I treated all my hives with Apiguard in the autumn. In some of them, the Queens stopped laying about this time too. I didn't check the mite drop as carefully at this time (plan to this year though) but did see a lot of mites fall during the treatment, however I have also been concerned that whilst there was a good fall of mites in the autumn, the Apiguard may not have been as effective as it could have been due to the cool weather at the time.

The hive that has given me the biggest mite drop so far is one that I didn't think would still be here due to the queen not laying and their refusal to take stores in the autumn. There are now 6 seams of lively bees bees and they are enthusiastically making their way through a slab of fondant.