Yesterday I pulled the bottom board from the nasty hive and with a magnifying glass, searched for the dreaded Varora mite. I had been expecting to find some evidence as the reason for all my hive disappearing.
After a careful search I found only a few dead mites, not as many as I would have thought to kill off the hive. It was the first time that there was evidence of a mite problem as I had systematically inspected all summer and had found no evidence they existed in my colonies. I did use screened bottom boards to help stem the problem anyway. I guess this year I will switch to a resistant queen, probably a Minnesota hybrid, and do a much better job monitoring and following the instructions from the attached video. Watch it, its very informative. Later
http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/afbee/resources/VarroaMites.shtml
After a careful search I found only a few dead mites, not as many as I would have thought to kill off the hive. It was the first time that there was evidence of a mite problem as I had systematically inspected all summer and had found no evidence they existed in my colonies. I did use screened bottom boards to help stem the problem anyway. I guess this year I will switch to a resistant queen, probably a Minnesota hybrid, and do a much better job monitoring and following the instructions from the attached video. Watch it, its very informative. Later
http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/afbee/resources/VarroaMites.shtml
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