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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: mark powers <markapowers53 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • Cc: OCBA Listserv <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Great
  • Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2016 16:15:11 -0400

Good paper.  Last fall I had relatively low varroa counts and decided to give 4 thymol treatments to our two colonies in September anyway.   One of our young mentees then gave a great presentation that demonstrated that her counts had skyrocketed after thymol.  I prepared to do a sugar shake the next day, with dread.  I didn't even get to the shake.  The removable board under the screen had numerous mites.  I immediately treated with formic acid.  Each day I saw fewer mites on the board when I pulled it out, until none were obvious.  The weaker of my two hives did not survive February, with a small softball-sized cluster remnant. My other has lots of bees, but needs a queen, since it seems I have a virgin who is only laying drone.  I saw and phographed her, so there doesn't seem to be a laying worker.  I also saw supercedure cells in November.  So if anyone has a lead on an immediate fertile queen, I'd be grateful. I didn't find any mites on a sugar shake Saturday.  I also froze two frames of drone brood and reinstalled them today.

I am writing this mainly to ask for ideas on a schedule of pre-emptive treatments.  I realize this doesn't eliminate the need to monitor, but I was impressed by the commercial beekeeper who spoke to us and indicted that he doesn't test, only treat.

Mark Powers



On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 9:56 PM, Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com> wrote:
Great article from BIP.  I have been having many conversations just like this in the mountains.  https://beeinformed.org/2016/03/08/why-did-my-honey-bees-die/

Lewis



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