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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: George Morris <juncus215 AT gmail.com>, ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Varoa Mites???
  • Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 17:53:44 -0400

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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