Why Am I’m Seeing Mite Count Differences Between Yards

[@walterhiegel3020]

I love the idea. You are very good at using the tools that you have to their best strategic advantage.

[@serenity9633]

" Nothing is making any sense to me" Boy, doesn't that describe the world we live in today! Waving atcha Ian 😊 ( Lauri Miller)

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

👋 back :)

[@alexrem3245]

I recently had a thought about mite counts and splits. If you are using sealed brood for splits and leaving mostly open brood with the original hive you'd be passing a larger portion of the mites over. That might explain why some hives have higher counts.

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

I use 1 hit of OA and then follow up with Apivar. This seems to work well for me. Thanks Ian!

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

Spring treatments setting up the year? Part of the "fun" of using thymol, watching the queens explode after a 15-20 day brood break! Some of the best thinking is during our private time during the harvest. Lol, playing chicken with combines.

[@johnn1a2]

Great plan. I’m a hobbyist bee caretaker. Had 12 splits in spring. As soon as queen had a mated. Waited till she had laid eggs. Used thymol before cappings (apalife var) not suitable for commercial beekeeper as labour intensive, also apilife thymol not as strong as Thymovar . Apilife var doesn’t appear to reduce laying did in two hives. Thymovar stronger also can reduces nectar flow reluctant to take feed. I used apivar real early in spring as well. Half of my hives did half formic prow with top of pad covered( most hives had one honey super) over the summer. Other hives (my splits) did apilife 32 day treatment. Soon as that was completed put on apivar strips. Being small like apilife and tolerates up to 35*C. Thanks for all updates.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

How reluctant were they to take the feed?

[@johnn1a2]

With the apilife brought tons of nectar in. Haven’t used Thymovar but some articles mention to make sure hive has weight and can reduce food intake. Some articles no mention 6-8 week treatment all only emphasize temps not to exceed 30* C. Danceing bees at Tods in Ontario sold out of Thymover not that this predicates it’s effectiveness . Will try Thymovar or oa extended next spring instead of apivar. I like Thymol and oa extended. Used oa extended this spring but not the 60-70 days like Randy Oliver found the best. Had to take my OAE off after 30 days. So fingers crossed becomes legal. Like Randy says not the silver bullet for mites but a big help. Can’t imagine put on in spring and leave on for 72 days no heat restrictions. Hopefully someone will weigh in and let us know their experience with any and all thymol products. Apiguard( thymol) appears to be used by many beekeepers in the USA buying in bulk pales

[@TracysBees8713]

We used strips. We only have 8 hives this year. Plan on doubling next year. Pray you find peace.

[@leroyharder4491]

Extended release oxalic strips will hold the line during spring and summer. Hope regulatory agencies keep up with some of these newer techniques. Nice to see low mite counts this time of year.

[@drjmarkrodgers1428]

As a side note, it’s truly amazing to see the billions of grain seeds that are the result of a single bee visiting a flower. Billions. It’s as graphic a demonstration of the role bees play in agriculture. Would be interesting to study your crop yield without the 1,500 hives near your fields.

[@shadowmancer7040]

I I think he mentioned it once years ago. It was something significant but not extraordinary... maybe 10% more give or take a few%

[@perrybayes4646]

Bees don't pollinate or collect nectar from grain... except for buckwheat

[@dcsblessedbees]

So it sounds like you are seeing 2 different stages/examples of the treatment time line? Some yards are a step ahead of the others. You are catching the numbers during the berth cycle of the bees, there for you are seeing higher numbers in the later treatment yards. Thanks for the follow up Ian. I do the same thing when ever I run across a beekeeping conundrum, my brain has to work it tell it figures out why.

[@MatWalter-q3h]

I am 17 days into a Thymol treatment that I am supposed to do again... well any day. I pray I have a brood nest to work with after listening to this. In my opinion adjusting to the farming side of bee keeping is a challenge. As in mother nature trys to kill 90% of everything every year so taking some loss is normal. The guy that takes the least loss wins. I could not put the treatment in earlier as I had to get the honey off. At some point I have to except less honey in order to treat earlier. There comes a point here were we are not raising bees but managing mites and the bees take care of themselves. I have had bees for less than 110 days so I am still learning... giggle

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Let me know your experience with the brood nest

[@MatWalter-q3h]

@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog On day 17 of Thymovar I have brood in all stages. I had a hive hatch a new queen on about Aug 5-6. At this time that hive has at least three frames with brood in varying stages. So all of that was done while or just after the treatment. They do not like the pads. The hive with the most bees had 95% entombed it in propolis sealing it to the bubble rap and completely filled between the frames below it. I dont think that it makes any difference though as the kill rate (mites) on something like this would be very high in the first three days and I would be nothing after the fifth day. Then they allow time for more to hatch and tell you to apply again day 21.

[@charriso1]

Hi Ian. Kind of an off topic question but I remember you saying you got some queens from Randy Oliver this year. I assumed those were from his mite resistant stock. Can you share your mite experience with those queens?

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Yes and some VSH Those will be looked at after the nest has hatched

[@Manuherikiabeekeeping]

Hi Canada from southern New Zealand 👋😃 sounds like you're having the same teeth crunching topic😬 up there with the bloody mites. I had to put bayvarol ( its a polymer strip impregnated with Flumethrin in New Zealand) strips in mine first treatment and i hate that stuff but i couldn't use my frazin oxalic wand because we had two weeks of 90 kph+ winds right at the start of treatment time and it wouldn't let up. I couldn't wait any longer so i finally brought and put the damn flumethrin strips in and then the next day it was so quiet for the next 8 days you could have heard a fart at the top of the north island echo down here.🤨😬😃 Then we got snow, wet snow, that smashed out a whole heap of trees and heavy branches weakened by the screaming Antarctic winds we got for a fortnight and some dumbass southern New Zealand beekeeper ( ahem🙄) reversed his brood boxes 🤦because he thought the weather was going to miss us🤦 ill leave the strips in to the weekend and then start oxalic acid vapour because I really hate those blasted strips but i hate varroa with a vengeance. Im dreading the mite washes on the weekend but misery loves company 😂at least im not the only one freaking out about mites😃 nice win during the combine standoff 👍😂👋

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Loved the comment ❤

[@stephenlind8318]

We need more options for mite treatment during honey flow. Cleaning out colonies before the mites have a chance to sneak under that winter brood. Seems like waiting for them to hatch out to use oxalic is too late and damage already done to winter bees

[@lomavistabeeco]

Awesome!!!…playing chicken with combines 😂😂😂

[@danielhiller9165]

suggest trying hops guard 3 on 100 colonies, approved in US to use during honey flow. split between 1 treatment and 2 treatments, the second treatment when you remove the first. it may not kill all the mites but reduce the numbers to deal with after honey flow.

[@ShalomShalom-d5c]

Thymol, sounds like whats found in the herb Thyme. (Its a VERY potent antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal). I like to conduct experiments & I like natural remedies, so Im wondering if planting Thyme around bee yards would destroy mites by the bees harvesting the flowers? Ive recently learned most cooking herbs & spices when ingested in decent quantities kills parasites, lessens inflammation & all around helps with many ailments & their symptoms.

[@extracrazyguy]

yes , thymol is the active chemical oil in thyme ... and herbs do a bunch of things to really manage infectious things in an environment. But my thinking on thymol and herbacious olis of various types actually create a cascade reaction in any local pest grouping I.E. ants , mosquitoes, ticks, beetles, spiders .. etc etc.. Solving 1 problem (mites) might be easier to achieve if the environment can support the herbacious plants that aid in the control feature that comes with the plants themselves. grow some thyme and rosemary together somewhere near your apiary ... see how it affects the overall environmental pressure of the pest species. (NOTE:) Im just thinking out loud here so take my words with a grain of salt , but in practice here in arizona herb plants such as Thyme , rosemary, and basil have pretty big impacts on the local pollinator species of "bee" we have. And the tiny bees love basil flowers 😄

[@vernaaustin6345]

As long as you take care of your babies.

[@jasonelliott9837]

Theoretically, if you remove the brood frames you maximise the oxalic treatment. Could you put queen and stickies above top cover, leaving brood and varroa down below to hatch out. Then vape top area that has queen, then after bottom area hatches vape that and finally recombine. Would this mean less varroa in most recently laid cells from top area. Might be something to try on one colony? 🤔

[@coreyreid1404]

Have you ever looked into a varroa controller where they use heat to kill mites in the brood? Becoming popular in Australia. The machine is Made in the uk I believe

[@tonymarshharveytron1970]

Hello Ian, As an ex UK Honey Farmer with over 60 years experience with bees, I found it heartbreaking to see you uthanising those lovely big stocks yesterday, however, I can follow your thinking. I will come back to this in a minute, but I have just been mulling over what you have said in this video, I really feel for you. Just a suggestion which works for us. You seem to be ready to try anything, and with the number of bees you have it may just save you a lot of money and work. Take a few of your big queenright stocks with high mite counts that you would kill off, don't treat them with anything except feed them with 2 to 1 Thymolised syrup. Dissolve one ounce of thymol crysals in 5 fluid ounces of surgical alchohol, add half a fluid ounce of this to 112lbs of sugar in 7 gallons of warer. This is the recipe given by ROB Manley, another old UK honey Farmer. This will start to shut down the brood nest, and also disrupt the Varoa Mites. It may reduce the mite load during the winter, and in the early part of the year when the queen starts laying, the Tymol in the syrup will prevent the mites from occupying the cells. If in the spring, Tymolised syrup is fed again, this will help to protect the brood again. Another thing you may like to add as well, is Methylsallicylate. This is delivered by a wick in a small bottle. This is also somthing advocated by Manley as a treatment and prevention for Acarine Mite, which we havn't seen for years. I believe that this is also dileterious to Varoa Mites. Comming back to those bees you were uthanising, they are obviously good bees by how big they are. Could it be that they are becoming tolerant of the mites and would eventually help eradicate them. Kind regards, Tony Marsh.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Good bees, but old bees. Queen failure, no nest and out of time. A fall cull I the same thing, shaking them into the grass but by doing that, it taxes the colony in the yard due to drift. And for what benefit? 1 week of life. Hard enough life

[@robertlewis3336]

I'll bet those combines have some serious in-cab dust filtration

[@lester3836]

I like to use 33ml thymol 7 days apart and then follow with OA on day 21.

[@10peteo]

Hey Ian Drop a link for the honey sales if you would please. Thanks

[@cp9023]

You're always multitasking. I was thinking that once the children went back to school, you'd slow down a bit. I guess not!

[@richardstern6099]

Ian, do you see a different outcome with mite counts on the colonies you treated with Formic?

[@barkersbees]

Yes farming bee talk with Ian

[@djmoulton1558]

Combine chicken! A new Canadian sport!

[@MatWalter-q3h]

FWIW In your data gathering look for information on the life cycle of the mite. Most people know they prefer drone comb but most do not know that they prefer it because it tends to be 1-2 C. lower than the center of nest. We as keepers need a better understanding or a more complete understanding of what going on in order to get out in front of the 'mite issue' Every company that sells us a solutions prays we have mites forever. The breeders that are looking for bees that take care of this by themselves are the only ones I am aware of that are looking for a solution. Everyone else is looking to make a profit. I know it is old idea and impractical for commercial guys but it sure seems to me that with the addition of drone comb in mid August maybe to get as many breeders out as we can with out actually killing them...but instead removing them in the comb. Somehow we need to be able to get the mites into a comb we are willing to sacrifice. Another thing I have heard NO research on is simply heat. The bees live about 2-5 C warmer than the mites want. I expect the bees themselves can take a sustained level of heat that the mites can not. the issue is how to heat the hive to say 40 C hold it there for 10 mins? how long I dont know but the mites larvae and adult would be dead. Clearly this will be right at wax melt and it not easy. I am just offering ideas that are not another chemical. One thing for sure.... bee keeping is a sickness. It infects a person. I am sure glad this stuff taste good and keeps a long time. I never cared for a cow like this.

[@larrymacdonald2068]

As long as you are not using both treatments ie thymol and I oxalic acid at the same time. Which you don’t seem to be suggesting . But, for the record, the combination can be toxic. This according to Bob Binnie in a recent video. Found this very helpful. At 8 minutes in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKfcfKJuf86NqZYsi=VOjOuRtcH0jle3hY 8:00 Synergistic interaction chart

[@Draintheswamp2024]

what if a feller were take 20 hives and shake all the bees into a new box without the queen and treat with 1 just one shot of oxalic acid, then return the queen, take the remaining brood and stack them 10 high if you have to then rinse wash repeat. do the same to the hotels after they have time to hatch or emerge, dam thinking about chickens

[@zachkalms778]

Why would you shut down the queen this late in the season doesn’t seem like there is enough time to get a thymol treatment and get her laying again I’m in upper Michigan and settled for a August 15 apivar treatment After this if I still have a mite load I will use homemade OA strips until November then 2 blasts of OA vapor when she slows down on her own Can you use OA strips other there ?

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Right now is when our queens typically shut down for good , but sometimes a brood nest lingers

[@carloscrenz9433]

Hola qué nivel abejas máquinas no precisa un empleado 😅😅😅😅👏👏👏😎💪

[@robinmartin4464]

Proximity of your yards to other beekeepers? Drift?

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Perhaps

[@benjamindejonge3624]

Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. Some years a section goes fine, while others don’t, and reverse. It’s complicated

[@jonathanswoboda]

OAV during Apivar wont degrade the strips? I know Apivar is sensitive to acids. I searched for information on OAV with Apivar on but could never find any.

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

First time I heard that I do not know

[@jonathanswoboda]

@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog Google says stuff like "Amitraz hydrolysis is rapid and occurs under acidic conditions" which is why I have never tired OAV during Apivar. It have searched for any information on Apivar + OAV efficacy but couldn't find any.

[@moosibou]

Apivar penetrates the wax, so I would not expect to see mites emerging. More likely it has failed. Either old or the mites are becoming resistant to it.

[@darrellandersontranquility4564]

Do you use apivar every year?

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Oxalic Acid Vapour in fall

[@noahG82]

I believe there's a bad reaction between OA and Thymol.

[@markkarstad2899]

I think you mean end of August... After Labor Day, not September.

[@danielweston9188]

Treat, treat, treat until they are gone and then treat to keep them from coming back . . .

[@rayjohnson8329]

NO YIELD!!