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Date: | Fri, 5 Nov 1999 10:16:40 -0500 |
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Aaron Morris wrote:
> Grease patties all year is no longer recommended by the researcher
> credited with the original work, Diana Sammataro. Diana spoke at them
> summer seminar hosted by the Southern Adirondack Beekeepers Association and I
> questioned her at length about her work. Subsequent studies showed that
> grease patties can be used in fall/winter (when the bees are confined and
> clustered) to keep t-mites sufficiently in check.
This is very encouraging news. In the past I had attempted to keep grease patties
in the colony all year, but found that summer temperatures were too high for the
patties to hold together very well. So I abandoned any try at suumer treatments,
and hoped for the best. As it turned out, bees wintered very well indeed with a
fall patty placement, and I didn't notice any problems at all during the subsequent
spring and summer.
By the way, I just removed my coumaphos strips yesterday after 45 days in the
hives. Every colony (76) looks good - some are still completely packed with bees
now on November 5! It is surely different from about 5 years ago, when varroa
first hit my hives and 40% were dead by the middle of October.
Ted Fischer
Dexter, Michigan USA
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