Do I Need To Treat Bees For Varroa

Do I Need To Treat Bees For Varroa

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[BrokePhilanthropist]

I have a hive with 4 frames of bees, very small. That hive has the most honey in it out of all my hives. Has about 75 pounds of honey in it. Small hive big production.

[brianmorgan]

How are you going to monitor the number of Varroa? Fascinated to see what happens over time. What size of box are they in?

[sallyhowe]

I got a feral colony this year. It was a swarm from a colony which has lived in a farmhouse wall for over 40 years. I’m going to keep this hive treatment free and see what happens
Maybe I could let them draw their own comb rather than foundation.

[beehinde]

Will you do an alcohol wash and mite count?

[gwhi]

You could start a series of starting with a package and using no foundation or a strip at the top and doing it natural. Just an idea. Thanks great vids I have been enjoying these series so far.

[josephvogel]

Love the topic and test. Please do a mite count test to baseline the experiment.

[BigRedNZ]

Part of me hopes this fails. Varroa bombs may crop up everywhere when others “give it a crack”

[TheBaconWizard]

This will be absolutely fascinating to watch, really good to see it first-hand, whatever the results turn out to be.
I'm gonna say it doesn't work long-term, but that it may be one tool in the box against varroa, with others required at the same time. Might be hard to tell if they are doing other things though, such as hygienic behaviour, brood breaks etc.

[harrycook]

would it not be an idea to isolate them incase they spread varoa to your other colonies

[petejesper]

This will be an interesting trial, how about doing an alcohol wash to establish what the varroa level actually is now and then at various times through the coming season? That will give a good indication of exactly what the bees are dealing with.

[apisincognito]

Love the videos but how can you do a varroa test without testing mite levels (washes etc)

[Bijenblogger]

Ofcourse it will be a succes, I have tens of Bee colonies on small cells. I started the conversion in 2016 and stopt all treatments. Now all my colonies are on small cells without any treatment. Winterloss is half of the Dutch average figures for years now

[sjnealeservices]

Since my first season I have never treated my bees. This year I have started to put them onto small cell foundation. Seems to work very well for me.

For more information on treatment free go and watch Michael Bush.

[alfie]

Interested to see how the Zest hive gets along without treatment and the AMM bees

[dexstewart]

Welsh Black Bees are relatively small - we still have varroa issues

[JulianMartin]

This will be interesting to follow. I took over an abandoned colony which had been neglected for 8 years. The bees were tiny, as over time, the cells get smaller. I changed the old comb over to fresh foundation which the bees drew out... the size of the bees increased and they subsequently suffered from varroa infestation which needed treating

[eastsussexbeesandwildlife]

Looking forward to it. Is the foundation standard or has small embossed cells, a draft question I know.

[randyclinganfarms]

Why not do a wash just to see where you start

[Lsmith-lycm]

Sounds like a good project. Hopefully it works.

[TheDanspence]

Hi.
I wonder if that colony is in some way vsh? Could see signs of uncapping/recapping.

Would be great to more uk breeders breeding for vsh ( uncapping recapping)
Small cell has a part to play but, so does bees that will play their part too.
Look forward to it.

Danny