A BETTER Way To KILL VARROA MITES! Beekeeping 101 #beekeeping

As promised in my video about post summer solstice queens today I am talking about how to use brood breaks as a natural way to kill varroa mites. There are so many different ways to keep our bees. Everyone has their own methods for what works bets for them. After reading research on ApiVar, Formic acid, thymol (Apiguard), and oxalic acid I am searching for different ways to manage my varroa mite levels as treatments, both chemical and organic, seem to have a negative impact on the bees as it effects their genes, immune system, and microbiome. Thanks for watching :)

beekeeping, treatment free, varroa resistance, brood breaks, mite control, natural beekeeping, how to treat for mites, post summer solstice queens, Michigan beekeeping, beekeeping in a northern climate

[SpoonerTuner]

Thank you!! I may try this. I found two other methods of dealing with varroa mites naturally, but I'm still super new to bee keeping and haven't tried them yet myself. One is to heat the hive up to 108F for 2.5 hours being careful to not let the temperature fluctuate. Then retreat them again the same way 3 weeks later to kill off any mites that happen to survive the first treatment. The second method is to put bait boxes out and catch wild feral bees swarms that have already developed mite resistance.

[ayapi]

My biggest colony (feral bees, they swarmed 4x last year and requeened themselves), swarmed 6x this year ! Making new families is healthy, it’s what we want ! And they do have several other forms of mite control that I have observed. Lots of propolis, for one, which I never remove. I’m rooting for them. They’re going into their third year.

[naturalwitchery]

November i did 5 treatments 5 days apart until my mite load was low. It wasnt huge, but bigger than it had been. OAV traetments in cold weatger is tge way to go! I love how you showed the colony size by the deop pattern. Mites were very low all spring and summer. Fall I did a thyme treatment and had some mite drop.

[eliinthewolverinestate]

Spend the money for push in queen cages for brood breaks. A slight misting of sugar water gets bees cleaning each other and hive. Plant rhubarb and thyme around hives.

[AmericansBee]

Our club is practicing OTS this year. We did it last year too. Mel is a smart guy. Very easy to make alot of queens this way.

[robertdickey]

During the period of no brood, the mites attach themselves to the bees. Therefore those bees become carriers of the mite effectively transferring them to other foragers and hence spreading to other hives.
Is this not the way you see it?

[johnnybstuddd]

Good info on this video. I did have two smaller hives that made new queens in mid to late july last year. One of them even had two queens in the hive, it was a deep box. I took one of the queens with a frame of brewed and bees, she did start laying but it kept getting robbed. It didn't survive.

I always thought the whole brewed break thing was when there was no larvae and eggs was the best time to treat with OA and get your mites down because they were on the bees versus in the capped cells so you can kill them on the bees. I guess I was confused on that, either way I'm going to do more of that in July and August this year.

[jdogsbad]

So what your saying is to take out my present queen and let the hive raise another queen ? The Hive I have now has raised their own queen this spring so is she good or should this be the queen I should take out ? It is now July so will there be time for them to raise a new queen and make it thru the winter ?

[RyanFerreri]

I'll preface this by saying everyone is entitled to keep bees how they want, so you do you. But...

The science does not back up most of what you said in this video. Brood breaks don't eliminate mites - they knock them down a bit. Mite lifespan is about 2 months. Unless you are going to cage your queen for 2 months and collapse your hive population, a brood break will not get you to zero.

If you want your bees to ramp up brood rearing at any time, including post-solstice, you don't need to requeen the hive. Just feed them 1:1 sucrose syrup. They don't slow down laying because of the sun - they slow down because the flowers are not producing the necessary resources to support a large amount of brood rearing like in Spring. If you feed post-solstice (especially during the dearth), monitor for mites and treat for them responsibly, you will have healthy bees that get through winter. By choosing not to control mites, you are killing bees unnecessarily, and spreading mites to other colonies in the area.

[boysmom]

I just got that book a month ago! Someone in my local bee club talked about OTS at a meeting. Great video!

[stevenkawano]

Literally never ceases to Amaze me the sheer amount of information u are able to convey in a short 10min video🤯Not to mention the sheer amount of information there is on even One particular subject in the vast world of beekeeping🤯🐝🤯Brood break is Fascinating to me tho and I agree with u it really does seem like not only the best way to get rid of mites just numbers wise but also the Safest way for the bees themselves which after all is what this is All about💛🐝💛This isn't a hobby in the traditional sense, u are dealing with living breathing creatures and Their well being short and long term should Always be your first priority and that is why U are Favorite Keeper😊Can't wait to see ur brood break in action, meanwhile u stay Warm my friend and I shall see U in the next one☺️✌️🐝💛 P.S. Love ur theme song🤣👏🤣 #emilyisthebeesknees #beefitbeekeeping #beefithoney #beefitbeeyard #beekind #downwithvarroa #queenbeeemily #mynicknamesgotnicknames🤣

[petercullen]

Do you re queen the hives every year then? Or just the hivea that have more mites?

[temijinkahn]

Such a refreshing brake from the commercial oriented presenters that are all about chemicals, chemicals, chemicals! I can appreciate that their focus on honey production and wanting to maintain their market of people who need queens and bees because their’s die every winter. However, as a hobbyist, my needs are not their needs.

I’ve been using powdered sugar treatments monthly to have grooming behavior reduce the mite population. I also am making splits from my strongest hive and requeening weak hives with cells from my strong ones. In my mind varroa will out evolve any chemical so think improved genetics is the ultimate solution.

The alpha bee trigger seems to require the absence of the queen so a forced superceedure looks like the optimum.

Question for the community: Is it better to not take steps to reduce the mites prior to the break to make sure the population is high enough to have a successful die off crash at the break or should I continue as is up to the break with my powdered sugar treatments?

[KajunHomestead]

Thanks for the follow up, gonna give it a try this fall.❤👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[strutt]

And another extremely informative video. This is definitely seasoned beekeeper info. Keeps it interesting. Thanks.

[ThePOTUSofMatthewEmbryBradshaw]

I read the page you had a picture of the screen, and it did not say that they started it and died. It said that they emerged with the emerging workers. Could you please explain where it does

[annettemarydever]

What about if their are not enough drones around ? And right now in Texas there are not any local queens to buy. What do you suggest for the next best way to control the mites & in 102 degree weather? Thank You! Love your videos ♥️🐝♥️

[nicolehicks]

Is it too late for a brood break now? (Early September)
What do I do with my old queen?

[williamobrien]

If you have a strong queen consider keeping her and create a brood break by caging her for three weeks. Just a thought.

[joseconcepcion]

It’s sounds really clever but is there a way not killing the queen if is a really good one? Putting her in a cage for 2 weeks or something?