REGARDING           RE>patties                                                
                                                                                
Bruce Kemp writes:                                                              
"I am new to the list.  There seems to be quite a few of us.  I have been       
into bees for a year now and live in Virginia in the USA.  I understand         
there is quite a varroa mite problem here they carry a virus that has wiped     
out most of the hives around here.  I lost all of the 7 hives I had last        
year.  How wide-spread is this problem?  Is the varroa the only cause?          
                                                                                
Now I have found a hive in a tree and have been sapping out workers with a      
funnel and setting a brood chamber with a new queen next to the funnel so       
the workers drift over and join her.  I then take the hive off 10 miles         
where they will live.  I let the hive recover and repeat the process.  I        
have put in Apistan strips, 2 per box, hanging along side of the frames.  I     
don't know how to treat for trachael mites and what patties are.  Can           
someone enlighten me?  I want to do this right....                              
                                                                                
So to summarize my questions:                                                   
                                                                                
        1.  Is the virus wide-spread?                                           
        2.  Do other things cause the virus besides varroa?                     
        3.  What are patties?                                                   
        4.  What to do about trachael mites?                                    
        5.  Any suggestions on building more hives out of this tree hive?"      
                                                                                
                                                                                
1) I don't believe that the question is settled as to whether or not the        
varroa mites carry a virus or they themselves cause all the destructive         
effects we're seeing in infested colonies.  Virus or not, the devastation of    
varroa is quite widespread by now throughout the US, and worldwide as well.     
To my knowledge, only scattered island regions are free of varroa.              
                                                                                
2) Virus or not, these effects are seen only in varroa infested colonies.       
                                                                                
3) Patties are made of vegetable shortening and sugar, and were originally      
made as a vehicle for the introduction of terramycin into the colony for        
foulbrood prevention, since terramycin breaks down easily except in the         
presence of fats.  It was subsequently noticed that tracheal mite populations   
were diminished in hives containing these patties, and that the control         
patties without the terramycin had the same value in limiting tracheal mites.   
                                                                                
                                                                                
4) The easiest way to control tracheal mites, therefore, is to put patties in   
the hive after the supers are removed.  This will control both foulbrood        
diseases as well as tracheal mites.  The mites are mainly a problem in the      
fall, when they build up and adversely affect the winter bees.  Putting         
patties in the hives at this time of year is by far the best thing to do for    
tracheal mites.  Patties are commercially available (Terrapatties) or you can   
make your own (a 3 lb can of shortening blended with 5 lbs of sugar and a       
small packet of Terramycin (TM25)).                                             
                                                                                
5)  You can order a queen or two, then split the hive and requeen the           
queenless split.                                                                
                                                                                
Ted Fischer