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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Starks, Walter" <Walter.Starks AT facilities.unc.edu>
  • To: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • Cc: "flatriverfarm AT netzero.net" <flatriverfarm AT netzero.net>, Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] VSH colony
  • Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 17:24:26 +0000

John
I don't know if you've ever seen Don Hopkin's presentation on Verroa. One of
his main points is that Verroa population will increase exponentially over
time as each adult female Verroa lays several female eggs. So that by the
time you start to notice their effects on the hive they may have already
reached a point where they completely overcome the bees. That's what makes
the sugar shakes and a good multi pronged IPM program so important. By doing
constant monitoring you can establish a baseline that will hopefully show you
if you have a problem when you still have time to do something about it.
Hopefully with your VSH bees you will be able to avoid the need for pesticide
treatments that the Verroa will probably develop a resistance to eventually
anyway.

Don does a much better job of describing the IPM concept than I do, but
hopefully you get the gist of it. If you get the chance to see his
presentation of hive pests you should make it a point to attend. I know I
really got a lot out of it.

______

Walter




Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 15, 2014, at 12:45 PM, "John Rintoul" <beecd AT icloud.com> wrote:
>
> 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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