Mite count went up -- treat?

[wildbranch2007]

Have you ever gone to Cornell Cooperative Extension for answers to bee related questions? That's the last place I would send anyone.

never used cornell but why would that be the last place you would send anyone? just curious.

[Splatt]

This might be normal attrition for this time of year, since the mite load should have peaked about two weeks to a month ago. So, I don't know if that really is a lot this time of year. I would like to know what kind of count you would get were you to do an ether roll from the middle of the brood nest area. I don't know what mite drops per day say, except that mites are dying. whereas an ether roll tells how many live mites are on the bees.

That's good advice, thanks. I'm not sure I'm going to get the chance to do a roll before I need to close up the hive (temperature's been bouncing up and down), but I'll do one next year.

[sqkcrk]

How cold is it? Warm enough to fly?

[Splatt]

How cold is it? Warm enough to fly?

Right now mid-30's at night, mid 60's at about mid-day. The bees are generally out at about 10:00 and back in at about 6:45 (this is partially because the hive is in a less-than-ideal location). I can open it up during lunch, if I can arrange my work schedule.

[sqkcrk]

Splatt,
Unless you are going to treat the hive for varroa I wouldn't bother doing an ether roll at this time. Which may seem contradictory to what I wrote before. But, unless you are going to do something w/ the information, you may do more damage than the information gathering is worth, at this time of year.

[Splatt]

Splatt,
Unless you are going to treat the hive for varroa I wouldn't bother doing an ether roll at this timer.

Thanks. I've decided not to treat (at least not right now). As you mentioned, at this late date I'd rather not do anything that might have an unintended consequence (brood loss, etc) with potentially negative side effects. But I think you're right that a roll would give me more accurate information.

[kilocharlie]

Just to clarify - hive boxes and screened bottom boards often have different dimensions, and we try to level the playing field for discussion by stating mites per square inch and mention how many boxes of brood are over it. Frames with % brood would be better, or maybe even square inches of brood. Another factor to consider is how sticky is the sticky board? Can mites crawl off your sticky board in the cold? That could conceal great numbers of mites present in your colony, leading to an unanticipated winter loss and misleading information about your bees and their mites. Something to consider when trying to determine VSH tendencies for a potential breeder queen....

Jim Lyon, Mark, and Daniel Y - nice posts!

WLC - Thank you for the link! As far as to whom to refer for info? I'd go with the read-everything-and-think about how it applies to YOUR bees and THEIR little world of hexagons, sisters, momma queen, flowers, temperature, weather, mischief-makers, etc. school of thought...

So I'm glad we have Randy Oliver (donate to his site, everyone!), the universities, the internet, Beesource, The Hive and the Honeybee, all the other books, Germany's and Russia's and England's and Canada's scientific bee publications, etc. I also am glad that we have the observation hive!