This is only a test. Had this been an actual treatment, the music you heard would have been followed by loud proclamations from beekeepers that this could never work. This is only a test.
But won't it be really cool if there is a measurable effect?
Video Link
Outtakes:
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Showing posts with label varroa mite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label varroa mite. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2014
Sunday, September 7, 2014
To Treat or Not to Treat - Bee Vlog - Sep 6, 2014
I took mite samples of the remaining hives and they all look really good, except for Queen Helen who is showing a very high mite load. In this video I point out the things I'm doing as part of my treatment-free approach to beekeeping and why I don't use treatments to control mites.
Leave a comment and tell me what classical music song I should play for the beehives that I'll be "treating" in my placebo trials.
Video Link
Leave a comment and tell me what classical music song I should play for the beehives that I'll be "treating" in my placebo trials.
Video Link
Monday, August 25, 2014
More Mite Counts - Bee Vlog - Aug 23, 2014
Dr Dewey Caron is joining me today to demonstrate how to do 2 other methods for counting mites: an alcohol wash, and a sugar roll.
Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping by Dewey M Caron & Lawrence John Connor can be purchased at Amazon.com.
Unlike the sticky boards, these other 2 methods give you a percent mite load. This is a more meaningful number, as hive population can affect mite drop counts. But a sugar roll or alcohol wash is independent from population size.
However, it is important to get the bees from inside the hive and off brood frames. Taking samples from outside bearding bees, or from bees in a honey super will not be an accurate indicator because the mites hang out in the brood nest and are more likely to be found on the nurse bees tending the brood.
You'll notice that we got 2 different results from 2 different frames within the same hive. Both frames were side-by-side in the brood nest, but the first was capped brood while the second had open brood and eggs. In the sugar roll we got 52 mites out of 304 bees (or 17%) but on the alcohol wash we got 26 out of 346 bees (or 8%). Could this be simply a difference of the brood frames, or is it due to differences in the 2 methods?
Personally, I think I prefer the sugar roll method. This doesn't kill bees, so it suits me better. It also looks much easier to do with more simple, and easy to make equipment.
Video Link
Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping by Dewey M Caron & Lawrence John Connor can be purchased at Amazon.com.
Unlike the sticky boards, these other 2 methods give you a percent mite load. This is a more meaningful number, as hive population can affect mite drop counts. But a sugar roll or alcohol wash is independent from population size.
However, it is important to get the bees from inside the hive and off brood frames. Taking samples from outside bearding bees, or from bees in a honey super will not be an accurate indicator because the mites hang out in the brood nest and are more likely to be found on the nurse bees tending the brood.
You'll notice that we got 2 different results from 2 different frames within the same hive. Both frames were side-by-side in the brood nest, but the first was capped brood while the second had open brood and eggs. In the sugar roll we got 52 mites out of 304 bees (or 17%) but on the alcohol wash we got 26 out of 346 bees (or 8%). Could this be simply a difference of the brood frames, or is it due to differences in the 2 methods?
Personally, I think I prefer the sugar roll method. This doesn't kill bees, so it suits me better. It also looks much easier to do with more simple, and easy to make equipment.
Video Link
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Varroa Mite Counts - Bee Vlog - Aug 15, 2014
Getting some mite counts on 6 of my hives: 3 survivors from last year and 3 new swarms from this year. I'll be joining other beekeepers in my local community on a "citizen science experiment/survey" to try to better understand how to help the bees in our area. It's a long term study that will take the next 6-8 months to complete, since winter survival is the final judging criteria for success.
In this video I show the first stage of getting a baseline mite reading with a sticky board. I coated the corrugated plastic boards with petroleum jelly then let them sit under the screen for 24 hours.
Mite count results:
Elizabeth: 14
Helen: 69 (50 is considered to be the treatment threshold here)
Jezebel: 21
Karma: 7
Louise: 3
Natalia: 0
Queen Helen origin video
Finding Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus
Video Link
In this video I show the first stage of getting a baseline mite reading with a sticky board. I coated the corrugated plastic boards with petroleum jelly then let them sit under the screen for 24 hours.
Mite count results:
Elizabeth: 14
Helen: 69 (50 is considered to be the treatment threshold here)
Jezebel: 21
Karma: 7
Louise: 3
Natalia: 0
Queen Helen origin video
Finding Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus
Video Link
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| Varroa Destructor |
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| Immature Varroa mite |
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| Bee compound eye |
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| Bee ocelli (simple eye) |
Monday, October 7, 2013
Bee Vlog - October 5, 2013
Queen Beatrice's population has been dwindling. In the inspection last month I found some problems with the brood that I couldn't really document or inspect very well because of the yellow jackets. Now that the yellow jackets have died back some and the weather is nice I took the opportunity to do another inspection to see what's going on.
The population has really shrunk significantly. All beehives have mites, but in this case it looks like they got hit really hard and it's making it difficult to raise brood. I'm going to just reduce their hive size and see how they overwinter. Next week I'll put a quilt box on to help them keep things warm and dry, but other than that I'll do nothing.
Video Link
The population has really shrunk significantly. All beehives have mites, but in this case it looks like they got hit really hard and it's making it difficult to raise brood. I'm going to just reduce their hive size and see how they overwinter. Next week I'll put a quilt box on to help them keep things warm and dry, but other than that I'll do nothing.
Video Link
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Bee Vlog - May 25, 2013
It's been a busy swarm season for me. I caught 3 swarms and did 3 cutouts. This video shows the progress all these bee colonies have made so far. We got to see Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Helen. It was quite good luck to see Queen Helen, as we did not see her during the cutout (May 18th), but it looks like she pulled through just fine.
Queen Guinevere seems to have Varroa mite problems. One of the workers had deformed wings caused by a virus transmitted by mites. Quite a few mites were found on the board under the bottom screen. I didn't do an exact count to see how bad the infestation is, but it does look high. Of course, the board has been in there for nearly a month, so it could just be that. I do not apply treatments, but I will be watching this colony to see how well they pull through.
Queen Dulce and Queen Guinevere are growing nicely and will be ready for a 2nd box in the next week or two.
I also plan on building some quilt boxes to place on top of the hives to give that a test.
Video Link
Queen Guinevere seems to have Varroa mite problems. One of the workers had deformed wings caused by a virus transmitted by mites. Quite a few mites were found on the board under the bottom screen. I didn't do an exact count to see how bad the infestation is, but it does look high. Of course, the board has been in there for nearly a month, so it could just be that. I do not apply treatments, but I will be watching this colony to see how well they pull through.
Queen Dulce and Queen Guinevere are growing nicely and will be ready for a 2nd box in the next week or two.
I also plan on building some quilt boxes to place on top of the hives to give that a test.
Video Link
Monday, November 5, 2012
Bee Vlog - November 4, 2012
Hive weigh-in: Both hives weigh 117 lbs. It's interesting that they are at the same weight now when, previously, Queen Anne was significantly out weighing Queen Beatrice.
It's been nearly a month since I've been able to observe the bees on a nice, sunny, warm day. Today it was 63 F when I paid them a visit. Activity levels between the hives have seemed to switch patterns. Queen Anne was relatively quiet while Queen Beatrice was the busy one.
Queen Anne has been fighting a bad case of varoa mites. I've been seeing dead larva that have been pulled from their cells and deposited outside the hive. They've had dead mites attached to them. I suspect (or hope) that this is actually a good thing: that the bees are dealing with the infestation by removing the larva and thus breaking the mites' brood cycle. In the process though, they are also seeing a drop in population as the summer bees die off and new winter bees are fewer due to their culling methods. It should be interesting to see how well they do over winter.
I have no inclination to apply any kind of mite treatments. I don't believe it to be a beneficial long-term solution. I'll be very saddened to lose them of course, but I'd rather have good genetic stock that can handle mites themselves than start treating. It's better, not only for my bees, but the other bees in the area. If this colony can survive the infestation then they have superior genes and they will pass on these traits to other neighboring colonies. Otherwise their weaker genetics will die off. It's harsh, but that's really the way of nature. If I treat the mites then I encourage the survival of weaker genetics, and also breed stronger mites. Both results are contrary to the goal.
Video Link
Photos featured in the video:
It's been nearly a month since I've been able to observe the bees on a nice, sunny, warm day. Today it was 63 F when I paid them a visit. Activity levels between the hives have seemed to switch patterns. Queen Anne was relatively quiet while Queen Beatrice was the busy one.
Queen Anne has been fighting a bad case of varoa mites. I've been seeing dead larva that have been pulled from their cells and deposited outside the hive. They've had dead mites attached to them. I suspect (or hope) that this is actually a good thing: that the bees are dealing with the infestation by removing the larva and thus breaking the mites' brood cycle. In the process though, they are also seeing a drop in population as the summer bees die off and new winter bees are fewer due to their culling methods. It should be interesting to see how well they do over winter.
I have no inclination to apply any kind of mite treatments. I don't believe it to be a beneficial long-term solution. I'll be very saddened to lose them of course, but I'd rather have good genetic stock that can handle mites themselves than start treating. It's better, not only for my bees, but the other bees in the area. If this colony can survive the infestation then they have superior genes and they will pass on these traits to other neighboring colonies. Otherwise their weaker genetics will die off. It's harsh, but that's really the way of nature. If I treat the mites then I encourage the survival of weaker genetics, and also breed stronger mites. Both results are contrary to the goal.
Video Link
Photos featured in the video:
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| A dead larva with 2 dead mites attached, and half of a dead bee. |
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A view of the larva where the mites are visible.
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Queen Anne's bottom board: lots of dead bees and larva. Looks to me like the workers aren't able to keep up with the cleaning work, either because of all the rain or the death rate...or both.
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| Queen Beatrice's bottom board, just to show the contrast between the 2 hives. |
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