BBKA Forum

I'd have thought weekly drops was pointless as the other bugs scavenge the carcasses in my absence.
I'm sure I'm looking right - a round dark red creature about 2mm across?
Ive only ever found one.
It crumbled to dust when I touched it.
It was pollen.
Perhaps I'm in some sort of geographical fantasy land where there are no mites.
Or it's just that trays don't do the job for me.

These are the tunnel entrance blocks that i make and use during robbing/wasp problems and during winter..it also acts as a mouse guard..on a couple of the mongrel colonies i have i can get away with leaving the tunnel entrance in but fully open with no shim inserted..however during a heavy flow in good weather the full entrance block has to be removed on the bigger Buckfast colonies as i have had to do every year after seeing large amounts of bees balling around the entrance and around the front of the hive frantically trying to gt in and out..

Alfred wrote: ↑

20 Jan 2021, 09:38

I'd have thought weekly drops was pointless as the other bugs scavenge the carcasses in my absence.

Well not round my way they don't.
Line your tray with a piece of paper smeared with Vaseline or some oil to make it "sticky". It should also trap any scavengers....

I'm struggling with the concept of monitoring,hence the question of tray necessity.

Why do it if I'm treating 3x5 days twice a year anyway?

I got snarled at by someone a while back for even suggesting treating outside autumn and solstice (where's he gone to -forum Is quite jovial of late...)
So ,by that doctrine,if levels rise I can't do anything about it anyway.
Or was he opinionating rather too fervently

If the bees need treating they get treated with vaped Oxalic acid mix regardless of the time of year..

So where does this idea of only twice a year arrive from?

Alfred wrote: ↑

20 Jan 2021, 15:22

So where does this idea of only twice a year arrive from?

I find that if the bees are treated properly in Autumn a single vape late December is all that is needed..however bees never read the books and we can often get the odd colony that plays a wild card..i was speaking to a commercial beekeeping last year and he breaks the two treatment rule with all his colonies..he does a third treatment during the spring build up..

Room for a little 'un?

Alfred wrote: ↑

20 Jan 2021, 12:35

I'm struggling with the concept of monitoring,hence the question of tray necessity.

Why do it if I'm treating 3x5 days twice a year anyway?

Because you will get an occasional rogue colony (ies) that 3 x 5 days will not bring varroa levels down sufficiently.
Initially when I first came across these anomalies I continued vaping and eventually got levels down after 10 vapes!!! Now when I get one of these I add apivar strips.
I currently have one hive in the garden where the varroa drops in the trays is now showing a high mite drop. They will be treated, probably Apivar as soon as weather improves sufficiently.

The point I'm labouring to make is you cannot assume your varroa treatment has worked unless you do some monitoring. It often shows how inefficient the methods we use can be.

Monitoring is a very blunt tool. We are told to count the mite drop which is pointless IMHO. Do you know how many frames of bees you have in winter ? on a warm day you may have 10 on a cold day you may have 5. Do you know how many frames of brood there is ? Some colonies go weeks with no brood, some never have a break. The numbers in a drop count are very subjective. I have monitored colonies side by side of a similar size and the drop count was very different. Having treated both colonies at the same time I was amazed at the huge level of dead mites from a colony that showed a minimal drop to the one next door. Both had a similar drop of dead mites after treatment. You have no idea what is going on inside. Just say'n....