Question - Since survivor bees are supposed to be better at cleaning themselves of mites, would it make sense that a mite count for them would be higher than for non-survivor bees?
I'm comparing a package of carniolan bees (california stock - I'm in Oregon) to survivor bees sold by Old Sol. The package of Carnies was installed in mid April and has been a roaring success. I'm about to harvest honey. The Survivor stock is from a very strong nuc installed amonth later in mid May. They are doing well also and I just added a honey super. Both hives are on a combination of small cell plastic and foundationless frames, though there are five large cell frames in the bottom deep that came with the nuc. Recently I noticed about 3 bees each day crawling on the ground in front of the survivor hive. Looks like frayed wings to me but I dont have the most experience at this and may not know deformed wings if I was looking at them. Completed a mite count on a sticky board with the following results.
The regular stock carniolans had a mite count of 10 in 24 hours.
The survivor stock had a mite count of 50 in 24 hours.
My problem is I don't know if survivor stock normally shows a higher count because they are supposed to clean off the mites better. I'm not going to treat the survivor stock, so that is not an issue. I bought them with the hope of them taking care of themselves. I am curious to know if a mite count would be higher for survivor bees over regular stock under normal circumstances.
I'm comparing a package of carniolan bees (california stock - I'm in Oregon) to survivor bees sold by Old Sol. The package of Carnies was installed in mid April and has been a roaring success. I'm about to harvest honey. The Survivor stock is from a very strong nuc installed amonth later in mid May. They are doing well also and I just added a honey super. Both hives are on a combination of small cell plastic and foundationless frames, though there are five large cell frames in the bottom deep that came with the nuc. Recently I noticed about 3 bees each day crawling on the ground in front of the survivor hive. Looks like frayed wings to me but I dont have the most experience at this and may not know deformed wings if I was looking at them. Completed a mite count on a sticky board with the following results.
The regular stock carniolans had a mite count of 10 in 24 hours.
The survivor stock had a mite count of 50 in 24 hours.
My problem is I don't know if survivor stock normally shows a higher count because they are supposed to clean off the mites better. I'm not going to treat the survivor stock, so that is not an issue. I bought them with the hope of them taking care of themselves. I am curious to know if a mite count would be higher for survivor bees over regular stock under normal circumstances.