mites

3rd year- 6a. Everything we do this time of year determines whether our colonies are alive through winter. It's all about hammering the mites to as close to zero and fall feeding to get them to weight. August- Finishing a series of OAV treatments until my 24 hour sticky board count is less...

At the end of July, I treated both of my hives with Formic Pro. Since I only had 2 patties available then, I took the 1 patty for 10 days applied twice route. Treatment finished this past Thursday. When I opened the hive to remove the patty, an alcohol wash revealed there were more mites at the...

Hi Everyone, the winter is almost over, and I’m wondering how to get ahead of varroa mites this year. The question is, what solution to use this time? I’ve been doing my research, and found a few treatments. I understand that they use different chemicals in various increments, but all claim that...

There are plenty of barriers to entry whether you are talking about the business side of things or the down in the trenches fieldwork. From new diseases, new pesticides, a hostile environment, etc. Beekeeping is not for the faint of heart. whoops url comming soon :P

Background I've had bees for six years now. My hive count has steady increased to 12 production hives and about 12 nucs. Production hives looked great during the flow and produced 120 pounds of honey per hive. Treatment method I treat with OAV only with a ProVap 110, solid bottom boards and...

Hi all. Just looking around for some info and decided to join here. I have been keeping bees for about 25 years. I live in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York so this location is one of the worst for keeping bees. Temperatures reach 30° below zero Fahrenheit and wind chills can...

I set up my first hive this year, started with a package. Queen has been installed for 12 days and is laying, we have capped brood etc. Going well so far. When do I need to start worrying about mites? Thanks.

Have a hive from a nuc that built up real quick this past spring. It seemed to be doing pretty well, in fact it was the only hive that I got honey from this year. When I tested for mites in August though, my other 3 hives had between 0 and 3 mites per 100, and this one had about 8. I gave...

This is a new nuc delivered in mid may. Richmond, Va area. First test I have done with the hive, and there were no mites at all in the liquid. Lots of shaking, as I could see what I thought were flakes of wax floating around, but zero mites This makes me happy, but should I be worried that I...

I m a first year bee keeper and my hive didn't make it - I treated too late! I was devastated! Could I reuse the frames that the bees have drown last year for a new package of bees. Any pretreatment necessary ? The frames are foundationless. I live in Chicago. Thank you in advance for making me...

hey everyone, im really worried and need advice on my hives, over the last month, the colony has dropped significantly in number (maybe 1 full deep frame) and the queen is laying VERY spotty brood. It could possibly be mites but i did a sugar roll test fairly recently and the count was very low...

Hello everyone, I'm a new beekeeper. I started with beekeeping last year and I only had 2 hives. Everything went well and both colonies were growing and producing honey at perfect rate. They filled both boxes and had about 50,000 bees each. Then winter came, I used Oxalic acid (with vaporizer)...

We lost our hive this winter, but it didn't get as cold as it has in the past here (central Wisconsin). The 2 deeps weight roughly 50 pounds from what I can tell right now, so there is certainly honey left in them. Could the death be due to mites? (we didn't treat for this or anything to be...

Yes it's been a rough week for Pooh Bear; the second year hobby beekeeper. This week he discovered that he lost both his hives. What can I say - I am gutted. After treating the hives in August September with OAV and ensuring that they had ample stores - they did. I pretty much left them alone...

Hi. My name is Heidi and I live near Buffalo & Rochester NY=WNY area. My brother & I started beekeeping this spring and we are thoroughly enjoying it. There are however, many obstacles I did not expect. One of our hives seems honeybound, another was queenless, beetles in one, mouse in...

Hey guys, I'm a first year backyard beekeeper - only 1 hive for financial reasons. I received my package in mid-June, so I started pretty late in the year and I'm just doing my first mite treatment for the Fall months with Apiguard. I placed an Apiguard container on top of my brood boxes...

I live in the Pacific Northwest and it gets colder here faster. What is the nighttime threshold temperature that you should start to winterize? Also, I had a professional beekeeper and business man said that he applies miticide (basically pesticide for mites with formic acid) during the mid to...

I've heard of someone vaporizing from the top of the hive. Does anyone do that? What's the technique? Is it just as effective as placing vaporizer on bottom board? What if I made a 3" spacer with a notch for the vaporizer handle and sat it above top deep, sat vaporizer on top bars (with a small...

I've been using oxalic acid vaporization for a couple years and it works great to kill mites with no apparent harm to my bees. The only part of the process I dislike is doing the sugar rolls to calculate the pre- and post-test mite load. This testing process is intrusive and I'm always afraid...

July 5th my hive swarmed. That was the day after I returned from vacation; not exactly the welcome I was hoping for. I just installed a bee package in April The swarm landed 50 feet up a Douglas Fir. We tried in vain to knock them down. They flew off yesterday, so there is no possibility of me...