Monitor and treat when necessary. I use Minnesota Hygienic queens that are very adapt at killing varroa. I can always tell when a brood hatch has occurred because I will see an increase in varroa bodies on my sticky boards. I do alcohol wash 3 times a year. My bees haven't been treated in 2 years because they have yet to reach treatment thresh holds. Here in South Louisiana I have brood year round.
We pretty much have brood year round here. Alcohol washes are the most accurate method of testing. By the end of the season my washes are ALWAYS far above any acceptable threshold. At that same time parasitic mite syndrome is evident in most of the hives. I don’t always see dwv. If I treat in August/September using a proven effective method (typically Apiguard or Apivar) and a single oav in December my overwinter losses are practically nil. In evaluating treatments, I have treated and at the same time placed real sticky sheets on my bottom boards. On those occasions it is not uncommon to see more than two thousand mites drop in a matter of days. I have gotten any number of highly selected queens over the years. Even today I am buying vsh queens. I have yet to find any that confer enough mite resistance to allow for good vigor and long term survival without treatment. I hope yours continue to work for you. You might note that during the lecture I told the students that we would be testing during our August beeyard workshop. I also mentioned that typically less than half of the students attend that very important lesson. By then, they’ve had their bees for a few months and often believe that they have it under control. Within a few years….they are beeless.
@@boogerhillbee Great video and information. I find I have to be kind of obsessive about treating to stay on top of this. I also do OAV twice in December and last year I did OAV on splits in June then Apivar in July/August but still lost 1 out of 9 hives from the diseases mites spread. I first will notice like I did this year bees crawling on the ground in front of a group of hives. Crawlers I call them and if you pick one up it can't fly will just fall back to the ground from the DWV or what not. When I see that usually it is to late. I have been considering 3 rounds of treatments next year OAV in winter, Apivar in early July as soon as I pull honey supers and split, then Apiguard on Sept 1 when it is cool enough to do so. Not sure if that is being too aggressive or not but I may try it on a few hives at least as an experiment. The problem now seems to be even a very few mites can kill a hive with the viruses much easier than a few years back. Maybe that is because we are knocking the mites down better so the remaining ones are more lethal I am not sure.
@@akbeal No question about it, varroa are relentless! Consequently we must be equally relentless. I still do a round of Apivar or Apiguard following honey harvest each year. I am doing my midwinter oav treatments as I speak. I hope to do most yards twice this month. I told myself a few years ago that if I had to treat three times a season I would stop keeping bees. The jury is still out. I expect that the regimen that you are following will work pretty well.
Monitor and treat when necessary. I use Minnesota Hygienic queens that are very adapt at killing varroa. I can always tell when a brood hatch has occurred because I will see an increase in varroa bodies on my sticky boards. I do alcohol wash 3 times a year. My bees haven't been treated in 2 years because they have yet to reach treatment thresh holds. Here in South Louisiana I have brood year round.
We pretty much have brood year round here. Alcohol washes are the most accurate method of testing. By the end of the season my washes are ALWAYS far above any acceptable threshold. At that same time parasitic mite syndrome is evident in most of the hives. I don’t always see dwv. If I treat in August/September using a proven effective method (typically Apiguard or Apivar) and a single oav in December my overwinter losses are practically nil.
In evaluating treatments, I have treated and at the same time placed real sticky sheets on my bottom boards. On those occasions it is not uncommon to see more than two thousand mites drop in a matter of days.
I have gotten any number of highly selected queens over the years. Even today I am buying vsh queens. I have yet to find any that confer enough mite resistance to allow for good vigor and long term survival without treatment. I hope yours continue to work for you.
You might note that during the lecture I told the students that we would be testing during our August beeyard workshop. I also mentioned that typically less than half of the students attend that very important lesson. By then, they’ve had their bees for a few months and often believe that they have it under control. Within a few years….they are beeless.
@@boogerhillbee Great video and information. I find I have to be kind of obsessive about treating to stay on top of this. I also do OAV twice in December and last year I did OAV on splits in June then Apivar in July/August but still lost 1 out of 9 hives from the diseases mites spread. I first will notice like I did this year bees crawling on the ground in front of a group of hives. Crawlers I call them and if you pick one up it can't fly will just fall back to the ground from the DWV or what not. When I see that usually it is to late. I have been considering 3 rounds of treatments next year OAV in winter, Apivar in early July as soon as I pull honey supers and split, then Apiguard on Sept 1 when it is cool enough to do so. Not sure if that is being too aggressive or not but I may try it on a few hives at least as an experiment. The problem now seems to be even a very few mites can kill a hive with the viruses much easier than a few years back. Maybe that is because we are knocking the mites down better so the remaining ones are more lethal I am not sure.
@@akbeal No question about it, varroa are relentless! Consequently we must be equally relentless.
I still do a round of Apivar or Apiguard following honey harvest each year.
I am doing my midwinter oav treatments as I speak. I hope to do most yards twice this month.
I told myself a few years ago that if I had to treat three times a season I would stop keeping bees. The jury is still out.
I expect that the regimen that you are following will work pretty well.