SHB are certainly an issue, but splitting strongest hives seems to do fine. Last year had good success with July splits. To me, it's more about dearth than beetles but I have no conflicts with feeding.Quote:
Originally Posted by beemandan
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SHB are certainly an issue, but splitting strongest hives seems to do fine. Last year had good success with July splits. To me, it's more about dearth than beetles but I have no conflicts with feeding.Quote:
Originally Posted by beemandan
Mark, I never said they swarm because of mites. that does not mean that swarming does not control mites. A single act can accomplish many things.Quote:
Originally Posted by sqkcrk
since the lifespan of a female varroa mite is two to three months in the summer, and six to eight months in the winter, i'm not sure how brood breaks and swarms would offer too much in the way of mite control.
I am not so sure I understand how it works. But I see people claiming it does all the time. I have seen information that indicates that crowding of the mites has a negative impact on their ability to reproduce. I can't recall where I saw that though.
It would act similar to drone trapping, starving the mites of opportunity to lay. The total elimination of mites with splitting/swarming would not happen. Nothing different than many other methods including chemical, mites are knocked back to less critical levels. 2 reproductive cycles are achieved by female mites. Splitting/swarming might allow less mites a second chance as well as allowing for less viable male mites. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ms...destructor.pdfQuote:
Originally Posted by squarepeg
>mites are knocked back...
understood ncb, but so are the bees, and the net % infestation is what is important.
i don't know if much is gained by brood breaks, but then i haven't seen any science on it either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Y
Okay Daniel, let me put it this way. Bees don't treat themselves for mites.
Varroa mite numbers seemed to be higher this year than what I have seen in the past at least in this part of the country. Maybe that is what he was talking about??
Have you or someone been gathering statistics from across your part of the country or are you going by what you see in your own hives?
good evening mark. how's it going with your bees this winter?
Serious off topic question? Or, a message?
THey're in good shape. Yours?
a little off topic i guess, sorry. glad to hear yours are fine.
thankfully mine are in good shape too.
So does anyone believe that if i keep down the path I am on that one day i can have surviving hives? Or is that all a big dream?
Not sure, but probably not. Talk to Michael Palmer about "The Sustainable Apiary", how he keeps his apiary alive.
depends who you listen to.
i'm not sure i'm sold on the fact that genetic resistance can be counted on 100%, especially considering most queens are going to be open mated. even the strongest and most resistant bees are going to have a limit on how much they can take, and it is the strongest colonies that are most likely to rob the crashing ones.
i can easily see how just one colony crashing with mites and getting robbed could easily spread the infestation like a domino effect to other colonies in the yard.
as if the mites sucking the hemolymph out of the bees wasn't bad enough, if they are vectoring a very virulent virus as well it could mean the end of an otherwise healthy, productive, and for the most part resistant colony.
plus, allowing mites to crash a colony and move on to another selects for those kind of mites that kill their host, instead of mites that are less virulent and don't crash a colony.
i'll be the first to admit that counting mites has not been a part of my bee management. my bees have been doing fine and have not been treated for mites, and they are descended from bees that have never been treated.
i had my first hive crash to mites this fall. luckily i caught it before it got robbed. there were so few bees and it was so late in the season that i just shook them out.
i plan to use my alcohol jar a lot more going forward. in the spring, i'll want to know what the mite levels are to help me decide which colonies to graft new queens from and which colonies to pinch the queen from and use for splits and mating nucs. in the summer, after the honey harvest, i can requeen colonies with high mite counts or make up nucs to sell or overwinter.
i am hopeful i can propagate my bees in this way and avoid treating for mites. i do think it is risky to not do mite counts and not have a plan in place to deal with a high infestation if you find it.
beekeeping is not inexpensive and a involves a lot of sweat. letting hives crash costs money, time, and lost harvest. again, i'm not convinced just letting hives die out is the way to go.
Now...how do you know this?Quote:
Originally Posted by squarepeg
i bought my bees from a supplier nearby, who has propagated them from feral bees he and his father cut out of the woods over ten years ago. he claims never using treatments of any kind, and he is a very trustworthy fellow.
i guess it's possible the swarms that created those feral colonies may have been treated many years ago, but what i have are long term survivors. this is one reason i would rather not treat them if i can help it.
I just took down 4 hives that were dead and also had just a fist full of bees frozen. They were also some of the strongest hives in that yard. We were very late this year in getting cold weather and I haven't been opening up the hives in the cold weather. I am assuming that what happened is the hives swarmed not long before the first cold weather which was late December.Quote:
Originally Posted by BeeManiac
I also haven't been monitoring the v.mite count in my hives and maybe its possible that a significant build up of v.mites caused a quick collapse.
Which of these scenarios do you truly believe the most likely?Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardsonTX
My lack of experience as a beekeeper keeps me from being able to make a good guess.Quote:
Originally Posted by beemandan
However, I would not think that a hive would swarm that late in the year and it is probably from a v.mite buildup. After this year, my first full year, I don't think I'll ever go treatment free again (at least for all my hives). Maybe I'll take a few and experiment but I'll never manage my hives in a way that goes against the majority opinion.