Monday, September 16, 2013

You keep asking

How many mites is too many mites? THIS IS! a mite every centimeter?  Heavy concentrations. I've never seen mite loads like this in the hives!  After the harvest I was showing a NEW-BEE  a drone...at random! The drone had 4 adult mites running around it.  GROSS!  did I say GROSS?!?!

I suspect something about the 5 queens I installed this summer...perhaps they're less hygienic about ridding themselves of mites.  I suspect this because, the old /natural queens are less infested.  I'm going to requeen again summer 2014.  I'm going to go for some BEE WEAVERS, OR MINNESOTAS, OR RUSSIANS.

My treatment choice is APIGUARD. They got their second tray yesterday.  I hate to do it, but they CANNOT go into winter with this amount of mites!

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