Mites, Re-queen?

[sardines]

I am a hobbyist with one hive. Some of the workers have deformed wings. Few are bad enough that they can't fly, but they are definitely deformed. My hive was healthy regardless until the past few weeks, When the over all population declined significantly, and the drone propulation skyrocketed. There is little brood total, and of that, way too much is drone brood. I am going to look again today, but I couldn't find the queen yesterday. I didn't requeen last year. Should I re-queen right now?

What is the best non-chemical mite solution? I need to treat them right away, and I don't want to use chemicals because I don't want to remove the honey.

-Reid

[KQ6AR]

I'm a newbee, but I would re queen, with VSH or russian queen. The longer the hive is queenless, the better you can reduce the mite load with powdered sugar.

Do you remove any drone brood, It helps

[Axtmann]

It’s up to you but I would give them a strip Thymol. Thymol is a natural ingredient in honey and kills mites even in closed cells. Bees with deformed wings are useless for the colony and the only way to get rid of the virus is killing all mites.
Don’t wait to long or play with sugar, the bee population is down slowing and the Varroa doubles with every brood cycle.
Re-queen is not the solution to get rid of the Varroa. I re-queen only if necessary, I have queens form 2007 and they laying perfect.

[Marc]

It sounds at least to me that your biggest problem right now are not mites, but that your hive is queenless and that it has laying workers. You mention a lot of drones in the hive, dwindling worker population and mostly drone brood, but very little worker brood. Those are symptoms of a laying worker hive. Visible deformed wing virus can be a sign of high varroa load, but without a count that's speculation. Assuming your hive is queenless and produces only drones at this point you also create a perfect brood chamber for varroa mites on all those developing drones. Since you have only one hive it's very difficult to turn this hive around, especially this far into summer.

If I were in your place I would determine first if you have a laying worker hive. Look for eggs in cells, usually several in one cell and most on the side walls of the cells, not the bottom. If you see drone brood appear all over the face of frames you most certainly have laying workers. Without another hive there isn't much you can do, other than shaking out the bees and starting over with a new package and a queen, or a nuc.
If your hive still has a queen and you have some brood you can try to powder sugar them at least once a week and add drone frames to your hive so you can trap drones in the developing and capped drone cells and remove them from your hive. It might be already too late for this hive to work though, but with an aggressive powdering and removal schedule you might get your mite load low enough for the bees to raise healthy wintering bees later in the fall. The other option you have with a queen right hive would be a chemical treatment, but I can't say much about that, as I don't use anything other than powdered sugar and drone frames.

Finally, you need to think about what kind of preventive measures you have in place up to this pint to keep varroa numbers low. Doing nothing special and just hoping for the best won't work, as you can see. There are several strategies available that let you keep varroa mites under control without having to resort to drastic measures, but they need to be applied consistently and throughout the year.
Sorry for the long response, please let me know in a pm if you want more info. Good luck!

[MasterBee]

Hmm .... I will give you my best advise with out wasting your time.


I would first get Mite AwayII (http://www.miteaway.com/) Formic Acid Pads

Watch a video: Youtube Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0icFVPRJuY)


Second i assume you have a standard bottom board for your Beehive. I would immediately switch to screened bottom board. Remember you should change to standard bottom board when the weather gets colder in October. Depending on your climate.

You can buy one here: dadant.com (https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=26_52&products_id=340)

https://www.dadant.com/catalog/images/B92901l.jpg




Also elevate your bees (http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230365) away from weeds or plants and have at least 2 feet above the ground. If you have time you can build a nice plat form for them that will help with elevation issues and other good benefits.

[gmcharlie]

Marc is on target, with the powdered sugar, I would add one thing though, since your queen is suspect I would pich or at least cage her to a 2x2 area. order a new queen...... with at least 7 days between the old queen and a new.

My preferance would be to find a new egg and break open teh cell wall. this would create a queen cell (a cpl would be good) as soon as they are capped, off the old queen..... give them 10 days to hatch (queenless at this time) and 5 days to mate, then off the virgin, and put in your new breed queen.

What this does is give the hive 10 days or so without larve for the mites. when the new queen does lay. the mites will swarm to the first few larve, haveing 4-5 mites on each larve... these larve will die and be removed by the hive.... this huge reduction in the mite cycle will help you reduce the mite load.

Read MDA splitter. com........ mans a genius..... I use his methods on queen cells and mites!

5 years, no losses, on large cell

[Adrian Quiney WI]

Is there anyone else here using, or have tried, MDA splitter's methods besides GMcharlie? If so what have you found? Adrian.

[peacekeeperapiaries]

Follow some or all of MDA splitters principles throughout the year. NO mite problems this year. Break the brood cycle, break the mite cycle. It works. Oh yeah and I have Russian bees, I think that helps also.

[theriverhawk]

Getting pretty late to requeen don't ya think? Hard to find breeders that still have them. If you do have a laying worker this late, it's gonna be tough to overcome her. What's are the temps looking like there in the NW?

In addition to another poster...I have been doing the MDA splits. Seems to work well. I split, leave them queenless for a week and requeen the new nucs. All nucs are doing well this year. I will say this though...I believe the SBB is a huge contributor in having low mite counts. Even after the splits, I had one nuc that I had to put back into a full body because it was so strong. I did not requeen this nuc because she was so strong all spring and summer. Each time I go to pull the sliding board out from under, I see one mite. That's it one. I keep thinking this is not right. But that's it. One. This hive has had numerous (6-7) powder sugar treatments thru the summer, too.

[Dave W]

Treating a colony AFTER deformed wing bees are present is not likely to produce good results. Yes, you may kill some mites, but the remaining bees will not live long into winter.

Treatments after about mid August are a waste of time, money and effort.