2024 August Culbokie
The topic for the meeting was varroa monitoring and treatment.
We checked the varroa boards, removed the honey (I had put in the clearer board the day before because I knew this hive needed to be treated), collected approximately 300 house bees via a bucket into a container marked at 100ml, (approximately 100 bees), sprinkled 2 tablespoons of icing sugar on them through a mesh cover, rolled the bees in it and left them for 5 minutes. Then sieved the bees out over a bucket of water to dissolve the icing sugar, returned the bees to the hive and counted the varroa floating in the water. This was more than 3% (3 mites per 100 bees) so we then used Formic Pro and discussed Apivar, Apistan and oxalic acid treatments and looked at the basic and high-end methods of vapourisation. 5% infestation would indicate an urgent need to treat. See last photograph in Gallery.
Photographs courtesy of Angie and David.
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