In April 2017, I posted about some experience I had in dealing with Varroa Mite infestations and Varroa Bombing. Since then I’ve become much more diligent in monitoring. Back then, I would do a sugar shake maybe twice a year. Now I’m doing them more often and not just before treating. It seems like the …
Tag: Varroa
Oxalic Acid Drizzle
Dr. Marion Ellis from the University of Nebraska spoke at an NCSBA bee conference in 2016 and covered a couple of methods for using oxalic acid to eliminate varroa in the hive. The trickle or drizzle or dribble method is one of the ways to treat. According to Dr. Ellis, this method is applicable only …
Goodbye Purdue Ankle Biters
In previous posts [ here ] and [ here ], I talked about how my Purdue Ankle Biter bees like to rob from dying neighborhood hives that had been infested with varroa mites, and then would bring mites back to their hive where the virulent mites would destroy the hive. I had been doing sugar …
Sugar Shake Reminders
Sometimes when you are getting ready to do a sugar shake, it’s hard to remember exactly how many bees you need to be sampling and what the threshold is. Bee buddy Eliza Hudson helps her students at the Montessori School out by first marking the correct measuring cup with a mark on top (this is …
Varroa Bombs – Take Two
If you saw my post on Varroa Bombs from this spring, you read about how my Purdue hive likes to rob from a neighbor’s hive when they are sick and dying. Well, they did it again. When I did the sugar shake on this hive on June 29th, they had 2/300 varroa mites. On August …
Summer Mite Count Checks & Congrats Bobby!
Bobby Byrd is a new beekeeper this year and he just received his NCSBA Master Beekeeper Program Certification. So, congratulations Bobby! Bobby has been working with me quite a bit in the bee yard this spring and today we did sugar shakes on 2 of the 6 hives to check on mite load in the …
Varroa Bombs and Humility
The hardest lessons I get from my bees are ones that teach me humility. Anyone who knows me knows that I can get pretty snarky when it comes to beekeepers who do not use best practices either in exhibiting proper care in working with bees around non-beekeepers or when monitoring the health of their bees. …
Monitoring Varroa Mites
I believe that you have to monitor the varroa mite infestation in your hives. Many hives do not even make it to winter because of viruses transmitted by the varroa mite. If they make it to winter, they may not make it through winter. This year (2017), bees coming through winter in okay shape saw …