Beekeeping | How To Test Honey Bees For Mites? Sugar or Alcohol Wash? #beekeeping

Beekeeping involves testing your honey bees for mites, either with the powdered sugar test or an alcohol wash. Which is best?

Ceracell Mite Test Kits are hard to find. Sorry, everywhere I looked, they are not in stock.

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[kennybruce]

Great video Dave, and very timely. Haven’t seen a lot of folks online who actually take you through the entire process, step by step. Much appreciated. And yes, locating Ceracell mite test kit extremely difficult. Thanks again.

[toddknecht]

My understanding was to allow the bees 10 minutes to groom the sugar/mites off prior to shaking. Which you mentioned later in the video.it will be interesting to see how much the numbers change!
Great work David thanks!

[stanleyschafer]

Thank you David, for your due diligence on helping us, to keep a safe and healthy hive. Thank you for sharing your videos with us. 🇺🇸

[KoiKicks]

Interesting that the half cup of bees was so far off. Really puts the test in question for me as it will falsely report higher numbers causing people to treat. Therefore why not just treat as a prevention. I really don't like the killing of bees, really goes against the grain for me. I think if you find varroa is a constant then the prevention route I mention sounds the way to go.

[hannasbees]

Great video!! Definitely makes me want to go and count all the bees to get the proper results! Thank you David!

[elmomclean]

Very good test, and brings to light a half cup of bees isn't an absolute the only way to be exact is count. I especially appreciate how you emphasize areas. colonies, and conditions are different and a bee keeper needs to find out what works for their bees. I really enjoy your videos and have gotten allot of ideas from them.

[wpankey]

Good stuff David. As a brand new beekeeper I’m still wrestling with which to use.

[SharonSandstone]

I felt a sense of happiness for the bees who escaped the alcohol wash before you could get the lid on. But I do understand the process.

[TheUrbanBeekeepers]

I really like the varroa test bottle with the locking tabs, it seems like it seals pretty well.

[markbasinger]

Thank you for showing this. As a newbie I was clueless.

[theflorencesoffgridjourney]

Hi David, quite a different ending from this afternoons video. My just for fun guess was way off. 😆 Even if you doubled your PSD you would still be shy what the alcohol wash came out to. 1.22 vs 1.62. You would almost have to triple it to err on the side of caution. ⚠️ ⛔️, and that would give you 1.83. I’m interested to see what the next test will show. Great job on the updated video! Thank you for all you do. I greatly appreciate it.

[kathycarr]

I drain my alcohol through a white paper towel. Take a magnifying glass. Easy to see!

[KirBeesFarms]

Correct me if I'm wrong but pausing the video at 10:19 it looks like there is a mite on the edge of the plate at the bottom right outside of the water on the rim.

[notuntilyoublessme]

This is a great video. Love the info provided. Thank you! I got some inexpensive equipment to do an oxalic acid treatment but my tests (alcohol wash) have all come in under 1% so I’m not really sure I should or not.

[gaetansimard]

Thanks so much for your video. I love your work and your Chanel.

[kennydykes]

You didn't disappoint, thanks for the info.

[CastleHives]

David. . I have switched to Dawn due to the recent results shown. Appreciate the info you share. I need to 3D print a giant Varroa. .

[SouthernExposureH]

Another follow-up question. Do commercial operators test before they treat? I know someone who is managing 80 colonies, he has them at three different sites each has about 25-30 hives. He says he tests about 8 colonies at each site to get an average mite load before he treats. I have two colonies that are sitting side by side, I tested them both last week, one colony had 14 and the other had 1. It makes me wonder if my friend is just wasting his time.

[mikeries]

For two years I tested for mites and in that entire time never found a single colony under the treatment threshold.
If you have honeybees you have varroa mites. Where? East Central Illinois.

[TheStrappygirl]

I ordered the anel hives from midnight be supply. Can't wait to try them.