Two hives, both strong, both with supers still on. Did my first proper alcohol wash on both and got nine and eleven mites per 300 bees. I know that is high but I do not know how high, and I do not know what I can actually use with supers on. Nights are still 18C and days 28C. I would rather not lose them over winter like I did last year. What is the sequence here?
Something people forget: if your neighbours have untreated hives within a couple of kilometres, your counts can climb again in September from robbing and drift. Not a reason to skip treating, just a reason to check again in October rather than assume you are done.
Congratulations on actually doing the wash, by the way. Most people who lose hives over winter never counted at all and conclude it was the cold.
Wash both hives again 14 to 21 days after treatment finishes. Half the winter losses I hear about are people who treated once, assumed it worked, and never checked. A treatment that dropped you from nine to six has not saved anything.
Also worth writing the numbers in a notebook by date. Two seasons of counts tells you far more than any single reading, and you stop making the same August mistake twice.
@iron_filter_ike · 12mo ago · 3 replies
Nine per 300 is three percent, and in August, going into the period when winter bees are being reared, that is treatment territory by any threshold I have seen. The bees that will carry the colony through winter are being raised right now, and mites feeding on those specific larvae is what kills hives in February, not the cold. Pull the supers if you want honey for yourself, then treat. With daytime highs of 28C a lot of the organic acid options are outside their temperature window, so read the label for the product you can actually get, because that window is not advice, it is the difference between a treated hive and a dead queen.
Reply
Report
@iron_filter_ike · 12mo ago
Yes, and be generous. Whatever your local overwintering weight is, hit it before you take a frame for yourself. A colony you treated but starved is the same dead hive with a different story.
Reply
Report
@pourover_petra · 12mo ago
So take the honey first rather than treat around it. Does that mean I have to leave them what is in the brood box?
Reply
Report