Frankly, we find that packages established in the spring seldom have mite problems in the first year, presumably due to the brood break between point of origin and time of introduction.   

That's not the case with nucs and splits, which we were reminded of again this week when all of our packages are doing fine - no sign of mites, but a handful of colonies that we pumped up with bees shook from overwintered hives, which had not exhibited any detectable mites in June, now have mites and needed to be treated.  We caught it fairly early, but it was clear in three different apiaries - packages good, splits and packages to which we added bees - mites re-appearing.


 


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