Varroa Part Two

The results are in

The weather continues to be unusually dry and warm both during the day and at night.   Our two hives are as busy as ever and we have now finished feeding the two colonies for the time being.

 

The bases of the hives are made of mesh which provides good ventilation but also allows dead Varroa mites and other debris to fall through.   To check the Varroa count, we slide trays under the mesh floors to catch the debris. 

 

When we did this before giving the bees a Varroa treatment, we found a few dead Varroa mites on the Beebettes' hive but none on the G Bees' hive and we wondered why because, this year, according to the BBKA, high Varroa counts have been seen throughout the country.

 

When we put the trays back under the hives for the post treatment count, I was extra careful to create a thick Vaseline border around the edge which is supposed to trap any creatures that have a mind to crawl on to the trays to eat the debris.  I can report that this was spectacularly unsuccessful.   As I withdrew the trays from under each of the hives, earwigs scampered over the Vaseline to escape.  The one earwig that looked trapped in the Vaseline subsequently jumped off and is now living in the kitchen somewhere.

Beebettes

G Bees

 

So, you won't be surprised to learn that we didn't see any Varroa this time on either hive.   On the face of it, the results are what we should expect, that is there are fewer Varroa mites in the hives now than before we gave the bees the Varroa treatment.  However, we have to ask ourselves:

a) Were the things we thought were Varroa mites really Varroa mites?  If we get out a magnifying glass will we see hundreds of smaller mites?   Well, I did this and the answer appears to be no.

b) Is the mesh on the G Bees' hive too small for the mites to drop through?  I haven't been able to check yet as the floor is firmly glued in place with propolis.  

 

Another explanation could be that the Beebettes' brood chamber sits on the hive floor but the G Bees' brood chamber is sitting on top of a super of stores (this being a much bigger colony and needing more food for the Winter) so any debris has further to fall and may have got stuck in the super en route.