Sporadically. And always before my treatment windows.
Alcohol.
Having varroa.
I'm pretty much going to treat 3 times a year no matter what: in spring, when the supers come off in July and in late fall regardless of the number of mites. I'm not removing supers in the middle of a season because of mite loads, thats just going to cause my bees to run out of space and swarm, which might be a good thing to reduce the mite load but not what I want to happen.
If I really ran through and entire apiary and none of the hives had any mites I might skip treatment but that hasn't happened yet. And since all the products say treat a whole apiary if one has mites they all get treated anyway because there is always that one hive.
My testing is more to see how many mites I have before treatment so I can know if it worked when I test afterwards and don't have to try something else.
We need to do our first check soon and would appreciate someone helping us to make sure we are doing it correctly. I would prefer the sugar shake method. Does anyone have the equipment needed or suggest a place to get the Screen jar lid? Thanks
Do you have a wide mouth Ball jar? I have some of the wire screen you could use to fit in the lid. Also, the videos here give a good idea on how to do the powdered sugar roll.
I am trying to sample every 3 months using alcohol wash with 70 percent or better alcohol and washing twice as I usually pick up another one or two on second wash. I am ok with 3 percent threshold if strong.
i am curious as to how serious Apalachee members consider Varroa monitoring. 18 or so years ago one could treat once a year and be fairly successful. No longer the case anymore. Mite levels rebound quickly and often treatments fail for one reason or another. Neglecting to monitor mite levels and have a treatment plan is a sure recipe for failure at beekeeping. We use a continuous sampling plan where each bee yard gets sampled at least monthly using alcohol wash. We sample 10-20% of hives in a yard. 2.5 % infestation rate is threshold Much easier to knock them down at that level than to correct at 6% or higher.
Sporadically. And always before my treatment windows.
Alcohol.
Having varroa.
I'm pretty much going to treat 3 times a year no matter what: in spring, when the supers come off in July and in late fall regardless of the number of mites. I'm not removing supers in the middle of a season because of mite loads, thats just going to cause my bees to run out of space and swarm, which might be a good thing to reduce the mite load but not what I want to happen.
If I really ran through and entire apiary and none of the hives had any mites I might skip treatment but that hasn't happened yet. And since all the products say treat a whole apiary if one has mites they all get treated anyway because there is always that one hive.
My testing is more to see how many mites I have before treatment so I can know if it worked when I test afterwards and don't have to try something else.
We need to do our first check soon and would appreciate someone helping us to make sure we are doing it correctly. I would prefer the sugar shake method. Does anyone have the equipment needed or suggest a place to get the Screen jar lid? Thanks
I am trying to sample every 3 months using alcohol wash with 70 percent or better alcohol and washing twice as I usually pick up another one or two on second wash. I am ok with 3 percent threshold if strong.
i am curious as to how serious Apalachee members consider Varroa monitoring. 18 or so years ago one could treat once a year and be fairly successful. No longer the case anymore. Mite levels rebound quickly and often treatments fail for one reason or another. Neglecting to monitor mite levels and have a treatment plan is a sure recipe for failure at beekeeping. We use a continuous sampling plan where each bee yard gets sampled at least monthly using alcohol wash. We sample 10-20% of hives in a yard. 2.5 % infestation rate is threshold Much easier to knock them down at that level than to correct at 6% or higher.
Trying to do this monthly, at least every two months.
Powdered sugar roll.
3 per 100 bees.