Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Nanny Ogg]

Hi fellow beeks,

I just detected a handful of bees crawling around outside one of my hives. They had very deformed wings.

I am of course going to do a check of the hive and I'll also be doing a mite count.

Here in Denmark we've had 16 weeks of dry and very warm weather since April. Only in the last week did we get some rain and cooler temperatures.

I'm guessing the hot summer may have been beneficial to the mites as humidity has been very low.

I am in doubt about how to treat. And have seen in Facebook groups that some people wouldn't treat if it's only a few affected bees. Rather trusting it to work itself out.

However, I only have to hives and I need to check the other one as well of course. Maybe I should let the mite count decide.

What are your recommendations?

[Barbara]

A few years ago I had an outbreak of DWV in one of my strongest hives. I assumed it must be varroa as my previous experience with the disease had all been vectored by a high varroa infestation. I wasn't able to do a mite drop count and was not aware of a sugar roll test at the time, so I did a shook swarm into a new hive. It was a huge mistake which I believe eventually caused the demise of that colony, although it took over a year to eventually peter out, but they never recovered from my actions. When I opened the brood, there was no huge varroa infestation, in fact I found hardly any. Two more hives started showing DWV shortly afterwards. I did not take any action and they survived and built up quickly the following year and were some of the first to swarm.

I would not panic until you have the result of your mite drop count..... DWV and varroa do not necessarily go hand in hand these days.

[Nanny Ogg]

Thanks for your support. I'll try to keep a cool head and start with the mite count.