# quick/dirty brood frame manipulation to cut down Varroa??



## honeyshack (Jan 6, 2008)

Well, I am no expert on varroa control via broodlessness. I have not had good results.
My educated guess would be for until all things are capped and hatched. But the problem with that is, the varroa that is in the sealed brood is going to be ready when you release your queen. Not only that, you have set your hive back a few generations of up and coming workers. So, when the queen does start to lay again, your hive will be low on nurse bees and high on foragers. Low in number of nurse bees means two things
1. your up and coming larva will be fed not as propper since foragers will pick up some slack but not all.
2. In a few weeks you will have nurse bees who might be a bit weaker due to not enough food and protien, but you will also be short foragers since you cut out a few cycles of brood.

In our area, we have 4 months + of non brood rearing time, and yet it seems the varroa still hang on....just a thought


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## bjerm2 (Jun 9, 2004)

Another suggestion is to use powder sugar every 3-4 days for a three week period. The powder sugar seems to knock down the mites pretty good especially if you have screened bottom boards. I know its labor intensive but I think it is better than to stop the queen from laying in more brood that will help the hive survive the upcoming winter. In the next few months she will be laying winter bees and the hive needs them for survival. Right now these bees are gathering food for winter supplies.
Hope this helps
Dan


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## Box (Jul 30, 2010)

it is said that up to 90 % of the varroa die during vinter in my area, sadly it only takes ONE survivor to start up again in spring ,the way im going to try out is by hypothermia ( and it is maybe only possible with small numers of hives ) the teori is that varroa will die vhen temp. goes over 40 degree celsius
and the bees survives up to 44c and so u could go 100% varroa free.
with only one treatment the hole year
it do work and in germany there are several heater types on the marked.
this could help during the transition from treated to non treated. and it would still be possible to spot familyes that are resistent.


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## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

I doubt you could ever eliminate 100% of mites. Sort of like trying to eliminate all bacteria from your home. Even if you could get rid of every single mite, the bees and drones will just bring new ones in from elsewhere.

Some of these suggestions seem rather complicated to me. Why not simply use a drone frame and cull drone pupae periodically, and supplement that with a few well timed sugar dustings? :s


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## max2 (Dec 24, 2009)

Here in Australia we don't have varroa - yet - but I have been reading up for the last few years.
I live in the su-tropics. My bees are never without brood. Most of the treatments suggested on this forum ( eg if we would need to use chemicals) require the hives to have no honey for sale and no brood.
How are our friends in say Florida and other permanently warm places dealing with this issue?
So far I have never used any chemicals, we never need to feed if we are not to greedy.
My foundations are from my own bees and 100% free of any chemical residue.


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## Box (Jul 30, 2010)

Omie said:


> I doubt you could ever eliminate 100% of mites. Sort of like trying to eliminate all bacteria from your home. Even if you could get rid of every single mite, the bees and drones will just bring new ones in from elsewhere.
> 
> Some of these suggestions seem rather complicated to me. Why not simply use a drone frame and cull drone pupae periodically, and supplement that with a few well timed sugar dustings? :s


No youre absolutely corect , you cant get rid of every one AND the bees bring new ones in, if it was possible i think it would have been done allready.
but over here we have just come through a vinter vith bekepers loose up to 
50% or more of their families and more in the the coldest spring in 40 years
so is what we do enough ?
many bekeepers here belive that Varroa is the source of those losses
not directly but as a catalyst for other deseases even in low numbers


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## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

Box said:


> but over here we have just come through a vinter vith bekepers loose up to
> 50% or more of their families and more in the the coldest spring in 40 years
> *so is what we do enough ?*


Well what_ is_ it that you do to control varroa there?


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## Box (Jul 30, 2010)

Omie said:


> Well what_ is_ it that you do to control varroa there?


this year i have done drone cutouts and removed my queen and made a small family with her and let the big /old hive produce a new queen ,and here in a couble of days im going to check levels by doing a dusting and then use my heater for the first time ...


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Box,

44 C is about 111 F. Right now our ambient temp is getting close to 100 F every day - it would probably go over 130 (54C) in the hives just by closing the ventilation off. Of course that would kill all of the bees. How is that supposed to work? I've never heard of this before.


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## Omie (Nov 10, 2009)

Box said:


> this year i have done drone cutouts and removed my queen and made a small family with her and let the big /old hive produce a new queen ,and here in a couble of days im going to check levels by doing a dusting and then use my heater for the first time ...


Yes I do drone cutouts too. I hope to 'split' my two hives next Spring too, just like you are describing by removing queen to a new hive. That helps keep down mite numbers as well, I have heard. I have not felt a need to do sugar dusting so far.


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## Box (Jul 30, 2010)

This is my first test with this metod and i surely dont hope that the bees all die. but with only 5 hives i have to try it out
I dont like chemicals and the idea of pouring acid on any living creature is not a good thing ,So this seemed to be the way to go.
I found a danish page describing how and what equipment to use
Use Google translate it makes a ok translation of the page 
http://www.vokstavlen.dk/varmebehandling.PDF
here is Good reading from NewZealand allthough they dont like the heatmethod (page 62)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gandboss/BeeginnersFAQ/Problems/control-of-varroa-guide.pdf


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