Its been a totally different experience running bees in 2023 compared to 30 years ago we would never open a hive without armor on watching you guys work without coveralls and gloves blows my mind . My new hive is the same so gentle its amazing . Thanks for the how to video 🎉 Happy Birthday 🎉
Thanks for sharing miss Molly sounds like a great honest sales lady that’s hard to find you have some great people working for you hope everyone has a great 4th Happy birthday seth&john
I think the key to Formic Pro is to leave the bees alone. One week before and one week after, and a good temp for the first 3 days. Also, only use on strong over winter colonies. Thank Molly for sending out double screen boards they have improved my spring splits tremendously. Thanks, Bob, for the formula.
Bob, I put in Formic Acid the other day. My colonies weren't as strong as I wanted. I put a sticky board on the bottom board for 48 hours. I pulled the board and counted the mites. The phoretic mite drop was 2200. I can't imagine what is going on in the capped brood. We lucked out and finally have temperatures where I can get it on. I also need to see more capped brood in the colonies. The sunflowers started blooming on the farm and the bees are all over them. The hives are actually collecting sunflower. I hope I can get a super or two for my personal use. We do have japanese knottweed around here but it hasn't started blooming just yet.
I shake my nurse bees from a brood frame into the Nuc box then scoop them up in a alcohol wash container to mite test. Then reapply another alcohol wash to make sure my mite counts are accurate. Luckily, in WNC I don’t have too many heat issues with treatments. Thanks for the video. See you on 22 July for queen bee pickup. I’m going “Italian free” with my queens thanks to you and your team Bob! Great video! Kevin Rowland
I agree take preventative measures before you need to take drastic action where mites are concerned. So much of mite treatment success is using the products in the correct way at the correct time and under the right conditions. HoneyBee Health Coalation has a great mite management decision tool to help understand the mite products available and the proper use.
Here in Charlotte it’s hard to use formic or apiguard (even the half dose method) after the flow due to the heat. So far I’ve had good luck apivar knocking the mites back
I tried apovar once. Should have tested half way through treatment because my numbers went through the roof. Now I use oa vape and hopguard 3 and have apiguard in case it's needed. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
At the moment I am using oxalic acid with thymol in a gel I made myself, I make 1 kg of vaseline, 500 gr of oxalic acid and 250 gr of thymol. I heat the vaseline until it is liquid, add the rest, stir the rest and let it cool. it Works very well
I’m near Buffalo NY and I’m usually below the 90 degree in august and I put a empty super on and they beard a few days and after I get healthy hives going into winter, this summer I’m going to start doing mite counts now
I tried apivar last year, as it was what was recommended to me. I had the same result you did. It didn't do a thing, mite count after was through the roof! Like 16 to 20 in each hive! I then did oxalic acid treatment. For 5 weeks. To my surprise they made it through the winter and had zero mites this spring when I checked them.
@@bobbinnie9872 Not knowing what day it is is a symptom of old age…..It’s a disease that grows on you ( if you are lucky)…i have caught this disease myself….🥹
I use a similar mite treatment regimen. Although I use formic pro in the spring before I make my splits. It works well to clean up hives. I have very little if no queen loss. Any I do lose are requeened anyways.
We did our mite check this past Wednesday came up with zero mites on 5 hives out of 5 makes me a little cautious but high hopes the late fall/winter treatments are working,early august checks will definitely be in order to confirm any suspicions I’m having
Happy Birthday John @Seth! Great video as usual Bob. Love your team you have built , you guys are a great group of people . Great content , question I have us Hop Guard, is this worth using in July in Michigan?
I have not used the most recently produced Hopguard 3 so I can't say. I can report that the earlier Hopgaurd was a very poor choice and not worth the trouble.
Do you have nurse bees in the cages with the queens in the queen banks? Would it matter if it was queenright or a queenless hive? Hazel Cook Blossom Hill Nursery Peterborough Ontario. Thanks for the great informative videos
It wouldn't work as well with attendants in the cages. You could put the queens over an excluder in a queen rite colony, and I have done that many times, but I've had better results with queenless.
Happy Birthday Seth and John!!!!🎂 I believe I’m going to try Apiguard this round. I’m really nervous about it. Any pointers? I run 8 frame deep with one medium. Miss you all!
Another great vid thanks Bob and crew. Do you have broomweed-snakeweed there, Was told not to harvest honey from that for human consumption for it will cause a bitter taste, but ok to feed back to the bees for the winter. Question do you know if bees will choose OTHER forms of nectar over broomweed ie mesquite. We will probably get three blooms of mesquite this year we have already had two and more rain in the forecast. I have not seen any honey bees on humming bird feeders yet so I don't believe we are in a full blown dearth yet. Any ones thoughts. Thanks Dennis
We do not have that here so I don't have any experience with it. I didn't it had a bitter taste. Bees will usually choose the nectar that has the highest sugar content.
I prefer biotechnological methods such as total brood removal since the raising temperatures here in germany make formic acid a lottery. This year I am testing queen seperation with removal of the freshly capped brood every 9 days over 25 days (it's called Bannwabenverfahren in germany).
@@lenturtle7954 depends on the infestation level. Usually I pool them from several colonies, let them hatch far away, treat with OA and queen them. If they are heavily infested melting is their fate.
Ha Bob wonderful vedio, really enjoyed it how long do u bank your queens for and how long can u bank them with out it hurting them thanks hope u and your wonderful crew have a wonderful week and a nice 4th
How often do you replace the open larvae next to the Queen cages? I bet ash issues of bees propolizing the queen cages sometimes.is that because I don't have enough nurse bees?
Hi Bob....regarding Apiguard ...you have said you used it for numerous years. Regarding Overall performance of Apiguard do you still see it a great product and one to use along side of Oxalic vapor to knock down phoretic mites....thanks Bob!
Yes, we're still going to use it but I would caution to not use the two at the same time because those two products have a slightly toxic synergistic interaction with each other.
Hi Bob, Thanks for great content all the time. You have been blessed with a really great team there. Question for you, if your mite count was higher than 10% (3 mites), lets say 6-10 mites, what would you use to treat? Would you wait till after you pulled the honey supper off to treat them? I am curious to know if you had a high mite count would you treat before your normal August treatment of Apiguard or just wait till you treated them all?
@@bobbinnie9872That's good to hear. I'd hoped I'd be able to bank one just in case I lose a queen and can't get a replacement anywhere, so I don't lose an entire colony. I have an idea on extending the banking time. I'll let you know after I test to be sure I'm right.
Hello Bob, my name is Filip. I reside in Portland Oregon. This morning (07/04) I came across a bee that had a damaged wing. I have the honey super box, I often have to do treatments. What do you recommend? I currently use Oxalic acid. Todays temperature is 86 degrees. Typically treatment takes every 3 days 5 times a day. Is this correct? Any suggestions, or recommendations? Is there a video on the treatment? Thank you!
I would first do a mite check to make sure excessive mite numbers is the problem. If it is your idea of oxalic vaporization is good but I suggest at least 5 times (7 would be better) 3 to 4 days apart.
We only have mated queens. We don't bank queens that are being sold for more than a couple of days but for our own use perhaps a week or more if needed.
Just a quick question. I believe that the general idea is that if you treat one colony then you also treat the rest of the colonies in the apiary to avoid cross contamination from drifting etc. If that is the case I suppose that you really only need to check for mites in each apiary until you come across a colony with a too high mite count, and then treat everything without having to test any further? I can see that it is always nice to know what is going on in each colony, and that testing before and after is the way to go, but for purpose of treating you really just need one colony with a high mite count, or what?
That would work and yes we treat all at the same time. I'm sure some colonies have more mites than others but In our case we're just looking for trends which is why we need to check more than one or two colonies but not necessarily all.
Enjoyed this video. Thank you. Q's: What style of Queen Cage do you use for banking Queens? What do you use for a plug to prevent the Queens escaping ? And if you have the time , do you ever use the OA Dribble method in your mating NUCS after all the brood has hatched out ( 17-19 days after Queen cell introduced) .
Thanks. We're using JZ BZ cages and the candy end fits in that JZ BZ rail in such a way that no caps on the candy are necessary. If you're creative with making the right style rail you can do it with any style cage. I have used the dribble method in the past but found that it's a bit hard on the bees, especially if done more than once.
you guys didn't metion bayvarol, we got mites coming back quick which we unfortunately used in autumn and for some reason moving on the apitraz in middle of winter? got any thoughtsm would love to oxilic acid vaporize now in winter but last i hear from randy is it does not deliver enough chemical to kill the mites and if you overdose it kills the bees. Tough little mites aye be nice when the slow vaporize kits for chemicals become available. as for mite checks i way prefer to do a mite check of capped brood and see how many breeding inside the capped cells.
I’m wanting to use Apigaurd this year in South Georgia but the temps have been so hot, is it ok to use in temps to mid 90 plus? Does it come with the pads and syringe as well? Thanks for your input greatly appreciated ..
Good morning Bob. How often do you refresh the brood in your queen bank colony? Also, I'm sure you turn them over pretty quickly but how long do you think the quens will live (and remain viable) in this type of bank?
It's best to add sealed brood at least once a week so you have plenty of young nurse bees. We've had queens in a bank for up to a month and they could have gone longer but I don't recommend it. We like to get them used up within a few days if at all possible.
@@bobbinnie9872 I was just wondering if they were mine. I received the correct number of queens. They all looked great when I installed them. I did my splits so the foragers fly back to the donor hives. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all of them get accepted.
Bob I’m going to be doing a mite treatment about August first and i was going to use apiguard and I have 3 splits I made a couple weeks ago and I was wondering is the colony too small for a treatment I guess what I’m asking is can the colony be too small for the mite treatment
Wether it is too small or not would depend on if it could afford a period of little brood rearing because Apiguard tends to briefly shut the queen down. The short answer is it could be too small depending on circumstances.
Not as sickening as ignoring mites, not testing and seeing the entire colony die a long slow death. During season the queen will make up that loss before noon…
Here in Europe we keep bees on an open bottom board which allows us to put a mite checking tray underneath the metal grid. Dead mites drop onto the tray which allows you to assess mite numbers. Pretty easy, no shaking bees!
Good morning. I was watching your video and my three yr. old began singing happy birthday with y'all to Seth and John.
I used Formic Pro in fall of 2022 and all my hives survived through winter. Thanks Molly for your import, Hope your bees are doing great this year.
Its been a totally different experience running bees in 2023 compared to 30 years ago we would never open a hive without armor on watching you guys work without coveralls and gloves blows my mind .
My new hive is the same so gentle its amazing .
Thanks for the how to video 🎉 Happy Birthday 🎉
👍
Thanks for sharing miss Molly sounds like a great honest sales lady that’s hard to find you have some great people working for you hope everyone has a great 4th
Happy birthday seth&john
Thanks. 👍
How can you not luv this whole crew, thx bob ! Always good info
Thanks.👍
I think the key to Formic Pro is to leave the bees alone. One week before and one week after, and a good temp for the first 3 days. Also, only use on strong over winter colonies. Thank Molly for sending out double screen boards they have improved my spring splits tremendously. Thanks, Bob, for the formula.
Bob you look like so much fun to work for! If you ever need a hand in Eastern NC please let me know :D
Bob, I put in Formic Acid the other day. My colonies weren't as strong as I wanted. I put a sticky board on the bottom board for 48 hours. I pulled the board and counted the mites. The phoretic mite drop was 2200. I can't imagine what is going on in the capped brood. We lucked out and finally have temperatures where I can get it on. I also need to see more capped brood in the colonies. The sunflowers started blooming on the farm and the bees are all over them. The hives are actually collecting sunflower. I hope I can get a super or two for my personal use. We do have japanese knottweed around here but it hasn't started blooming just yet.
Hang in there.
Sunday morning birthday party, some bee knowledge and coffee, can’t beat that!
Очень хороший магазин. У нас таких больших магазинов нет. Респект.
Happy Birthday John and Seth!
I shake my nurse bees from a brood frame into the Nuc box then scoop them up in a alcohol wash container to mite test. Then reapply another alcohol wash to make sure my mite counts are accurate. Luckily, in WNC I don’t have too many heat issues with treatments. Thanks for the video. See you on 22 July for queen bee pickup. I’m going “Italian free” with my queens thanks to you and your team Bob! Great video! Kevin Rowland
On a second and third wash you can use plain water
Great video. Really appreciate it your advice. Thank you.
Nice birthday party too! You all are great!🎈
I agree take preventative measures before you need to take drastic action where mites are concerned. So much of mite treatment success is using the products in the correct way at the correct time and under the right conditions. HoneyBee Health Coalation has a great mite management decision tool to help understand the mite products available and the proper use.
I use the exact same mite treatment regimen Bob. Personally, it works great for me and my colonies. 👍🏼
Happy birthday Seth and John !
Enjoyed the video
Happy Forth to all of you
Thanks so much!
Great to see Molly on. Happy birthday Seth and John.
She's a natural on camera and a pleasure to have around.
Happy Birthday guys.
Great video. You have really helped explain so many bee concepts. Thank you.
Thanks for the video, happy birthday John and Seth!
Hi Oscar. 👍
Here in Charlotte it’s hard to use formic or apiguard (even the half dose method) after the flow due to the heat. So far I’ve had good luck apivar knocking the mites back
Good Morning Bob !
Good morning sir!
I'm using Randy Olivers dawn mite wash now, it's working pretty amazingly.
I tried apovar once. Should have tested half way through treatment because my numbers went through the roof. Now I use oa vape and hopguard 3 and have apiguard in case it's needed. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
At the moment I am using oxalic acid with thymol in a gel I made myself, I make 1 kg of vaseline, 500 gr of oxalic acid and 250 gr of thymol. I heat the vaseline until it is liquid, add the rest, stir the rest and let it cool. it Works very well
Do you happen to have a video or more details ? Very curious. Thanks !
Great information Bob... Thanks
Cool stuff
I’m near Buffalo NY and I’m usually below the 90 degree in august and I put a empty super on and they beard a few days and after I get healthy hives going into winter, this summer I’m going to start doing mite counts now
I tried apivar last year, as it was what was recommended to me. I had the same result you did. It didn't do a thing, mite count after was through the roof! Like 16 to 20 in each hive! I then did oxalic acid treatment. For 5 weeks. To my surprise they made it through the winter and had zero mites this spring when I checked them.
👍
Красивая у вас дочь добрый пчеловод .
Didn't even realize it was Sunday. Then your video pops up. So yah it's Sunday. Gosh I need a life outside of bees and beef!
I lose track of what day it is some times too. Must mean something.
@@bobbinnie9872 Not knowing what day it is is a symptom of old age…..It’s a disease that grows on you ( if you are lucky)…i have caught this disease myself….🥹
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎉
What a wonderful bunch of folks. From the boss on down..😊
Thanks!
Happy Birthday Guys
I use a similar mite treatment regimen. Although I use formic pro in the spring before I make my splits. It works well to clean up hives. I have very little if no queen loss. Any I do lose are requeened anyways.
We've been pondering formic in the spring while it's still cool. Maybe next year. 👍
We did our mite check this past Wednesday came up with zero mites on 5 hives out of 5 makes me a little cautious but high hopes the late fall/winter treatments are working,early august checks will definitely be in order to confirm any suspicions I’m having
0 on 5 hives would make me think I had an issue with my testing procedure.
@@beeawesome7140 90 percent alcohol 300 bees off open brood frame shaken for over a minute what would need to change?
If that’s the wrong procedure we all screwed!😂
@@beeawesome7140 also opened up some drone brood no mites there either!
Happy Birthday John @Seth! Great video as usual Bob. Love your team you have built , you guys are a great group of people . Great content , question I have us Hop Guard, is this worth using in July in Michigan?
I have not used the most recently produced Hopguard 3 so I can't say. I can report that the earlier Hopgaurd was a very poor choice and not worth the trouble.
Such a help! Thank you!
Mali! We love you!
We use powdered sugar to test the varroa mites.
Great people! (singers, not so much 🤪)
Do you have nurse bees in the cages with the queens in the queen banks? Would it matter if it was queenright or a queenless hive? Hazel Cook Blossom Hill Nursery Peterborough Ontario. Thanks for the great informative videos
It wouldn't work as well with attendants in the cages. You could put the queens over an excluder in a queen rite colony, and I have done that many times, but I've had better results with queenless.
Happy Birthday Seth and John!!!!🎂
I believe I’m going to try Apiguard this round. I’m really nervous about it. Any pointers? I run 8 frame deep with one medium. Miss you all!
Hi Angela. It won't be long before we start using it. Perhaps you would like to come along or stop by. It could be a long answer.
الحمد لله اناعندي ٥٠ خليه بس محصول العسل ٢٠كيلو محصول السنه
Another great vid thanks Bob and crew. Do you have broomweed-snakeweed there, Was told not to harvest honey from that for human consumption for it will cause a bitter taste, but ok to feed back to the bees for the winter. Question do you know if bees will choose OTHER forms of nectar over broomweed ie mesquite. We will probably get three blooms of mesquite this year we have already had two and more rain in the forecast. I have not seen any honey bees on humming bird feeders yet so I don't believe we are in a full blown dearth yet. Any ones thoughts. Thanks Dennis
We do not have that here so I don't have any experience with it. I didn't it had a bitter taste. Bees will usually choose the nectar that has the highest sugar content.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks
I prefer biotechnological methods such as total brood removal since the raising temperatures here in germany make formic acid a lottery. This year I am testing queen seperation with removal of the freshly capped brood every 9 days over 25 days (it's called Bannwabenverfahren in germany).
What do you do with the brood ?
@@lenturtle7954 depends on the infestation level. Usually I pool them from several colonies, let them hatch far away, treat with OA and queen them. If they are heavily infested melting is their fate.
Ha Bob wonderful vedio, really enjoyed it how long do u bank your queens for and how long can u bank them with out it hurting them thanks hope u and your wonderful crew have a wonderful week and a nice 4th
Hi Frances. We have held them for a month but I recommend no more than a few days if possible. Long term banking definitely has an affect.
Hola bob , veo tu videos desde argentina soy apicultor excelente trabajo el que realizas
Gracias.
Love it!
Hi Nathan. We really enjoyed your visit. Always a pleasure.
How often do you replace the open larvae next to the Queen cages? I bet ash issues of bees propolizing the queen cages sometimes.is that because I don't have enough nurse bees?
Ideally, add a frame twice a week.
Hi Bob....regarding Apiguard ...you have said you used it for numerous years. Regarding Overall performance of Apiguard do you still see it a great product and one to use along side of Oxalic vapor to knock down phoretic mites....thanks Bob!
Yes, we're still going to use it but I would caution to not use the two at the same time because those two products have a slightly toxic synergistic interaction with each other.
@@bobbinnie9872 thanks Bob
I usually knock down phoretic mites with OA then two applications of 25g Apiguard a week apart
Why shake two frames of brood for the mite wash instead of just one?
For a good mixture, or cross section, of what is in the colony. Not super necessary.
Use formic…….replace queen after
Hi Bob, Thanks for great content all the time. You have been blessed with a really great team there. Question for you, if your mite count was higher than 10% (3 mites), lets say 6-10 mites, what would you use to treat? Would you wait till after you pulled the honey supper off to treat them? I am curious to know if you had a high mite count would you treat before your normal August treatment of Apiguard or just wait till you treated them all?
If the count is too high to avoid major issues an oxalic vaporization or two would keep things from going too far in the short term.
Looking good Mr. Binnie. How long are you able to bank your mated queens in the hive? I've heard there is a limit of only a few weeks.
It can be done for up to a couple of months but the overall average quality of the queens begins to diminish in just a short time.
@@bobbinnie9872That's good to hear. I'd hoped I'd be able to bank one just in case I lose a queen and can't get a replacement anywhere, so I don't lose an entire colony. I have an idea on extending the banking time. I'll let you know after I test to be sure I'm right.
Hello Bob, my name is Filip. I reside in Portland Oregon.
This morning (07/04) I came across a bee that had a damaged wing. I have the honey super box, I often have to do treatments. What do you recommend? I currently use Oxalic acid. Todays temperature is 86 degrees. Typically treatment takes every 3 days 5 times a day. Is this correct? Any suggestions, or recommendations? Is there a video on the treatment?
Thank you!
I would first do a mite check to make sure excessive mite numbers is the problem. If it is your idea of oxalic vaporization is good but I suggest at least 5 times (7 would be better) 3 to 4 days apart.
Does your store ship? I’d love to support it but it’s not the most friendliest shopping. No idea if I’m able to buy online from your store.
Our website is admittedly obsolete and we are working on a new one. In the meantime you can call our store and ask for Molly. 706 782 6722. Thanks.
هل في معهد تدريبي
hello bob, so on the hive you have as a queen bank are those all un-mated queens ? if so how long can you keep them un-mated,
We only have mated queens. We don't bank queens that are being sold for more than a couple of days but for our own use perhaps a week or more if needed.
Just a quick question. I believe that the general idea is that if you treat one colony then you also treat the rest of the colonies in the apiary to avoid cross contamination from drifting etc. If that is the case I suppose that you really only need to check for mites in each apiary until you come across a colony with a too high mite count, and then treat everything without having to test any further? I can see that it is always nice to know what is going on in each colony, and that testing before and after is the way to go, but for purpose of treating you really just need one colony with a high mite count, or what?
That would work and yes we treat all at the same time. I'm sure some colonies have more mites than others but In our case we're just looking for trends which is why we need to check more than one or two colonies but not necessarily all.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thanks. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question, and so quickly too. Thanks again.
Enjoyed this video. Thank you. Q's: What style of Queen Cage do you use for banking Queens? What do you use for a plug to prevent the Queens escaping ? And if you have the time , do you ever use the OA Dribble method in your mating NUCS after all the brood has hatched out ( 17-19 days after Queen cell introduced) .
Thanks. We're using JZ BZ cages and the candy end fits in that JZ BZ rail in such a way that no caps on the candy are necessary. If you're creative with making the right style rail you can do it with any style cage.
I have used the dribble method in the past but found that it's a bit hard on the bees, especially if done more than once.
@@bobbinnie9872 Thank you, very helpful information!
you guys didn't metion bayvarol, we got mites coming back quick which we unfortunately used in autumn and for some reason moving on the apitraz in middle of winter? got any thoughtsm would love to oxilic acid vaporize now in winter but last i hear from randy is it does not deliver enough chemical to kill the mites and if you overdose it kills the bees. Tough little mites aye be nice when the slow vaporize kits for chemicals become available. as for mite checks i way prefer to do a mite check of capped brood and see how many breeding inside the capped cells.
I've never used Bayvarol or Apitraz so can't report much about it.
I’m wanting to use Apigaurd this year in South Georgia but the temps have been so hot, is it ok to use in temps to mid 90 plus? Does it come with the pads and syringe as well? Thanks for your input greatly appreciated ..
We use half doses when hot but I think mid 90 might be a bit much.
Good morning Bob. How often do you refresh the brood in your queen bank colony? Also, I'm sure you turn them over pretty quickly but how long do you think the quens will live (and remain viable) in this type of bank?
It's best to add sealed brood at least once a week so you have plenty of young nurse bees. We've had queens in a bank for up to a month and they could have gone longer but I don't recommend it. We like to get them used up within a few days if at all possible.
Hello Bob. Were those queens mine that I picked up yesterday? I installed them yesterday after a thunderstorm.
Hi Mark. They came from the batch of queens we harvested on Friday. Do you think there was a mistake of some sort? Was it the right number?
@@bobbinnie9872 I was just wondering if they were mine. I received the correct number of queens. They all looked great when I installed them. I did my splits so the foragers fly back to the donor hives. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all of them get accepted.
How long can you hold the queen's in the bank on this way?!
Greetings
We have held them for a month but I recommend no more than a few days if possible. Long term banking definitely has an affect.
👏👏👏👏👏
I usually have 20% of my hives go queenless when I use Formic Pro. Any idea why this happens?
It's harsh on the bees unless the temperatures are moderate or cool which is one of its drawbacks.
Use one (!) strip on a single and two on a double under cool conditions!
Bob I’m going to be doing a mite treatment about August first and i was going to use apiguard and I have 3 splits I made a couple weeks ago and I was wondering is the colony too small for a treatment I guess what I’m asking is can the colony be too small for the mite treatment
Wether it is too small or not would depend on if it could afford a period of little brood rearing because Apiguard tends to briefly shut the queen down. The short answer is it could be too small depending on circumstances.
Thanks bob
Inspectors are telling us to put apivar in the fall and leave all winter
Doesn't that go against the label? Label is law.
I would personally recommend against that.
What’s Jesse’s secret to keep that mite check from leaking alcohol all over him?
I don't know. I don't think ours leak.
Make ya sick that killing 300 plus bee's.
Not as sickening as ignoring mites, not testing and seeing the entire colony die a long slow death. During season the queen will make up that loss before noon…
@@ytgmbutler yer I get it but here in Australia we have a chance to wipe the turds out. Let's hope.
Here in Europe we keep bees on an open bottom board which allows us to put a mite checking tray underneath the metal grid. Dead mites drop onto the tray which allows you to assess mite numbers. Pretty easy, no shaking bees!