Randy Oliver: Varroa Management

July 7 2022 General Meeting. Randy Oliver of Scientificbeekeeping.com on his research and practice of managing Varroa mites.

[@becauseicecreamhasnobones]

Excellent presentation! Much thanks.

[@sherryortiz227]

I've only been using powder sugar dusting for 8 years on top bar, langs and a long lang. Dusting has to be on each comb of bees on both sides of every comb on the actual bees in the whole hive. The tops of the frames like you showed here only gets the top 1/4 of the comb and not the bottom 3/4 containing most of the bees. State inspector found 1 mite in several hives tested in June last year. I'm having a good winter over number of colonies coming out doing good. A couple colonies need help bouncing back and a couple don't make it but it's as good or better than those who who use chemical treatments who report losses. I've never tested any of my hives in the past 8 years but I do dust during inspections weekly, twice a month or monthly depending on the time of the year. August begins weekly dustings for 4-6 weeks to knock down before winter, then every 2 weeks til Nov when I get them ready for winter. Time consuming yes but worth it since I fully inspect then anyway. I'm phasing out my stacking lang hives due to lifting issues and down to 2 now. Both will be in long langs by October this year. I use screen bottoms and cover them in the winter. Ive sold nucs and queens the last 2 years.

[@apisincognito8173]

Excellent talk.

[@petersteciow3724]

Thank you Randy for your professional work on varroa for the bee keeping world. The charts are very helpful.

[@davidseverance7385]

Difficult to follow. Maybe useful for a pro.

[@tomtaft1416]

Hi Randy, I have one hive, I live in Sacramento and I need to know what would be the best varroa treatment for my hive right now. I realize that I'm asking for an opinion but I want to treat my hive and there is just too much information for a new beekeeper.. I had bees forty years ago, decided I needed a hive for my garden, bought a double, then found out about varroa. Way more than I bargained for, but I am going to make a go of it because my oldest boy has decided that he'd like to be a beekeeper. I know your time is precious, but would really appreciate some proven giudance. Many thanks

[@sonofthunder.]

thanks randy ,great ibfo i have 15 colonies,exoerienced DFW, last year on 1 ,i use OA ,and have formic pro 2 tr shelf life, so ill be using your tips of foil covering, glad to see your healing up,looking forward to your data on dribble extended release sheet material,i also will try brood breaks ,with betterbee queen isolation frame holder,and green drone frames,..bee blessed

[@kkitchenkitchen]

Hey Randy have you ever tried pig mat for oxalic acid extended release?

[@carlsledge3868]

@Randy, is 75g OA and 75g veg glycerin heated till clear on swedish sponges cut in halves so 2 1/2s per 20 frames in double deeps laid on the top bars over the brood for 100 days in Aug, too much? About right? or am I crazy as hell? I did it on strong colony and the bees where fine and made 180# surplus. I'm in cotton, peanut, peach and pecan country in middle Georgia.

[@zukidedo1293]

HI, can oxalic drip affect the fertilization of the queen?

[@so_cal_mom]

Is it possible to get a copy of the spreadsheet containing treatments and cost?

[@michaellavazza960]

You check his website? He usually posts everything…I’ve had great luck making a donation and asking as well

[@michaelhall7921]

@@michaellavazza960 The cost of the material and chemical and food grade glycerine costs just peanuts and best of all the method ( which you may well already know is the best hands down) is deadly to mites. Incidentally - that derogatory post by an idiot has been taken off this report and rightly so as in my opinion it was derogatory and quite unfounded. There is no room on You Tube for such idiots.

[@SicSemper100]

Can you please post a link to your Power Point presentation so we can download it???

[@chuckcampbell3927]

🛫📖🛬 Randy, Sir, I'm a new beekeeper and I got my swarm hive on May the 26th. I'm in the zone 7A which is along the border of Virginia and North Carolina. This apparently is one strong hive and I have added a second box as of last week. I was told that I did not have to worry about Varroamite in the first year with a swarm hive. ***Is that true???*** #2) Is powdered sugar an effective treatment if done several times a season??? GOD Bless 📖🛐✈️🐆

[@beebob1279]

I tried Apivar three years ago and them mite loads remained the same. I skipped the next year. Last summer is used it again and the mite load increased. In other words, Apivar is not working for my bees. It's just not worth the risk to use anymore. This summer is so hot that I'm afraid to even use ApiGuard. So, I'm hoping to have the heat drop a bit before using it. Fall might be Formic Acid if I my mite loads are up followed by Oxalic Acid in late November or middle December.

[@olddave4833]

why not skip all those expensive treatments and do a couple powdered sugar treatments in the summer and maybe 5 oxalic acid treatments in sept into oct. when I find a frame loaded with drone brood, I dig into it and try to find mites, every now and then I do find one. I did a couple alcohol washes today in one yard, 26 hives there and didn't fine one mite which really surprised me. I didn't lose one hive over winter except for one in April that a bear got after getting the s%$it shocked out of him.

[@beebob1279]

@@olddave4833 Powdered sugar treatments are found to be quite ineffective in varroa control. It works to a degree in late fall when the brood has stopped. But, by that time just use Oxalic acid.

[@olddave4833]

@@beebob1279 I believe the sugar treatment is working for me, I done a couple shakes yesterday and found not one mite.. one frame was all drone brood and I did find two mites in that after digging out a couple hundred.. I have 17 more hives to sugasr treat tomorrow and Monday. last time till the acid treatment end of sept.

[@SabreWolferos]

27:16 that is an excellent piece of advice I have never heard before to help with angry hives

[@michaelhall7921]

My post does not seem to appear and has gone missing. I find as do many others that your research is second to none. It seems to be a trend among closed minded people of this world that new ideas ( but the strips are not a new idea) are often rubbished totally without foundation or data. I found that your strip method, you are researching is more efficient than the other methods of application. Looking at beekeeping through the eyes of an engineer I must say that is my opinion you are an exceptional researcher and quite unique and it must be said have a vast experience that most beekeepers find it very difficult to comprehend such as Mr Kabamm. Probably a 'warrior'.

[@michaelhall7921]

Dear Randy Oliver I was surprised to hear that Dr Jennifer Berry says she found the oxalic acid strips that you and quite a few others have used to excellent effect(incognito) di not work in her experiments. I was informed by another master beekeeper that the inefficiency may be cause by humidity or rather excess humidity. I noticed there was fluid on the catch tray when I did my daily mite count when the weather was cooler here in the UK..... The humidity fluctuates a lot here but I think is usually about 60. I have had excellent results on my first hive and the bees are exploding = wall to wall bees. That was not the case last season. A new Nuc I bought 11th June this year was lathered with hundreds of mites and the strip method has killed well over a thousand mites. This is deplorable considering the nuc was 5 frames. The day to day drop now can be 40 and another day it was 16. It is anyone's guess why this fluctuation exists? I realise you don't reply to many, if at all posts like mine & that's OK but what I find questionable in Dr Berry's results is why does the method of ER work for the Argentinian Doctor researcher? Is the engineering she uses no the same as us lot?

[@williamsummers6438]

The varroa mite is easily dealt with by hive design. If you keep your bees in thin walled hives with all the environmental integrity of a cardboard box the varroa mite will thrive. Change that and the mite will fade away. It is well known that the varroa mite does not do well in a humid environment. (The precise mechanism is not known to me). If you put the bee entrance at the top of the brood chamber immediately below the queen excluder a VIBEZ (Ventilated Integrated Bee Entry Zone) is formed and this will serve to make the brood chamber a humid bucket. The only hive type that has this top entry and ventilation is the ZEST hive. If the pupation time of the bees can be reduced this will reduce the time available for the varroa mites to mature in the brood resulting in the exponential collapse of the varroa population. Individual pupa temperature varies over time of day and brood position. Above 37C. the pupa die. Below 29C. the pupa die. At 35C. it takes 10-11 days to hatch. At 31C. it takes it takes 14-15 days to hatch. 35C. is ideal. Winter time is varroa breeding heaven. Ideally the colony external enclosure will be of an insulated material that also has a thermal weight that carries the heat of the day into the cool of the night and the cool of the night back into the heat of the day. Aerated concrete blocks are ideal having a 39 times better R value than a thin walled hive and 19 times that of a polyhive. The ZEST DIY hive is functionally free of varroa together with the maladies and morbidities that it carries. It enables in honeybees diseases such as Nosema, Acarine and DWV. EFB and EFB have never been reported, but that may be because it is relatively rare. As a proof of concept you can adopt these hive design management techniques to see for yourself the truth of them.

[@sherryortiz227]

How long have you been using this hive type and how many hives do you run colonies in?

[@williamsummers6438]

@@sherryortiz227 Personally? 10 years. Up to about 30. Now 7 colonies in various ZEST types, including vertical wrapped wood.

[@RKalos]

bullshit...

[@gordonspond]

Randy Oliver... most leftist beekeeper out there.

[@michaelhall7921]

Sorry the computer missed the d out in Randy =sorry.

[@zukidedo1293]

HI, can oxalic drip affect the fertilization of the queen?