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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • To: Mark Powers <markapowers53 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Unscientific survey
  • Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2016 23:03:51 -0400

Mark,

The answer to your question depends on where you are in your beekeeping experience. If you are a new beekeeper, then sooner rather than later. You need to practice the sugar shake technique so that you are comfortable doing it. Just don’t practice it before the new package has had time to settle in and start producing prodigious amount of brood. 

Presumably the packages that you bought were varroa free at the time of delivery. So varroa shouldn’t be a problem with new packages for several weeks. But you will never know for certain that your bees are varroa free unless you test them. A proper sugar shake test needs bees taken from one or more frames with open brood. So you want new brood frames to work with.

I am personally reluctant to test a small colony. I want to make sure that the colony has enough bees for me to sacrifice 300 or so. Of course, at least one of our state bee inspectors has told me that if you can spare 300 bees the colony is doomed anyway. And the bees that are sugar shaken are theoretically not harmed in the process. I shake vigorously. I question the theory.

So with a new package (nuc and captured swarms are different beasts) I’d wait 6-8 weeks minimum. 


John Rintoul

No trees or bees were killed in the distribution of this message, but countless electrons were seriously inconvenienced.




On Jun 4, 2016, at 10:21 PM, Mark Anthony Powers <markapowers53 AT gmail.com> wrote:

No SHBs here either.  When is a good time to sugar shake after installing a new package?

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 4, 2016, at 11:24 AM, John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com> wrote:

I've done sugar shakes on each of my 3 hives and the hives of 2 new beekeepers that I am helping. So far none of the 5 hives has had more than 1 mite. It seems weirdly low to me.

I have not yet seen a small hive beetle this year either. 2 of my hives are in deep shade where SHB numbers are reputedly high. In past years I have usually seen 10-20 SHB corralled on top of the inner cover in my hives. Not one this year - yet.

Of course we all need to stay 'varroa vigilant'©, but I am curious know whether other Orange County beekeepers are experiencing similar differences in hive predator numbers between this year and prior years.

John Rintoul
(919) 414-4071
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