker cells with each season.
This then means that once the worker cells have one mite
the first season, then the second you work up to 2 mites
going in and 10 fold increases or more are not uncommon
especially with treatments failing. so with 2 mites or more
going in with brood restarting you get then the 2 original
plus offspring then sucking blood of the larvae/pupae.

This is bad on LC where there is reproduction vs SC where
there is really no reproduction. With 4 or more sucking in
a cell of worker pupae on LC you get shortened lives of the
honeybees. many don't make it out of the cell alive as
numbers progress. But you also have to consider that with 4
or more (basically 2 adults in plus offspring say from 2-3
year into process) you get the lives of the bees shortened
by 1/2. This means foraging also cut in half and with main
flows stopping and lulling late summer this can be bad for
not having force to make broodnest turnovers and can lead
to crashes. In winter too the 1/2 life is bad for having
early spring crashes too. But also on top of this the bees
chewed upon with LC are also sick and deformed and many do
not besides even do house duties. Which then means lack of
nurse bees, lack of house cleaning bees, besides lack of
foragers, and what foragers are left have shortened lives
now. Just a bad situation. 

Again on turnover you need to see large mite falls or
spikes to know the bees are doing jobs, especially if field
management is changed prior to to give the bees a chance to
turn  worker bees prior to going into turnover of the
broodnest. So with SC we like to see LARGE mite drops this
time of year. We like to see good patches of chewing out of
varroa. 

For again the short-lived mites in late summer have to go
someplace. To not see this means trouble, for if not
spitting out and chewing out........where is the trouble
with mites going to go??????? 

Food for thought.....

Regards,

Dee


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