Guilfordbeekeepers.org

We used to occasionally see a mite or two in the bee hives but the last two times we've gotten into the hives we have looked and looked and haven't seen any. I'm certainly not complaining but I would love to be able to figure out what we've done that helped out the bees!! We haven't treated with anything at all other than dusting with powdered sugar on the brood chamber once a week for 3 weeks but that was a month ago and we had planned to do it again next month just in case.

I thought about doing a sugar shake but then thought why torture the bees like that if they are okay. Should we do it just to be sure? Last week we did a 24 hour drop count and only found 10 mites on the whole piece of cardboard, but I don't want to miss doing something that the bees need done ya know?

They are Wayne's bees now, aren't they. His bees have never been treated. As they go down through generations of new queens and new drones, it may change, so you should keep watching. Don't be surprised if they keep the mite count down without treatment. That is why we are propagating that strain.

Well, y'all are doing an awesome job of it then because there just doesn't appear to be hardly any mites in those hives. Taeler's hive is the only one that we ever saw more than one or two mites in but now even her hive is mitey scarce on mites!