DWV suspected

[daoniesidhe]

Got a picture of a bee with what looks like DWV, it's all go here I tell you.
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I have also included a couple of pictures of my catch tray.
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No signs of Varroa (so far).
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[daoniesidhe]

Our good friend, varroa destructor.... 1 mite in 3 days of monitoring ?
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[Neils]

My personal opinion is that the natural mite drop is not a very reliable means, taken in isolation, of gauging the levels of varroa in a colony.

If you've got a reasonable amount of drone brood in the colony, uncapping around 200 drones in the "purple eye stage" which is around 16-17+ days and counting the mites found would give you a much more accurate idea of what the current mite levels are, especially if you use the BeeBase Varroa Calculator (https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/index.cfm?pageid=67)

How many bees are seeing within the colony with DWV? A couple of bees here or there is normally what starts to set alarm bells ringing in my head that i need to consider doing something or at the very least get a better idea what the varroa levels are.

In one of my colonies earlier this year I found something similar, though perhaps with more obvious signs of DWV. I took those signs to implement a couple of rounds of Drone brood culling. I had a frame of sealed drone brood which I removed from the colony, let them draw it out again (to more drone brood) and removed that frame when it was sealed. That seems to have brought things back under control and they've bounced back looking healthier over the past couple of weeks.

[Jon]

A guy in my bka said he had no varroa in his colonies and as such did not have to treat. I remember arguing with him last September.
Come February he had lost 27/28 colonies to a mystery ailment and he brought samples of dead bees from the floor of some colonies for testing.
It turned out they were riddled with varroa and he didn't know how to look for them.

And I agree with Nellie. I have colonies which hardly drop a mite all summer but when you start to treat suddenly you get a fall of maybe 750 in a week.

[The Drone Ranger]

The tray under your mesh floor is best if it is sealed in a way that prevents bees,wasps,beetles and other insects from entering.
Anything that gets in looks for a tasty snack and varroa fits that bill
Most of the designs sold have a lightweight correx sheet under the mesh which is open to the elements That's maybe ok in winter but pretty useless in the warmer months.
The best check is to stick some thymol treatment over the bees and see what drops out

[Adam]

Correx as a mite board is rubbish as it blows about. (Thornes bees on a budget hives). The board should seal reasonably well when thymol is used for varroa treatment - to keep the fumes in. Vasalene spread thinly on the board keeps the mites stuck. I think olive oil also works. Has anyone tried it?

[EmsE]

I tried the Vaseline but it was a nightmare when trying to scrape the board clean for the next weekly check. I ended up having to take them all home and scrub down with soda crystals. May try the olive oil, sounds much more manageable.

[marion.orca]

Hi Adam. I too bought my hives from Thornes on Bees on a Budget and I too find the correx extremely lightweight. I offered a solution on a similar post yesterday - Absolute Beginners I think it was. My solution is to fix a small piece of wood [ 1"x1" ] centrally to the back of the base with a screw, not too tight. The board is then kept in place by the wood and will only "open " when I want it to on a swivel basis. We get exceptionally strong winds on the West Coast, so I had to think of something ! It works, the board stays in place, its an easy thing to do and costs next to nothing.

[daoniesidhe]

I am declaring my bees queenless, and I really need to get somebody to look at this hive because it is not healthy, if it smelled I would be contacting FERA. It did not look that bad a few weeks ago. Now after 3 weeks of invalidity due to a surgical procedure and vicious wasp attacks all throughout July have pretty much ended my first foray into beekeeping.

[gavin]

Sorry to hear it DS. If you can't find a local beekeeper you could post a picture of a brood frame and we'll do our best.