Varroa population decreased in last years.

[ganbee]

:) In my region( Ekaterinburg,Russia) Varroa came in the 80s and destroyed 50% of the bee colonies.But now their level is 100-200-300 mites per colony.And you may even miss a treatment one year or another.I don't know the reason.

[tecumseh]

welcome to the forum ganbee..

or as we might have said in the us navy... welcome aboard.

sounds like to me the host/prey relationship is moving towards some bioliogical equilibrum..... at least that is one possibility.

if you did treat using some version of a NASTY chlorinated hydrocarbon.... every other year application might have some benefit in that the prey would not become so quickly adapted to 'that' particular version of NASTY chemical. the story from this side of the pond is that generally after about 2 years the varroa has adapted to the newest NASTY. which is kind of interesting in that folks that put those NASTY in a hive pay for two years of treatment but only receive one year of benefit. those odd are slightly better than Vegas, but only by one or two percent.

old russia is a BIG place... so in a general sense, in what part of russia are your located?

[ganbee]

As for me,I apply only Apistan strips bought 15 years ago and put two strips for 2-4 days,+ control treatment with a"nasty" thing of two random colones.No,it is not chemistry queston,to my mind,it is biology of the colony. No mites(few mites) but no honey too in 2007 in my region(Ural mountains).2005-great! Ekaterinburg(Sverdlovsk)-look at the map,I come in right time,not at night.

[tecumseh]

I will have to look you up on the map. as for here, mites on no mites, some years produces a bit of honey and some years none.... much of that still depends on the weather.

personally I have no (read 0) faith in any chlorinated hydrocarbon product to provide any assistance in regards to the mite. in the context of other kinds of agriculture I have been down that road before and have long ago determined that it is rarely money well spent. on several occasions, you create more problems than you remedy.

ps... my wife's first-second language as a child was Russian (she traveled a bit with family to Russia when she was younger) and she currently has two students from Russia (studing marine mammals I think????).

[Dave W]

>I apply only Apistan strips bought 15 years ago . . .

If your strips are "15 years old", are they still good?



>put two strips for 2-4 days . . .

Please explain :)



Welcome!

[Joel]

Ganbee, great to have a friend from Russia posting here! Isn't the internet great!

I don't now how many years you've been dealing with Varroa, about 10-12 here in the NE United States. I've seen good years and bad years. i thinkn like every living thing in nature there are natural cycles with peaks and valleys for populations due to the pests biological enemies, treatments and natural conditions such as weather. Perhaps your bees have adapted to varroa over a longer period of time. This would be interesting and hopeful to ferret out if that is the case.

I'd be interested see a post on general beekeeping practices in Russia including stock, disease, treatments, crops and a seasonal cycle, if you have the time.

[ganbee]

[No mistakes.Worn-out strips still do their job.A pair of them in one hive for 1-2 days,the same strips in another hive and then store them untill next fall.
As for writing more on Russian beekeeping-sorry:my English is a problem.May-be short answers?

[tecumseh]

short answer are good... most of us can 'fill in the blanks' quite routinely.

[Dave W]

>>Please explain . . .
>A pair of them in one hive for 1-2 days,the same strips in another hive and then store them untill next fall.

That explains it very well. Thank you.


>As for writing more on Russian beekeeping . . .

I would like to know more :)

[golddust-twins]

>As for writing more on Russian beekeeping-

Yes ganbee,
We all want to know more...so please continue :)

Corinne