MITE TREATMENT OBSERVATIONS-PART 2

As promised in the previous article, beekeepers Fred and Jon performed alcohol wash mite checks on the 4 hives on August 21st.  These were 300 bee samples from the brood nest; frames with both capped and uncapped larvae.  The samples were shaken vigorously for 2 minutes while the bees were submerged in alcohol.  

Here are the results. 

Hive A-0 mites!  Feral breeder queen hive, hive is 3 months old, no mite treatments

Hive B-1 mite!  Purdue Mite Biter breeder queen hive, hive is 3 months old, no mite treatments

Hive C-0 mites!  Overwintered 3 or 4^th generation PMB queen; treated w FormicPro 3 weeks ago

Hive D-5 mites!   Overwintered 3 or 4^th generation PMB queen; treated w FormicPro 3 weeks ago

Mite infestation percentages are:

Hive A-0

Hive B-0.3%

Hive C-0  POST FORMICPRO TREATMENT

Hive D-1.66%   POST FORMICPRO TREATMENT

Conclusions:

1)      The FormicPro treatment of hives C and D reduced the mite levels to well below the recommended treatment level of 3% (9 mites per 300 bees).  

2)      The hives with the feral and PMB breeder queens are well below the 3% (9 mite) treatment threshold and therefore do NOT need mite treatments!

The only caveat is that the two breeder queen hives are only 3 months old and not overwintered, and therefore have had less time to build their mite levels.  Although these results are very positive I feel several consecutive years are required to prove the mites are licked!  Humm, maybe I am from the show me state.  On the positive side my source for these queens has been treatment free for 7 years!