4 ms·

Varroa mites are a vector for diseases and fungus and most likely the distal cause of most of the dying colonies. If they are not aggressively managed, they eve

Varroa mites are a vector for diseases and fungus and most likely the distal cause of most of the dying colonies. If they are not aggressively managed, they eventually lead to the death or absconding of almost every colony.

giantg2 3y ago
A lot of it's genetics over management in my experience. I've seen treatment-free colonies go multiple years with low mite numbers and treatment free yards overwinter 75-100% of colonies. I've also seen heavily managed hives take losses anyways, or abscond after treatment. Including some that take 75-100% losses. Many times the same apiary can go from one extreme to the other in a year or two. The problem with the genetics is that it's extremely hard to maintain continuity of a colony beyond a few years because eventually they need to requeen. Those future queens are made from a variety of contributions of other gene lines due to the way the mating happens.
kurthr 3y ago
Can anecdotally confirm. I've had 100% surviving hives and continuous queen lineage now for 6-7 years. Before that I did minimal mite treatments (powdered sugar washes are nuts) and had 75% of hives abscond every year requiring new queens. My "neighbors" (>2mi away) rarely have a single hive survive a single winter. My preference is to alternate "natural" thymol/oxalic treatments with Apivar. You can really see the reduction in virus laden malformed bees in a hive turnover (~6 weeks). Apivar treatment lasts a full year, but I'd rather not develop resistance (don't leave strips in the hive longer than 8 weeks!) so alternate years. The best time I've seen for treatment is right before large population booms (since there are fewer mites in brood). That usually means early winter after supers are removed, or after a queen swarm leaves in late winter/early spring. One major challenge to resistant queens is that they tend to be more aggressive and their resistance is diluted unless you requeen (resistant) every year or two due to interbreeding with local non-resistant drones.
- forgetfreeman 3y ago
  If you have the stomach for the extra work and your apiary goals can support it consider adding brood breaks to your varroa management strategy.
  - kurthr 3y ago
    That's an excellent method! It just requires capturing all the queens and removing any queens and queen cells. Spring swarms and supersedure do something similar although not of a very controllable length. I'm not worried about the amount of honey.
    - pedrocr 3y ago
      It can be done with push in cages to trap the queen inside the hive. Because there's still a queen they won't start new cells. Because she's limited to a very small area the brood break is almost complete. I think a two week break is enough. The national honey show had a great video explaining this method. Apparently commercial beekeepers are going that route now that varroa treatments are becoming less effective.
      - forgetfreeman 3y ago
        That's likely to be an even bigger win for commercial guys beyond suppressing varroa. It's startling how quick a hive stacks up resources when there's no brood present to tend.
        pedrocr 3y ago
        They've measured that too. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJlgzcQWAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJlgzcQWAg It's an hour long and very informative. The research seems well backed up.

giantg2 3y ago

A lot of it's genetics over management in my experience. I've seen treatment-free colonies go multiple years with low mite numbers and treatment free yards overwinter 75-100% of colonies. I've also seen heavily managed hives take losses anyways, or abscond after treatment. Including some that take 75-100% losses. Many times the same apiary can go from one extreme to the other in a year or two. The problem with the genetics is that it's extremely hard to maintain continuity of a colony beyond a few years because eventually they need to requeen. Those future queens are made from a variety of contributions of other gene lines due to the way the mating happens.

kurthr 3y ago

Can anecdotally confirm. I've had 100% surviving hives and continuous queen lineage now for 6-7 years. Before that I did minimal mite treatments (powdered sugar washes are nuts) and had 75% of hives abscond every year requiring new queens. My "neighbors" (>2mi away) rarely have a single hive survive a single winter. My preference is to alternate "natural" thymol/oxalic treatments with Apivar. You can really see the reduction in virus laden malformed bees in a hive turnover (~6 weeks). Apivar treatment lasts a full year, but I'd rather not develop resistance (don't leave strips in the hive longer than 8 weeks!) so alternate years. The best time I've seen for treatment is right before large population booms (since there are fewer mites in brood). That usually means early winter after supers are removed, or after a queen swarm leaves in late winter/early spring. One major challenge to resistant queens is that they tend to be more aggressive and their resistance is diluted unless you requeen (resistant) every year or two due to interbreeding with local non-resistant drones.

forgetfreeman 3y ago
If you have the stomach for the extra work and your apiary goals can support it consider adding brood breaks to your varroa management strategy.
- kurthr 3y ago
  That's an excellent method! It just requires capturing all the queens and removing any queens and queen cells. Spring swarms and supersedure do something similar although not of a very controllable length. I'm not worried about the amount of honey.
  - pedrocr 3y ago
    It can be done with push in cages to trap the queen inside the hive. Because there's still a queen they won't start new cells. Because she's limited to a very small area the brood break is almost complete. I think a two week break is enough. The national honey show had a great video explaining this method. Apparently commercial beekeepers are going that route now that varroa treatments are becoming less effective.
    - forgetfreeman 3y ago
      That's likely to be an even bigger win for commercial guys beyond suppressing varroa. It's startling how quick a hive stacks up resources when there's no brood present to tend.
      - pedrocr 3y ago
        They've measured that too. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJlgzcQWAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJlgzcQWAg It's an hour long and very informative. The research seems well backed up.