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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • To: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] End of Bee School Field Day
  • Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:10:03 -0400

Hello Beekeepers,
The end of bee school field day happened at my little bee yard at the Breeze Farm yesterday. The weather was fantastic, attendance was great, and the bees were well behaved. New beekeepers were able to see and hold the things we have been talking about since early January. I hope everyone who participated had as much fun as I did.

The biggest surprise for me was the mite level at this time of year. In the past, I have relied on one fall treatment per year and that has been effective. With our very mild winter and practically year round supply of pollen this season the queens were raising much more brood than usual. This is good as we are seeing strong colonies early in the season and we are able to do splits and catch swarms several weeks ahead of our normal schedule. The downside is that our mites have also taken advantage of the continued brood rearing to gain an early foothold.

Not surprisingly, my weakest hive had the highest mite load. Of the 8 or so colonies we measured mite load in, the counts ranged from 1 to 10 mites per sample (sugar shake). The threshold for this time of year is in the 3 to 5 range. Only one hive sampled came in below the threshold at 1 mite. The high was 10, and most colonies had 6 to 7 per sample.

According to our inspectors other beekeepers across the state are seeing similar numbers. There is concern that many folks who have been in the habit of simply treating once in the fall and assuming that things will be fine in the spring may get caught with their pants down this season. Now is the time to get out there, see where your mite numbers are, and decide what you might do to intervene.

Don't let the mites catch you with your pants down this season!

Cheers,

Lewis


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  • [ocba] End of Bee School Field Day, Lewis Cauble, 03/18/2012

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