Thymol and brood removal

[Adam]

I am treating some of my hives and some are chucking out brood; most have bees outside the entrance. This is no surprise as I've seen it before. Intersting thing is that two hives side-by-side with sister queens have behaved differently. (They were mated at the same time so the same type of drones were around). One has bees hanging out of the entrance as they don't like the smell; the other has evidence of propolis over bits of the apiguard inside the hive (unlike sister) and no bees hanging out at all.
I wonder if there are any studies which relate to a hygenic trait in the bees that chuck out?

[The Drone Ranger]

With exomite apis I have seen brood thrown out but not with apiguard.
Some bees really react to thymol vapour and won't come up to a feeder others seem to just carry on as usual.
Are you in a mini heat wave or something Adam ?

[Adam]

Not a heat-wave - it's just always HOT HOT HOT here in Norfolk!

Actually it's been a pleasant 21 - 22 degrees during the day and mild at night.
Mite drop has been fairly low although I haven't counted it. The Oxalic Acid treatment last Christmas after cold weather in November/December was probably timed well when there was minimal sealed brood.

[Jimbo]

I have started to assess my varroa load on my colonies by counting the natural mite drop So far the numbers are very low or giving a zero result. If you consult the FERA booklet with the number of mites I am getting on the varroa floor I would not need to treat at the moment as the inferstation is low. I usually do an IPM system and vary my methods. This year it will be apistan strips from Sept and oxalic acid in Dec/Jan. If the natural mite drop is that low should I be spend the £50 to treat my hives with Apistan as usual or just wait to Dec/Jan and treat with Oxalic. Advice please

[The Drone Ranger]

Jimbo
There is a thread on a similar vein you might want to check out

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/showthread.php?551-Api-Life-Var-vs-Apiguard-vs-%28insert-favourite-non-Pyrethoid-Varroa-Treatment%/page2&highlight=thymol+sponges

Instead of apistan, thymol sponges will do the job better and for a lot less money
If after 2 weeks there is nothing dropping you can take them out

[Jon]

Also started apiguard treatment on some colonies yesterday.
There is always an odd colony starts to remove pupae but most work on regardless of the thymol smell.
Some of my colonies seem very overcrowded in a single brood box after removal of the supers.
I looked at the insert trays of a couple of colonies with apiguard today and didn't see a single mite which was a surprise.
I haven't seen a mite for a couple of months - but am not daft enough to assume I have no varroa.

[Jimbo]

The little blighters are there OK but I am not certain how accurate counting the natural mite drop is. I will do some drone capping this weekend to see if the result is different from the floor drop.
Do you think slugs might eat varroa? I found a few on the inserts in some colonies. If they did we could put a few inside each colony to keep the varroa numbers down.

[The Drone Ranger]

Do you think slugs might eat varroa? I found a few on the inserts in some colonies. If they did we could put a few inside each colony to keep the varroa numbers down.

LOL !! now theres a plan :)

During the summer most commercially available varroa floors are hopeless at recording natural drop.
The area with the tray needs to be fairly well sealed otherwise everything on the insert can become a snack for wasps,beetles ,slugs etc
The plans on the SBA website show the mesh floor above a standard floor with a slide in insert.
The back of that insert can be made with the correct size block to seal it completely
There is a downside in winter it will freeze and jam up
Wendy who is on this forum (but on maternity leave) works for a charity Claverhouse and they make a pretty reasonable varroa floor which seals but doesnt jam.
(That's the alternative way if you are not handy with the woodworking)

[Jimbo]

Hi DR,

I have already knocked up about 10 floors so far from plans my bee meister (Ben B the bee man) gave me. In theory they should be sealed, however not being an expert in woodwork there may be the odd gap where a skinny baby slug can get in, eat all the varroa and become too fat to get back out. That's my theory for not seeing any varroa drop but finding the odd fat slug.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi DR,

I have already knocked up about 10 floors so far from plans my bee meister (Ben B the bee man) gave me. In theory they should be sealed, however not being an expert in woodwork there may be the odd gap where a skinny baby slug can get in, eat all the varroa and become too fat to get back out. That's my theory for not seeing any varroa drop but finding the odd fat slug.

A bit of duck tape keeps everything out while you are checking
In winter I put the oxalic evaporator in between the solid floor and the mesh one then seal everything with foam.
That disperses the evaporating oxalic fairly evenly and keeps the heat away from the cluster of bees.