Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: New hive questions  (Read 13061 times)

Offline marliah

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 66
Re: New hive questions
« Reply #20 on: April 30, 2008, 03:44:22 pm »
eep, so whats involved with treating for varroa? should I get a varroa screen? anything else I can do?
Tara
beekeeper in central Maine
Finally getting bees again! 6/12/13

Offline Robo

  • Technical
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6778
  • Gender: Male
  • Beekeep On!
    • Bushkill Bee Vac
Re: New hive questions
« Reply #21 on: April 30, 2008, 04:04:02 pm »
Some prefer using screened bottom boards, but some studies have showed they may actually increase varroa counts.
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=10753.msg105971#msg105971

Some prefer powdered sugar treatment every couple of weeks,  but that can be a lot of work and stressful on the bees.

Some prefer organic acid treatments (formic or oxalic) once a year.

Some use thymol treatment. 

If you use the search function of the forum you can find a lot of opinions.


rob....
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline Michael Bush

  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 19805
  • Gender: Male
    • bushfarms.com
Re: New hive questions
« Reply #22 on: May 01, 2008, 07:54:25 am »
>do I still need to worry about varroa crash if I slowly switch them over? if so whats a natural way to help with that?

Any beekeeper needs to learn to monitor Varroa.  Pick a method of methods.  A sugar roll is a good one.  A cupful of bees in a jar with a tablespoon of powdered sugar.  Dump the sugar on a paper and count.  If you have ten or so, you have a lot of Varroa.  If you have none or one or two, you don't have many.  A SBB with a tray can be used to do natural drop counts.  If you get 50 mites in 24 hours you have a lot of mites.  You can uncap some drone now and then and look for Varroa.  An occasional one is normal,  while three or four per drone is a severe infestation.

If you need to do something, you can use powdered sugar, cut out the drones, or whatever you find acceptable.  After they are regressed and you have not had a Varroa problem for a few years, you can probably forget about them.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesnaturalcell.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#varroa
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesvarroatreatments.htm
My website:  bushfarms.com/bees.htm en espanol: bushfarms.com/es_bees.htm  auf deutsche: bushfarms.com/de_bees.htm  em portugues:  bushfarms.com/pt_bees.htm
My book:  ThePracticalBeekeeper.com
-------------------
"Everything works if you let it."--James "Big Boy" Medlin