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Well,I'm Really surprised and don't know what to make of my first mite drop sheet for my overwintered TB colony. It was a 3 day test and ZERO mites dropped. I mean,Yeah! This is Great news, but How the heck could this be? I assume there are a few in there but Zero drop??? Those bees are Busy movin and shakin too.....building up like crazy for a month and have built 6 new combs,etc. You'd think something would be dropping other than wax flakes and pollen and debris. I looked with a 10x jeweler's loupe too.
Here's my only theory. I had a massive die off this winter-probably down to 1000 bees(or less), and all I can guess is that All or nearly All mite infected weaker bees died,leaving only the strongest to keep the queen warm during the crisis. OR can a Spring hive be clean because the queen stopped laying for a month or more in winter stopping the cycle? At this point she's been laying since end of Feb.
Are any of Your hives mite-drop-free during Spring built up? Is this actually common? Thanks for letting me know what you think.
Here's my only theory. I had a massive die off this winter-probably down to 1000 bees(or less), and all I can guess is that All or nearly All mite infected weaker bees died,leaving only the strongest to keep the queen warm during the crisis. OR can a Spring hive be clean because the queen stopped laying for a month or more in winter stopping the cycle? At this point she's been laying since end of Feb.
Are any of Your hives mite-drop-free during Spring built up? Is this actually common? Thanks for letting me know what you think.