Varroa mite counting, round 2.

On June 4, 2013, I placed freshly-Vaselined sticky boards back under the screened bottoms. Please see this link for a refresher on screened bottom boards. This link will take you to the June 2nd post on Varroa mite counting.

Today, June 10, 2013, I removed the sticky boards to do my 2nd varroa mite count.  Hive A had only one mite, and Hive B had five.  If I use the bee population estimates from my 6/2/13 post:

• Hive A:  Across 6.3 days,* 1 mite per 6,250 bees = 0.03 mites per 1,000 bees per day.
• Hive B:  Across 6.3 days, 5 mites per 6,875 bees = 0.12 mites per 1,000 bees per day.

I would note that Hive B does seem to have a higher mite load than Hive A.  So, perhaps the numbers seen in the June 2nd post are correct, despite my fears that the sticky board method I used might have led to error.

In any event, the mite load of each hive appears to be very low.  So, I will continue to monitor the mites.  I won't do any treatment yet.

* = Sticky boards were placed at 0630 on 6/4 and removed at 1445 on 6/10.

Hive A's sticky board.

On these two pictures of the sticky boards, you can see the normal droppings of a hive.  The lines on the board of yellowish material represents pollen, wax bits, and other particles that drop from bees and comb during day-to-day functioning.  The refuse falls in lines, for that is where the bee space is between the frames of drawn comb.

Hive B's sticky board.

Somewhere, a bee is walking in left-ward or right-ward
circles, depending upon which leg this is...

Next in the plan for mite counting is to do another sticky board count but try do a simultaneous powdered sugar roll count.  I'll describe that in a future post.