I saw two new hatch bees being taken out of the hive this weekend with deformed bee virus. I have treated the hive with MAQs strips, is there anything else I should do? I haven't inspected yet.
Deformed wing virus
I saw two new hatch bees being taken out of the hive this weekend with deformed bee virus. I have treated the hive with MAQs strips, is there anything else I should do? I haven't inspected yet.
That sounds like a reasonable course of action if you have a lot of mites in the hive.
Have a look in the first decent weather day.
When did you treat with MAQS? If just recently remember that the newly emerging bees will have become infected during early pupation when Varroa enters the cell. Therefore you won't see the benefit until the brood cycle laid during or after MAQS treatment start to emerge.
Did you treat with oxalic acid? If the winter was warm(ish) where you are it's possible the colony had brood all winter and kept the Varroa going. Uncap some drone brood at the first opportunity … that's where the little blighters will be lurking.
I don't have experience of MAQS but presume it should be effective. An alternative could have been drone brood trapping which can be effective at this time of year. If your colony has very little drone brood but is building strongly, put a shallow frame at one side of the brood nest then a second a week later at the other side. That puts almost all of the drone brood below the bottom bar of those frames. Cut that off when sealed and Varroa is greatly reduced.
I put MAQs on after I saw the deformed wind bees, so this weekend. No I didn't treat with oxalic acid but I do think this colony has had brood either all winter or very early on. Is it too early to do an inspection/ drone uncaping?Originally Posted by fatshark
Drone brood trapping is a good idea. I did a count of verroa 2 weeks ago and during a 7 day period I counted a drop of 16 which I didn't think was too bad??
Be guided by conditions for inspecting. Generally when it hits 15C is a good time, but you can risk a quick peek a little cooler than that if you're quick.
For me, 16 mites in a week if the hive was untreated isn't great but there would be no need to rush into anything. If you've used MAQS that should knock them down substantially, and also give you higher counts for a while. If you hadn't treated, the drone brood trapping lets you check the extent of the problem while reducing it at the same time.
In early spring I sometimes see deformed wing bees and may struggle to see any a few weeks later. Maybe the small amount of new brood hatching early in the season makes them obvious, then they are hard to spot later as the ramping up of brood production means they're swamped by healthy ones. Maybe most of the Varroa causing that early spring damage were on their last legs and the problem fades for a while. Anyway, your problem should be fixed now.
Thanks for the advice, I was worried because David Ashton's book was mentioning burning frames, etc. I'm glad you don't think its too serious. I did treat with MAQs strips in September but the cluster was big and I think it had had brood early because it was so mild here.
Ah. I'd assumed that you were treating with MAQS right now, and that the 16 mites were knocked down rather than natural drop. OK then, keep monitoring, keep an eye on it, and if I was you I would try something like drone brood removal (and have a look in the sacrificed drone brood as an extra check on the Varroa level). That number is higher than you'd really want it to be at this time of year. No need to burnframes though.
Yes I am treating with MAQS now but I also did in September. The 16 was a natural drop before I started this treatment
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