# Mite Count on First Year Package



## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

*Mite Count on First Year Package (Small Cell)*



Got a text from a beekeeping friend about a half mile down the road. He had seen some pretty big die off from the last few days. He looked this weekend and saw quite a few half emerged, dead bees with their tongues out. I said that it sounded like textbook mites. He said he had only seen one, I said let me do a mite sample. He agreed (the hive is a goner). So tonight after work we checked the remaining three partially covered frames. We found the queen and I spotted a single mite. All newly emerged bees were extremely stunted. So I scraped about 100 bees in. First swish in alcohol I saw at least 10 tumbling around. Swirled some more and all told... 21 mites. I counted out 123 bees in the sample for 17%. Still some capped brood and queen laying. No deformed wings noted, but I will have to look in the sampled bees again more closely. 

First year package, no treatments. Cordovan Italian queen. Hived on 100% 4.9mm Mann Lake small cell plastic. They actually drew the frames very very well.

My nearly three year old daughter has it figured out.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

*Re: Mite Count on First Year Package (Small Cell)*

I love the learning experience, especially the young one.


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## Bee Arthur (Mar 21, 2015)

*Re: Mite Count on First Year Package (Small Cell)*

Wow, that's a lot of mites. My mite count reached 8% this year before I got them treated, and I'm pretty sure that's gonna doom them this winter. So 17% is like a shot in the head to the colony. This is a good example of how you cannot rely on "spotting" mites to gauge their level of infestation. You must do tests, and you must treat when levels start to rise--even if that means pulling honey supers off early.


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

*Re: Mite Count on First Year Package (Small Cell)*

This colony experienced about a 50% die off from apparent pesticide poisoning. Had lots of capped brood, but loss of all those bees... That was July. I suggested he research varroa. He did and was still unconcerned. Can't say I didn't tell him this was the likely outcome.


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