Varroa Mites have reached Australia - Sugar Shake to Test | The Bush Bee Man

In this week's episode, Mark shows us how to do a sugar shake to test for Varroa Mites. Now Varroa Mites are here in Australia, we all must do our part by testing our hives.

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This video shows a beekeeper setting up a Queen Rearing System Cultivating Box and catches the queen to place inside.

Produced and Directed by John deCaux
Executive Producer: Mark deCaux

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Please watch: "Varroa Mites are Here to Stay - NSW is moving to Management"
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[Sweet_Honey_Farm_Central_FL]

They also prefer drone brood, inspectors here in the southern US use a toothpick to uncap and pull out a couple of drone broods and you can easily spot the mites on the white brood

[nztasha]

I use a preserving jar with a wire mesh lid, the kind used for sprouting beans for my sugar shakes. The problem with pure icing sugar/piping sugar is that it can get lumpy sitting in an open packet over time. With the preserving jar lid I can use the wire mesh to sift the sugar as I add it to the bees, so the bees don’t hammered by big lumps of sugar during the shake. I also shake the sugar out onto paper plates so I’m not having to clean and dry anything between hives.

[denisebrady]

You have more Bees on your hat than I have in my Garden at the moment.

[sherryortiz]

The dusting test can be used with any powder sugar even if it does contain cornstarch. I've been using it for 8 years. The container you are using is for a liquid wash. For a sugar shake you need a jar with screen on top. A canning jar with a piece of 1/8 screen like what is in screen bottom hives works great. Use the screen cut in a circle in place of the flat canning lid. Roll the girls around, shake side to side and let set and shake them around again. The sugar loosens the mite's suction cup feet grip on the bee so they come off easier. Then use a paper plate to shake the sugar on leaving bees in the jar. Mist the paper plate with water to dissolve the white sugar and you'll see the tiny dark mites on the plate to do your count. All the hives will eventually have mites but keeping the numbers down is your goal. I use powder sugar to dust my bees on a regular basis to help them knock off mites through my screen bottom hives.

[bunnyyoung]

You crack me up I love watching your content don't ever change 👍🏻 hi 👋🏻 from Hampshire England

[robinmartin]

Sorry to hear Australia has the mites, Good on you for battling the little buggers!

[sherryortiz]

I use the powder sugar in a sifter to dust all my bees on each comb in each box for my mite dustings. It works with a screen bottom hive only as the bees groom each other knocking the mites off and they fall through the screen. It's a soft mite treatment that can be done often during the spring summer and fall. My mentor started me on this 8 years ago and I haven't stopped yet. I do it on my stacked lang hives, top bar hives and my long lang. I've had very good success after the 3rd year when I finally learned to do it often enough. I can't use a smoker so I use a spray bottle with a couple spoons of granulated sugar dissolved in the water to mist the bees when needed. Like lifting the lid, I mist them when you use the smoker and it keeps them calm and busy grooming each other then too. I've made it up to 20 hives in the late spring early summer and get back down to 8-10 for wintering over after selling nucs and queens and combining the leftovers.

[dcsblessedbees]

Great attitude in my opinion, the mites are a problem but can be managed allowing bees can thrive. Nice strong colony. Ty for sharing your time, Blessed Days...

[conradjaques]

Excellent video on the sugar shake method of varroa destructor detection. Here in New Zealand we rotate the miticide treatments making sure the chemicals used in the treatment are chemically different e.g. Formic Pro then Oxalic Acid Gel strips (or vapour) then Apivar strips

[bobsheppard]

Flour is bad for bees as the dust clogs up their tracheas., icing sugar is ok, we use granulated sugar that we put through a bamix sugar grinder to produce icing sugar for dusting the hives to get the bees to self clean👍👍

[BrownAndDaughters]

Wow, sorry to find out that the mites made it down there. Good luck.

[paulf]

Varoa is a pain, but can be controlled.
Here in Europe we treat them twice a year and get an inspection board on the bottom of the hive to keep a tally.
There are some people in america have managed to get apiary free.

[yankos_]

That "shaker" is for the destructive alcohol testing method. Not for non-destructive sugar shake testing. You don't need the basket if you use the alky shaker for sugar shaking. Just use the canister alone.

[rickboundy]

I'm just cruising through south Oz now, been watching your antics since I started bees. About to start a new life in WA...I'm liking what I see in SA hope WA is similar

[neilhoganwa]

Here in WA we may be well isolated from the pest but I have set up ready for the inevitable. I look very carefully when I do inspections to keep on top of it.

[jspeers]

Glad to see you educating yourself. I was losing 50% over winter until I decided to take action. Now I lose 10% or so. Just need to keep on top of them. Hope all is well in your apiary

[tahliel]

DPI has updated and asked beekeepers to now do regular alcohol washes instead of the sugar shakes.

[praiseworthy]

I’m really sorry to hear that varroa arrived to Australia really sad news, I started beekeeping 10 years ago, I was very happy that Australia and New Zealand were safe from this Mites, and thanks to GOD from where I come from it’s an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean we don’t have it. We’re pray GOD that it stays like this 😊🙏🏼

[tahliel]

I had my bees euthanised by DPI last Wednesday. Absolutely devastated. It hit me harder than I expected. I'm hoping their sacrifice was worth it. Thank you for sharing how to sugar shake. The more we are checking, the better we can chase down these blighters, eradicate them and keep them from coming back.
My orchard is blooming now, and not a bee in sight. Any tips on getting a fruit crop without bees around? Should I hand pollinate?!

[wadebarnes]

I'm in the US and I can tell you I had 27 hives my mom died and I was doing her stuff and I didn't get to my bees about 3 months I have two hives left treated them hopefully they they make the winner for me to make some more