Janaet,

I just wanted to THANK YOU for putting out your results on this list,
especially with all the flack you have taken. Since I have always done
my own test before passing on information I decided to see how well your
observation with powdered sugar would work on some of my hives. One of
the variables talked about online was that powder sugar as generally
sold in the store contains corn starch. I decided to make my own powder
sugar to eliminate that possible variable. Using an old stainless steel
Vita Mix juicing machine, which can also grind grain into flour, I
poured granulated sugar into the machine and ended up with very fine
powdered sugar in less than a minute.

As per your instructions online I poured in 2.5 cups of sugar onto the
top 10 bars of each of 11 hives containing brood in various stages and
their queen. These hives all have screened bottom boards and a sticky
board below. For several days before no varroa where showing on the
boards from natural mite fall. I check my hives inside once every week
especially for signs of "K" wing and deformed wings, which would alert
me to immediately do a sugar roll test and take other action. Having
been away at bee conferences I did not get a chance to do my normal
inspections for about 2 to 3 weeks. As a result I lost one hive to PMS
in about the middle of this group of hives. I had been regularly
uncapping drone brood and had not seen any high mite counts, but somehow
this hive crashed. Rather than now doing my sugar roll on all the hives
I decided to try some of your method with the sugar on the top bars. I
say some because I did not follow your recipe exactly.  Some of the
hives were a story and a half, some 3 mediums and one with three mediums
plus one deep, another with 4 mediums plus one deep. Yes, their was a
lot of variations between the hives and quite a variation between the
various queens lineage.

After one hour I pulled the sticky board from the first hive, taking
note of the varroa count. I discarded the wasted powdered sugar and
varroa as you did into a trash bag and immediately removed it from the
bee yard. All the hives were done by me exactly the same so that I could
have a constant.  I recoated each sticky board as I proceeded to do each
hive in turn. The next day (your 24 hours) I again checked each sticky
board and again discarded the varroa and powdered sugar. All the frames
had the powder sugar removed to the screen bottom board or a very small
amount to outside the hives

The results showed the varroa, not just on the nurse bees as in a sugar
roll but rather on the whole hive. The workers were really covered in
powdered sugar. Checking the "white" bees the day of the test and the
next day showed no damage to the bees. Their upset was similar to the
standard sugar roll test. The process was faster than the normal sugar
roll and produced an overview of the whole hive's condition, including
the hygienics of the queens. Even after two cleanings of the sticky
board I had hives with no varroa mite fall. Other hives had light counts
(5 mites), some had a medium (30 mites) and some were heavy (60 mites or
more) each time I cleaned the sticky boards. Those who want to treat can
have a fast exact idea of what is going on in that particular hive
without dismantling the hive. The percent of mites to the hive were
directly proportional to the aggressiveness of the hive. I have done
very extensive research online and in books and have not been able as
yet to find a study that even suggests normally gentle bees become
aggressive with higher mite counts.

Just 11 hives is a small sampling but it is part of what makes
beekeeping interesting too. There did not seem to be any order as to the
results observed in the various hives and the hives were in a straight
line. In other words there were no varroa to very little varroa just
dispersed between the hives. Each hive is on its own individual hive
stand 20" high and spaced about 3 feet apart. Smoke is used only if a
hive is very aggressive otherwise I do not use smoke..

I am sorry this email is so long but I thought you may want to know why
I am thanking you. It is unfortunate that  we continue to shoot the
messenger. Beekeepers should continue to report their findings by
observation and let the rest of us do our own tests. Several beekeeping
experts have told me this or that will not work when my own test proves
that they do work. When asked if they have done tests the replies have
been "I do not need to because it will not work". If a blind man a few
hundred years before us can discover that queen mating is done outside
the hive, would we have told him what could a blind man see in a hive?
;-)      (This discovery occurred at a time period when the current
"facts were that mating occurred inside the hive or that the drones
inseminated the eggs in the cells" -Dewey M. Caron "Honey Bee Biology
and Beekeeping")

Michael



Mike & Janet Brisson wrote:

> Absolutely.  Each time we do a treatment, we apply the powdered sugar 3
> times, 7 to 10 days apart, like Sucrocide.  That's the timing to capture
> mites as cap brood hatches.  I've done it so far when there were no honey
> supers.
>

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