Well, I am still excited about using powdered sugar as a treatment.  I just
removed the sugar from our 2nd out of 3 treatments and the mites mixed in
sugar are so much less then when we first started in the spring.  Two of our
hives are still showing a few 100 mites in the sugar.  Some of our hives had
so few mites in the sugar, I am assuming that our mid-summer knock down was
very effective, not that it didn't work.  On those hives, I am showing very
few mites on the sticky boards.  I am assuming that by monitoring the
natural mite fall, I can determine if the infestation of mites are growing
or shrinking. Last week, between the  two treatments, I slid in a sticky
board for 4 days and did a count.  The counts are very much lower then early
summer.

   Through posting on other bee forums, there were questions about the
cornstarch  (non-caking agaent) in powdered sugar being bad for the bees.
Many people wrote in and said such small amounts shouldn't be a problem, but
that did alert me to add stomach problems like Nosema and Dysentery to my
watch list that includes Deformed Wing Virus.    I've been watching closely
the front of the hives for disoriented bees and diarrhea (and deformed
bees).  I haven't seen any problems but I will report them.  Also, the
powdered sugar is extremely easy (see our pics on www.countryrubes.com) to
use and cheap.

    I did contact my bee mentor and local bee master, Randy Oliver and sent
him Bill's comments and he did agree with his points of view:

Hi Janet
I finally read this letter (following) after I spoke with you on the phone.
Bill makes some great points.  The studies he refers to are out there for
the reading (and citation on your website).
I, too, would like to see the results of using powdered sugar after a full
year.  Results being colony size, general health, mite level compared to
other colonies in the area, and honey production.

'I could use powdered sugar just as Janet is doing. I predict that my
bees would be fine come spring. I might report excellent results over
the next two or three years. After that, I would probably be in trouble'

Bill makes a great point here.  The proof the pudding is in the tasting.
Will you still have healthy colonies in two years?  Your mite counts are a
good indicator that you will.  I will be especially interested in your
October counts.  I'm optimistic for you.  However, if you want to make
claims to a scientist, you're going to have to back them up with good data
from a controlled trial.  If you want to make claims to Joe Doe beekeeper,
you should prove that you have kept colonies healthy for at least two years
using ONLY powdered sugar and screens for mite control.



   Randy is a scientist, teaches science classes up here, and offered to set
me up with a program with control hives, timetables, stressing bees, and not
use anything but powdered sugar.  There are two scientist working on
powdered sugar for mite removal from hives, Dr. Fakhimzadeh and Tom Dowda
who's Dowda Method takes apart his hive and dusts each frame.  Dr.
Fakhimzadeh spoke about his methods at Apimodia in South Africa in 2001.  I
will see if I can find out if his bees are still healthy using powdered
sugar for these last 4 years and report on that   I am going to leave the
experimenting and controls to those two.   If something happens and the mite
count increases dramatically, I want the option of doing something, like
Sucorcide or OA.  I love our bees too much to watch them collapse.

 I just want to post my results, for beekeepers who are waiting for the
temperature to be right, or for their queens to stop laying, before the mite
build-up is so much that their bees health are compromised before they can
do their treatments.   Maybe this method doesn't knock down enough mites for
everyone, but its sure working for us.

Sincerely,

            Janet Brisson

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