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  • From: George Morris <juncus215 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Varoa Mites???
  • Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2014 18:10:20 -0400

Thanks Randall,
Yes, I did make sure that I was pulling bees from the brood combs and did do
multiple frames. Right now, I'm feeling lucky with my mite count!!!
George

On Jun 9, 2014, at 5:53 PM, Randall Austin wrote:

> George,
>
> Remember that we sample the bees; we don't census them. Repeated sampling
> may give different results. Which bees you sample matters as well -- they
> should be nurse bees off the brood combs, not foraging bees off the honey
> combs. Also the sugar shake doesn't dislodge every single mite.
>
> You are fortunate to have low mite numbers in your sample but the mites are
> there nonetheless. But now you have a baseline number ("very low") and have
> a right to be pleased!
>
> Test again in late July/early August and compare. But don't get complacent
> -- left alone, the mites must win eventually, which can be demonstrated by
> mathematics as well as biology (the multiplying progeny of many mother
> mites geometrically increases while a queen bee's offspring -- the mites'
> food -- increase at a constant rate, limited by the productive capacity of
> a single queen). A very lucky beekeeper may go a couple of years before
> her/his unattended hives die under the weight of varroa-borne viruses but
> I've also seen plenty whose hives perish at the end of the first season.
>
> Randall Austin
>
>
>
> On 6/9/2014 5:12 PM, George Morris wrote:
>> I did as Powdered Sugar test for Varoa mites this past weekend on my 2 new
>> hives of bees. Knowing that all bee colonies well inevitably have Varoa
>> mites and even packages of shipped bees most likely will have a few mites
>> on them, I was surprised to have NO mite in either of my colonies. Is
>> that possible or am I doing something wrong??? These are new bees this
>> year, and was wondering whether if it just takes a while for the mites to
>> find the bees.
>> Cheers,
>> George
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>





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