> What's a tab?
Jim, those bulk cages of mine hold three deep frames. There is a reason for this. A tab is a touge depresser soak 1/2 in miticide, using a thumb tack, put the tab at the bottom of the middle frame applying the dry end of the tab to the bottom bar of the frame..
Let the miticide work over night, then in the morning you have 35 pounds of fresh clean bees and a QUEEN that has NOT been expose to any chems.
P.S Jim, any keeper with 25 years would know this trick
Only if I was using mite treatments, which I don't
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own." Adam Savage
> delt with more than 500 hives, which I also don't
Jim, you must bee smarter than the rest of us.
somehow this 25 years of keeping mean to some that a keeper perfect, dont know how that all got started.
I think we have all made our share of mistakes during our beekeeping careers, it's whether we learn that makes us wiser. I've been keeping or helping with bees since I was knee high to a tall cow. I watched the good days premites, when all we had to worry about was getting through the winter, to the mite invasion, when I lost all the hives I had to mites. From there it has been a rebuilding and rethinking process that has taken 20 years, and continues today. I still don't know what i'm doingOriginally Posted by Keith Jarrett
> delt with more than 500 hives, which I also don't
Jim, you must bee smarter than the rest of us.
somehow this 25 years of keeping mean to some that a keeper perfect, dont know how that all got started.
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own." Adam Savage
>I still don't know what i'm doing
Hey, join the club.
Jim, in this world of beekeeping,
You don't have to out run the bear, you just have to out run the slowest guy in the camp.
OK Dave. You started this thread back in early July. At the time my advice was "It's early, keep your pants on." Well it's now early October. What is the consensus? Are mites causing the the same problems this fall that they have in the past? 3 years ago when I started beekeeping, hives were crashing left and right from PMS all over the country. I lost 19 out of 26 hives to mites that first winter. Some of my loss was no doubt attributable to inexperience, but hey- mites is mites. I didn't lose any hives last winter. This year.. 4-5 of my hives are light and I'm feeding them, but the rest look good.. none of them are crashing. Mite loads are seemingly low.Where are the reports of hives crashing from Varroa?
Usually, by this time each year, we have lots of posts that reflect serious infestations.
Hmmmm
Are we seeing a real decline in the virulence and proclivity of mites, or is this just a cyclic thing?
Dulcius ex asperis
Moderator
Great question George. It's interesting because this past Tuesday our inspector reported at the Association meeting that he has seen a "huge" decline in mites during this summers inspections. Along with that he also noted a significantly lower percentage of drones in the colonies. Don't know what that may mean, if anything.
Ohio had tremendous losses last winter .. reports say about 72%. Many of the local beekeepers were rebuilding this summer through splits and packages. I wonder if the lower mite population could be a direct result of so many "new" colonies in their first year.
To everything there is a season....
Haven't heard any real dire reports yet. Our bees seem to be holding up pretty well, my only bad location was one where I got moved in on by a keeper with about 80 hives a half mile away, last time I drove by he had the dreaded open feed barrel out; my bees went from about 48 good hives to 24 with a lot of mites. Those won't get hauled into the holding yard until I know things are under control. Aside from that little fiasco our summer dwindle has been well under 10% with almost none attributed to mites. We are two full seasons now without using one of the "big three" miticides that most commercial outfits seem to be using. We did put on an Apiguard treatment recently and with brood levels fairly low I'm cautiously optimistic that we are out of danger.
Moderator
Well, I'll toss my observations in here. The inspector told me (mid-summer), that he saw far less mite related problems this year than in past years. However, I have more mites this year than last year and I see more diseased wing symptoms than before. Maybe I have more bees...thus, more mites and maybe I pay more attention to the bees when I work them.
Here it is in October. I'm feeding, like George is, because it was an ugly, dry summer. But, in the last two weeks, the hives have boomed and it almost looks like it's spring the way the girls are flying. They look a long ways from crashing but time will tell. Actually, I think much depends on the kind of winter we end up having.
"My wife always wanted girls. Just not thousands and thousands of them......"
>Are we seeing a real decline in the virulence and proclivity of mites, or is this just a cyclic thing . . .
The "word" from Southern Indiana, is last year's mite load was down slightly. This year, "no mites at all".
Next year????
Most are reporting "record honey harvest", "best in years".
We had a very lousy spring, record heat MOST of the summer, its 90 F now,
and there is goldenrod blooming everywhere.
I have seen it growing/blooming in the cracks of city streets
[QUOTE=jlyon;267021]Haven't heard any real dire reports yet. Our bees seem to be holding up pretty well, my only bad location was one where I got moved in on by a keeper with about 80 hives a half mile away, last time I drove by he had the dreaded open feed barrel out; my bees went from about 48 good hives to 24 with a lot of mites.
Jlyon, are you saying the open feeding killed some of your bees ( 48 to 24 )?
Not sure I'm fallowing you here.Or was it the spread of mites that was your concern.
I suppose the open barrel might have killed a few but I suspect the spread of mites was the primary cause. This guy dosen't do a very good job and anyone close to him pays a price. The evidence is a bit overwhelming when we have locations about three miles away in two directions and the bees look great, the affected yard had much higher mite numbers and about 1/2 had cluster sizes so small that we just combined what was left. As you well know trying to maintain a small cluster in hopes of getting a unit big enough to pollinate at this time of year is a waste of time and resources.
bums
Jlyon,
Ya, I hear you, not much justics at times when you do a hard job keeping in front of the mite , then some bum parks a load right on top of you.This happens to me all summer.
Well, good luck with them.
I thought SD had registered yards with a distance limit?
Yeah but it is up to you to make your case to the state. They are a bit understaffed and will suggest that you work it out yourselves first. In this case I knew that his country had pretty bleak crop prospects at the time so I chose not to pursue it. Lesson learned I will definately be discussing this situation with Bob in Pierre.
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