Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Smorning]

Interesting approach to mites

http://beetime.eu/innovative-solution-varroa-mite-sauna-bees/?utm_source=Newsletter+subscribers&utm_campaign=8b3a825b85-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0418e8fe42-8b3a825b85-92419941

[Kiwimana]

Yep this could work, I wonder if any long term studies have been done on the health of the bees Nick.

I have heard that in the heat of the cluster mites have trouble breeding, so I guess this is the basis of this new idea.

Gary

[box]

it is not a new idea, has been used almost since the varroa arrived in europa (my part of it anyway)
early versions (of the concept ,not the one in the artikel) were big and expencive and could not compeed with acid and cems.
but a chicken incubator fitted with a fan will do the same ting and has
popped up many times.
just remember to pull out the honey frames before the heat treatment

and instead of a set time to run the test, make a way to watch whats going on, because the mites preform a regular exodos, towards the coldest area
of the contraption ,if the fan blows from the top they will go to the bottom tray . and it happens quite fast at 44*c
the other reason for the window version is that the bees also have a hard time if it is continiued for too long, and a sorry looking pile is laying on the
screen.
when the treatment is over there should be no dead bees and the warroa
have gone under the screen on the machine and separated from the bees, witch are moved and alloved to cool of a bit before they are returned to
their stand, meanwile the varroa is scraped out ,again this is easyer if the material used for the machine is plast or glas or metal, they really clamp down and are hard to remove if the material is too rough.