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I guess I am a little anxious but I have 4 packages of bees that have been in the hive a month and seem to be doing well. When should I treat for varroa? What is a good product? Thanks!

If you have screened bottom boards, you can spray the plastic insert with a vegetable spray and do a mite count. I prefer 72 hours and divide by 3 rather than 24 hours. Threshold numbers vary but are smaller in spring than in late summer/early fall since varroa populations tend to grow with the growing bee population. I would determine that there may be a need to treat before using anything.

I have used both Apilfe VAR (thymol based) and Mite a Way Quick Strips (formic acid). There are advantages and disadvantages to both. You can search our board for mite treatments and read more about what folks are using and doing.

First, you "MAY" need to treat the second year. Test with the sticky board as stated above, or do a sugar shake test. Treat only when the tests say it is needed. That most likely won't be the first year.

As for what to treat with, I don't know. I never treat

I have just finished applying the MAQS half treatment on my hives that are strong enough to treat. The NOD site says this should provide about a 70% knock down, which is fine for me this time of year. I will check after removal to see that all hives are queenright. If so, there is still time for the queen to produce several rounds of healthier over winter bees. If not, I still have weather and time to combine queenless hives into queenright ones. The large amounts of capped brood I saw in various hives confirms my suspicions about why the bees were taking so much water over the last couple of weeks.

On one hive I was surprised to see a queen (not the marked one from earlier this year) walking around unattended on the top of the inner cover. I took a medium off and put her on a frame of the next medium. She walked into the hive. I'll check back in a week or so to see what is going on.