>Just had the local bee inspectors come out (at my request).
>The one inspector says he expects to find one mite on each drone he
>checks... bad mite loads are 3-4 mites per capped cell.
>Opinions anyone?
Opinions? With the bad advice above I would find another inspector.
This time of year:
one mite a drone is a serious infestation.
3-4 mites a capped cell and most likely the hive is over threshold.
We treat when we find 5 and up varroa in a roll of 300 bees.
After a varroa treatment period ( like the bees I worked and requeened
yesterday ) I found zero varroa in any drone brood. I am sure if I looked
hard enough I would find a varroa or two. Still these hives will need a
varroa treatment in 4-5 months ( of constant brood rearing fueled right now
by feeding pollen sub and a thin syrup followed by our main honey
flow)before winter.
Many of these hives have been split twice and I plan on making splits off
most in July to send to almonds.
When you are raising huge amounts of brood you are raising huge amounts of
varroa. Maybe a market could be made for varroa?
Control varroa and *in my opinion* you have a jump start on virus issues.
Most yards of bees I look at from those which use no treatments are a mess.
Maybe a strong hive or two but mostly what I call "dinks". Limping along
with (like your inspector said) a varroa in every cell and obvious signs (
to me but not to the hobby beekeeper) of parasitic mite syndrome ( PMS).
Those running Russian bees are the exception . Also it is not unusual when a
race which has proven varroa tolerance (Russian) arrives many claim success
with the "live and let die method" (Bond method).
Before the Russian bee few using the "Bond" method had repeatable results.
I have used and tested the Russian bee ( hundreds of Russian/Russian queens
of 4-5 years) and if you want to keep bees with a minimum of treatments the
only place in my opinion to start is with the Russian/Russian bee.
A perfect bee for many operations but in my case I use a prolific Italian
bee as does most the worlds commercial beekeepers My attempts at a F3
Russian /Italian bee produced a rather nasty non varroa tolerant bee.
Perhaps in the future I might go Russian bee but for now I will keep the
race I use.
The beekeepers I mentor learn a method which is the opposite of the bond
method. The bond method is useful in research or trying to find survivor
queens but lacks the *control* over results my method does.
bob
Doug.
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