Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Michael Dreyer]

Dear friends, 2 years ago I stopped using acids in treating varroa mites in my tbhs. I noticed that the swarms were doing well in the first year but in the second year problems start to show up. Sadly to say that 3 days ago I found 2 of my strongest swarms from last year full of honey but no bees inside. I will leave that place because it may be too humid being surrounded by water channels and wet meadows.
The same happened to a smaller swarm, honey but no bees. Here the place is fine. In another hive at my third place I found several dad bees with DWV (deformed wing virus) and one worker bee with a varroa sitting on it.
How is your experience with non-treartment?

Best regards
Michael

[Barbara]

Sorry to hear you have lost hives but my bet would be queen failure rather than varroa being responsible. Check the top of the brood comb cells for white deposits. If you are seeing quite a lot of that, then varroa is the likely cause of demise, if not, it is something else.
I lost one colony to queen failure this summer....the first I've lost in a good few years.... but I'm not having problems with varroa and it has been over 6 years since I treated.

[madasafish]

It takes around 15 months for untreated varroa levels to build up to overwhelm a colony...

[andy pearce]

Failed queen mating ? The colony would become worker layer then dwindle away leaving empty cells or just a few capped random drone cells. It happened to mine a couple of times...didn't interfere to see what the bees would do and the result. I think varroa finishes this off quite quickly as the only bees arising are drones that get smaller and smaller. It may be that the workers that remain toward the end leave and go to another hive...but I have no evidence of this.
A

[catchercradle]

And of course, if you have laying workers, the number of drones goes up and so does the varroa level because the eggs are mite eggs are laid preferentially in drones.

I am convinced that all my colony losses over the 5/6 years I have been treatment free have been down to queen failure.

[madasafish]

[andy pearce]

AFB!... bad luck-did the NBU identify the source or was it one of those probably random foraging through the unwashed imported honey jar in the re-cycling box down the road jobs?
A

[madasafish]

[catchercradle]

Have been inspected by local inspectors a couple of times when there has been AFB within range. So far I have been lucky. Given the number of people keeping bees locally, I guess it is only a matter of time till I do suffer.

[Laurieston]

[AndyC]