I have always believed in data-based bee management: Gather whatever information you can find and then make decisions based on what you learned. For varroa mites, this means taking samples, counting mites, and deciding on a strategy. Perhaps this is an old-fashioned idea, dating back ten years when some mite counts actually came out low—low […] Read more
Each time I think I’ve written my very last post on varroa, something else comes up. This time, it was a question about how to treat for mites now that we know mites eat fat bodies instead of hemolymph. Based on what I’ve read, I would say that if you are following current best practices […] Read more
A reader wrote that she was confused about scheduling oxalic acid vaporization treatments when brood is present. Some folks advised her to use three treatments five days apart, another advised three treatments seven days apart. She wants to know which is best. I think the big question here is how long after a treatment does […] Read more
When you find circles of honey bees head-down in cells, does that mean they starved? Were head-down bees licking the bottom of the cells to get every last morsel of honey? A reader raised these questions a few weeks ago. Since then, I’ve asked many established beekeepers for their thoughts and observations. To my surprise, […] Read more
This week my inbox is choked with questions about using lithium to treat varroa mites. Although I don’t know a thing about lithium, I feel compelled to answer. If you haven’t heard, a paper was published on January 12 about lithium chloride as a possible treatment for varroa mites. The peer-reviewed work with the alluring […] Read more
Just days after I mentioned how rarely we see varroa mites on bees, Bryan Bender sent this fascinating photo of a mite riding his queen. It’s an amazing catch. Not once I have ever seen this in person, and only rarely in photos. Thank you, Bryan, and good work! Save
We call them crawlers. They can appear any time of year but are most prevalent in the fall. They inch along the landing board, cling to blades of grass, or struggle among twigs and small stones. On close inspection they look normal, but they can’t fly. You may see a few, a handful, or hundreds. […] Read more