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How do you KNOW that mites caused the hive to crash?

18K views 63 replies 23 participants last post by  Davidnewbeeboxbuilder 
#1 ·
I have seen several people state that "my hive died due to mites" or some variation on such. How do they tell? I have mites in my hives, like most people. I know that mites help transmit viruses and cause other problems. My question is: HOW do they know mites caused the crash? Is there some diagnostic test I have never read about in the magazines or books? What are the determining criteria?

I have had many hives die over the years. Some looked real strong and I don't know why they died. Some were weak and I expected them to die. And, there were several cases of the exact opposite of those two scenarios. But, when a hive dies, I find it very difficult to determine exactly WHY they died. So I am curious how these folks can make such definite statements?

I approach the mite and bee survival by breeding better bee lines for my area. I work hard at tracking my genetic lines, keeping notes and measuring how each hive perfoms so that I can do solid comparasions to determine which lines to continue to breed. My bees survive for years without mite treatments. My marked queens live for 3-4 years (my oldest just died after 4 1/2 years and she was still outproducing the younger queens. Why they superceded her when she was doing so well is a mystery).

I do a lot of cut-outs so I get to see a lot of feral beehives. It has been very educational to see how these bees cope with mites and SHB (I've only seen 2 cut-outs where there were not SHB). The cut-outs also provide me with a wide range of genetic material to work with. Ok, now I'm just rambling.......

Please respond with SPECIFIC CRITERIA/EVIDENCE that helps you make a COD determination. I'm looking for something more than a lot of non-specific responses or "I read this once in a book" type of answers.
 
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#50 ·
Wow, this thread has gone completely off topic – but I guess that is natural.

Thanks for all the replies. I’ve taken my share of personal attacks here and have gotten several good replies as well. In the end, I don’t think that I managed to get my intention across clearly in the OP because only a few of these replies are addressing the point I thought I was trying to make. My fault. Perhaps I shall try again later.

I appreciate the many folks here who are willing to share their experiences and their wisdom. And I am especially appreciative of those who can have a discussion, even when we don’t agree, without personal attacks.
 
#54 ·
it was a good initial question, strawman or not.

these threads do sometimes twist and turn, but in the end it's really good discussion. i am getting a lot of education and enjoyment from all this.

i think part of the difficulty is the forum format, it's not perfect.

we are trying to have a discussion not unlike we would have at a gathering, but the dynamics change with the written word.

not having the luxury of facial expressions and other body language causes the reader to assume the 'tone' of the poster.

i think i have been misunderstood in that regard once or twice.

on the other hand, maybe this way is safer, and avoids our discussions ending up in a knock down drag out. :)
 
#57 ·
JWBEE is closer than most (Thanks JW). I was looking for hard data and SPECIFIC diagnostic tools, not assumptions even though they are well grounded assumptions.

I didn't start this thread to solve my own problems. There seems to be the impression that I am having problems with mites in MY hives. I'm not. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear. So insinuating that I should know the answers or questioning my methodologies is not the point.

I was trying to encourage others to look not just at the mites, but at the other factors as well - and it seemed I failed for the most part. Mites are bad, and as Jim Lyon stated early in this discussion, they seriously changed beekeeping. However, they are not the the only cause of hive problems. It seems like many BKs get hung up on mites and don't look past the mites for causes of problems in their hives.
 
#61 ·
Don't know what has made "BEEMANDAN" so offensive towards me.
Jeffery, you must offend pretty easily.
I asked you twice what methods you used to test for mites and how those results coincided with your failed hives. You didn’t reply to either of those.
If you make contradictory statements, if you make claims you can’t support and if you express opinions for which there is an equally good claim on an opposite pole…and when someone challenges you on these…you think it is offensive….all I can say is tough noogies.
Now....go put on your big boy britches.
 
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