beekeeper032000;1133004 I've been seeing a lot of mites said:
beekeeper032000;1133004 I've been seeing a lot of mites said:JG, if you want bees alive this winter.... you know what you have to do, if you want a little more honey you know what to do.
P.S. ANYTIME my mite levels gets over 30 -50 or so this time of year on a sticky board I STOP STOP STOP and fix the mite problem, I BTW, have never had more than a 10% loss over winter, I run most years 3-7%.
You have to take care of the mite situation before the flows. Otherwise you will have to slap the mites down during the flow and interrupt production. In my corner of the country, its almost impossible to cease production and treat for mites during a flow. Thats a good way to end up with a baseball sized winter cluster. (consider my area of beekeeping along with the comments)II would be interested in knowing what some of you
successful and long term beeks do with your mite problem during the summer nector flow?
?pro.........Hate to tell you but bees cleaning up a bee doused in syrup is not Hygienic behavior. That's like saying you made friends with a drunk bank teller who just stuffed cash in your purse. When the cash is gone so is the "friendship" Conversely your "hygeinic bees will certainly quit the love affair once the "cash" is gone. The VSH and Hygienic genes are two different dogs although bees might have "los dos."When I first got into beekeeping at the time that the Glenn apiary was closing its operation, I thought
that the hygenic bees are a waste of time and money. Now I got some of those queens and
the grooming is excellent. Just a few days ago when some bees got drowned in the syrup bottle with
their life on the line I put some of them onto the hive entrance. Immediately the flying worker
bees got all over these soaked bees to remove the syrup and clean them up. Many made it
into the hive still alive. But many are dead over my carelessness.
I now indorse the hygenic bees both for cleaning up things around the nest and the mites too. So far
I don't see any deformed wings or mites either. Both the Italian and Cordovan got those hygenic gentic now.
What do you think?
Sorry "last *****" but the pot thing was my sorry attempt at a bad joke. Somehow I took a venture into guessing the mindset of someone who surmised that when they saw bees licking liquid sugar off of another bee that it was a sure fire guarantee that the "lickers"had "HYGIENIC" genes. I had to assume that the aforementioned must have had a gigantic whiff of something a little stronger than what my old Gramps' used to pour out of his Prince Albert can and into his pipe if they were to come to such a bug eyed conclusion. Something way stronger.No the smoke is going north and east
Dan
Not always true, MAQS for example...The only time treatments are reasonably successful is during a brood break.
>Not always true, MAQS for example...
I remain a skeptic that any treatment is killing mites in brood unless it's killing the brood.