Mites n Splits

[Seymore]

I'm confused. I removed the queen this spring from a hive that didn't have much in the way of mites (at least I thought). This was its 3rd spring and I was just taking preventative measures. Put her in a new hive. Did a mite check on the old hive. Hardly any after a day or 2. Then went back to check a couple days later and there were LOTS of mites. Two questions arose. 1 - why a seeming delay in mite visibility? 2 - I had expected that the broodless period would minimize mites. This looked like a lot of mites considering they had to raise a queen. Does this seem a normal pattern or am I misunderstanding something? Thanks.

[Seymore]

I was just thinking with so many mites, a good number would have shown up even in just a few hours. There were hardly any in the first 24 or so hours. Would temps effect their drop, I'm wondering.

Also, I guess it will be spring before I know if this hive makes it, huh? I am TF, so I don't intend to use anything. Tried that one year - lots of mess, lost the hive anyway. I'm still hoping they will pull it out.

Anything wrong with just letting this hive swarm if it makes it in the spring? Or is that more like releasing a plague?

[crofter]

The first few rounds of brood in the spring will soak up most of the phoretic mites. If you had a big emergence of brood then the mite drop could really jump in a short period of time.

[Seymore]

Hmm. I didn't think about that. Shwew - that's a big pop in a short amount of time. So very depressing! Did you read about a possible upcoming treatment? Sounds promising. Doesn't help the bees develop resistance - but still sounds good.

http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/New..._mite_control/