Varroa counts

[fatshark]

Anyone else keeping a watch on their Varroa drop over the recent cold spell? Mine appear to be increasing which I suppose might be due to ever-reducing amounts of sealed brood. It's predicted to be 14^oC tomorrow in contrast to a max/min of 1^oC/-4^oC yesterday so will be interesting to see if the increased colony activity displaces a few more of the little blighters.

[Jon]

Getting close to Oxalic time. I suspect there is little or no brood present at the moment.

[fatshark]

Doing mine tomorrow ... for that very reason. I also like the cluster to be a bit less compact ...

[Greengage]

13 degrees here in Dublin and Bees flying yesterday????
We had a lot of bees going into start of November on brood and Half. I have heard report of swarm in November from reliable source as he believed no room in brood box due to excess amounts of Ivy being collected.

[Jon]

15c in Belfast. I checked a few nucs and a couple of colonies and they are indeed brood free.
I'll treat in a couple of days when they are back in cluster.
They are working like it's springtime and bringing in pollen at the moment.

[gavin]

The tops of mine have all been cold for weeks so I'm assuming that this would be a good time for treatment too. This year I've decided to rely on a rather late treatment with amitraz (obtained through the Bee Farmers Association and their friendly vet) and generally leave off the oxalic but, like Jon I suspect, I'd be trickling when they've clustered in the cold rather than waiting for clusters to open.


Heard a rumour from an association in the West that I was being prosecuted for veterinary medicines misdemeanours! Guess I'm being confused with someone else ....


The bees were flying well here too.