Another data point...

[Greg Sutherland]

Hi All,
I'd like to add my preliminary results to the stack. I've been following Dr. R. recommendation doing both the fogging and the cords. For the first month I fogged once a week and put in 4 new mop cords every 2 weeks. I check for mites using the screened bottom board and tray. At the end of the first month I was still getting a mite count averaging 50 per 24 hour period. This was down from 100 per 24 hour for the first week. I was concerned about the mite count being so high. There were 10-20 deformed drone brood and a half dozen deformed workers at the entrance every day.

For the last month I've started fogging twice a week for around 10 seconds with 6 mop cords every 2 weeks. This is a big hive with a single deep and 5 shallows (don't ask).

Here's the interesting part. This hive is going gangbusters. It is just packed with bees, brood, honey and pollen. Three weeks ago I reversed the bottom layer deep and the shallow right above it because the deep had zero brood in it. Perfectly clean. I haven't checked since due to cool weather.

The mite count continues to hover right at 50 per day. While a high number, as a percentage of the hive population it is probably decreasing as the population grows daily. I hesitate to put in Apistan because in the Pacific Northwest we are right in the middle of the Maple tree flow and the hive is doing so well.

Here are my questions:
1) Am I hurting my hive by fogging so much?
2) Are these mite count numbers out of line with what other people are seeing?
3) Are there sustainable mite levels or are am I just breeding 'super mites' that will be resistant to FGMO in the near future?

[Dr. Pedro Rodriguez]

Hello and Happy Easter to all.
This is quite an interesting post and I wish to thank Greg for his detailed and well described contribution. Here are my observations:
1. It is not abnormal to have high mite counts at this time of the year in your area in a colony that according to your description is going "gang busters." The mites are simply taking advantage of the abundanced of brood to lay. Keep up your treatments and you will notice a decline in due time.
2. Keep the treatments as you are doing if you have the time. It will not hurt your bees and they wont even notice the extra maneuvers to deliver the FGMO. In fact, you will find that their house cleaning habits (hygienic behavior) will increase, if you have not noticed already. This increase in house cleaning activity is the reason for your continued high mite drop count observation. The more they groom, the more mites that mite fall off (mite drop).
3. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE for mites to develop resistance against FGMO. The beauty of the system lies precisely on this aspect. It is totally mechanic, and mites can not develop resistance.
Please stay in touch and give us your findings.
Dr. Rodriguez

[Greg Sutherland]

Dr. R, Thanks for your reply.

I'll continue to monitor and report back. I'll be expanding from 1 to 3 hives this year so that will broaden my data set.

My hope is that the more people who report in with both sucesses and failures the better off the beekeeping community will be in the long run.

This is a grand experiment and well worth doing considering the risk verses the reward. One or two hives doing well in one or two years is nice but really doesn't mean much. It's only thousands of hives over decades that matters.

[Dr. Pedro Rodriguez]

Hello all.
I agree. Keep up good relations and exchange of ideas. It will benefit all of us.
Best regards.
Dr. Rodriguez