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Anyone experiencing high varroa numbers this winter? I used Apivar in the autumn after taking the honey off and then looked at the drop rate in December which was alarmingly high. An oxalic acid trickle treatment in January gave a drop of over 200 but drops are still high (8 per day). I wonder if brood has been present throughout the mild winter giving the mites somewhere to hide. Whats others drop rates like?
SB
Not high - no, Silvbee - but some continued to drop Varroa for a while after the mid-winter treatment with Oxybee. Like you, I've given them an autumn treatment with ApiVar, and then a December treatment with Oxybee. In one apiary, one colony was still dropping Varroa (about 15 Varroa every two weeks), so I've just now given all three colonies in that apiary another treatment with ApiVar. The strips should be out by the time supers are added.
Kitta
I think I'm going to have to do the same. Beginning to think there might be some apiaries in the vicinity with high numbers of varroa that my bees are visiting or vice versa as this has been an issue since moving to this site.
I am in the very southern tip of Scotland ;) and for me, varroa has not been too much of a concern this winter.
Hi all,
Following on from the earlier posts I decided to bring the hive in question home and treat with Apivar again. Having the hive at home means I can check the floor insert every day which I've been doing for the past 3 weeks. Thought folk might be interested in seeing the daily drop in mites (see attached). So far 713 mites have been recorded so I think I got to this colony just in time and just shows how colonies can still be at risk after an autumn treatment.
SB
Phew! I think you did the right thing to treat them again SB.
Is the colony still strong, and did you notice any DWV?
Kitta
Yes hive still looking strong and noticed lots of crawlers when I first moved them home but not a huge amount in the hive when I opened them up at the weekend. This has been an issue since I moved to a new site so I think there's some feral colonies or lax beekeepers about that are causing big rises in varroa numbers.