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ocba - Re: [ocba] One hive dead, one hive thriving

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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] One hive dead, one hive thriving
  • Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:56:05 -0500 (EST)

I think an important point to keep in mind is that just getting rid of the mites in late Fall is not sufficient.  The bees need time to raise healthy brood before winter, so doing a treatment in mid-October is not likely to be effective.  You will knock down the mites, but the bees will not have time to raise enough healthy brood to over-winter.

 

The other point to understand is that monitoring needs to start mid-summer.  A mite infestation rate above 10% in July is likely to get worse in August and September.  Knocking out the mites in September may do some good, but the damage done by the mite vectored viruses in July, August, and September is going to linger.

 

The mites will certainly slow a colony down, but the viruses that the mites transmit, replicate, and spread is what I believe everyone should be paying attention to.  A treatment will knock out the mites, but the virus is likely to linger.  Letting bees stew in a highly mite infested colony is a recipe for failure most of the time.

 

Mite load and deformed wing virus load are the best predictors for winter collapse.  Reduce unexpected losses by keeping mite infestation as low as possible, but certainly below 10%.

 

Lewis




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