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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • To: "flatriverfarm AT netzero.net" <flatriverfarm AT netzero.net>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] VSH colony
  • Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 12:44:43 -0400

Carol,
Thanks for your reply. I was under the mistaken impression that VSH bees
cleaned out varroa infected larvae. Apparently they only clean out varroa
infected pupae. So the fact that I did not find varroa in the cells with
pupae is encouraging. Still it seems like a lot of varroa get to feed for
free while the larva grows to the pupal stage. But I guess over time, the
numbers of varroa should drop even among the sealed brood. Of course, that
depends on whether the VSH queen survived her release into the hive.

When I picked up my nucs, the VSH vendor cautioned me that I should do
regular sugar shake tests just to be sure that all was going as hoped for. So
regular testing is certainly in my plan. But if the varroa in the hive are
only in capped brood a sugar shake will not reveal a problem.

So VSH bees seem to be bred to keep the active, working colony virtually
varroa free while accepting what to me appears to be significant losses in
their prepupal and pupal population. Not the best use of biological
resources, but they do apparently eat the infected pupa so the resources
aren't a total loss.

John Rintoul
Mobile (919) 414-4071
Home (919) 967-0674

"The failure of one thing (is) repaired by the success of another." - Thomas
Jefferson

> On Jul 15, 2014, at 10:35 AM, "flatriverfarm AT netzero.net"
> <flatriverfarm AT netzero.net> wrote:
>
> John,
> I am by no means an expert but I don't believe that just because your
> colony is "VSH" they won't have varroa. It just means that they have the
> inclination to clean up more and keep them out but that being said the
> amount you counted seems high so I would suggest treating at the earliest
> possibility.
>
>
> Carol Carter
> Flat River Farm
> Hurdle Mills, NC
>
>
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