Varroa mite wreck.

[@blackberry5908]

Haha he will indeed be a hero if he figure it out ! Thanks for the video Phil, we don't mind longer videos by the way 😅 I hope those broodless splits will compensate these losses next spring !

[@FrankfurtFury]

High winter losses are to be expected. Everyone I know has had higher mite loads and is trying to get them down with OA including myself.

[@blackberry5908]

Phil maybe we should start considering these slow release oxalic treatments during the honey flow.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Oh shit that’s a guy punch, I can feel the stress. I hate this, What does this mean for the remainder?! Hop this was one of the only few trial test yards

[@philbeeman]

Gut punch or wake up call???

[@deanmalkewich2366]

People that think you can let bees die and the remaining survivor stock will be the answer to mites have never experienced collapsing colonies like this. It’s devastating.

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

Some say Apivar, the nearest thing you can get to playing Russian roulette with a semiautomatic.

[@philbeeman]

Worked good for nearly 20 years. If we had had another product we could have avoided this.

[@graemediesel2936]

It really sucks to be losing colonies like that. In hindsight do you have any thoughts what you would have done differently in treating for mites?

[@philbeeman]

I got lots to think about this winter.

[@dcsblessedbees]

Well that is no fun, how did your levels get so high any idea what went side ways?

[@philbeeman]

This site is an outlier. Didn’t respond to treatments. Perhaps virus load contributed. We will see what the lab says.

[@sidelinerbeekeeper]

3/4 of my 500 hives are in isolation, meaning I am the only beekeeper for 30 miles. The remaining hives are near a beekeeper who treats his 30 colonies once a year in the fall with OAV. I have to kill mites around him all summer, and I still see one or two colonies crash like in your video. The hives in isolation I use Apivar once a year, and counts remain low. My point is if we all don't kill mites equally, the bees and drones just reinfest each other. I have 5% winter loss, and he has 50%. My point is the guy who takes killing mites seriously, all his efforts are lost with a lazy beekeeper nearby. He markets his honey as keeping bees with organic practices.

[@marekbily8677]

Thanks for video No reason to save those bees! Not only varroa issue.

[@philbeeman]

We are sending survivors to lab for analysis.

[@toddknecht2106]

What do you think the reason is for the high mite loads? I missed a treatment due to warm temperatures which I ended up with high mite counts as well!

[@philbeeman]

Miticide resistance.

[@toddknecht2106]

@ assuming you didn’t use Formic? After I removed supers (single brood mgmt) mite counts were too many to count, I put in apivar strips then two weeks later I put in apiguard trays left for two weeks. Did mite counts they were 0’s and 1’s thank god!

[@philbeeman]

I used formic pro in late spring.

[@toddknecht2106]

@ so I missed my late spring Formic treatment due to high temps, I did however use Formic pro early august, I’m in NE PA btw but still had alarmingly high numbers in late September! I need to pay attention to the expiration dates on mite products! I got a good deal but may have been expired by the time I used them🙄 Thank you for your videos and responses!

[@aaronparis4714]

I feel bad for bees all Thease new beekeepers getting bees and wanting to be mite free it’s sad and to try to exsplain to them is like talking to a rock they think they can let mites take over and the bees will get resistances to it but it don’t work that way it would take 30 years before that will ever happen makes me so mad

[@philbeeman]

Everyone has to make their own mistakes.

[@stuffnsuch631]

Be nice if they could genetic modify a mite that's offspring was only male.