# Mite count.



## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Well in order to better evaluate my colonies I did alcohol washes this weekend. (3/4 cup of bees, washed for 30 seconds)

I. TBH, started spring 2012. 4 mites Production package queen. No excess production, barley survived winter 2012. 
II. Lang, started spring 2013. 0 mites Production Package queen. No excess production.
III. Lang, re-queened summer 2013. 4 mites Olympic Wilderness Apiaries queen. No excess production
IV. Lang, re-queened summer 2013. 7 mites Olympic Wilderness Apiaries queen. No excess production
V. Lang, re-queened summer 2013. 6 mites Olympic Wilderness Apiaries queen. No excess production
VI. Lang, started summer 2013. 7 mites Raised queen, Old Sol genetics. No excess production
VII. Lang, started spring 2013. 6 mites Production Package queen. 30lb honey production. 
VIII. Lang, started late spring 2013. 5 mites Old Sol queen. No excess production
IX. Lang, started late spring 2013. 7 mites Old Sol queen. No excess production

I placed insulation in the top of the hive and will wrap them up in November.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Decent numbers, imo. Best wishes for wintering.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

very cool rio. i'll be doing mine soon.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

Your numbers look pretty good to me! 

I did detergent washes today but I shook and reshook until I was pretty sure I got all the mites. I've never done it before so I may have missed a time shaking requirement. I had one that was really low (around 1%), another low (1.7%), one intermediate (3.5%) and two high (9.8% and 11%). The lowest one is a Minnesota Hygienic X Missouri Mutt queen (early summer split after the original queen left with a swarm) and the rest are requeened (all but the highest were splits) this August using Ferguson Buckfasts. The Buckfast with the lowest count has the runniest queen and workers but they are gentle. The intermediate count colony is my favorite, they are really gentle and not runny in the least. I also observed them chewing out mite affected larvae once during an inspection.

All five are nucs and my hope is that I will come out of winter with two or three colonies. From the numbers it looks like that may be how it works out.

I hope yours do well and make a lot of surplus honey for you next year!


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Thank you, I hope for more next year as well. However as long as I have enough for personal use I am happy. 
How are you calculating the percentage? 
Best wishes for you as well.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

For the test I counted the bees in the sample so mites over bees equal x over 100. The sample I took from the last one was twice as big as it should have been so I processed it in two batches (and remember the numbers offhand). I found 11 mites in the 630 bee sample so 11 X 100 ÷ 630 = 1.7460

Like I said, I may have done it wrong as it was my first time. I washed each sample at LEAST 6 times, until I was pretty sure if there was a mite I counted it. (I didn't want those bees to have died in vain!) All samples were taken from brood areas in the middle of the brood nest.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Thank you. 
I asked the question in the wrong way, but you answered what I wanted to know. I meant to ask what the sample size was, not how to do the math.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

The mite numbers sound good but your production numbers need help. Best wishes for great over winter survival and production numbers next year. Now that you have drawn comb and hives to work with, I'm sure the production numbers will rise for you.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

RiodeLobo said:


> Thank you.
> I asked the question in the wrong way, but you answered what I wanted to know. I meant to ask what the sample size was, not how to do the math.


LOL. Sorry! Yes, that would be simpler. (Doesn't hurt to have my math double checked though!) The nuc with the highest mite count was 381 bees and the lowest 248. The remaining two were in the mid 400 range.


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## mountainbeek (Oct 5, 2013)

Sugar roll a few weeks ago was under threshold of 8 mites per 100 bees so I didn't treat. Cut to a mite sugar roll test yesterday that was at 12 per 100 bees. Decided against Mite Away and went with sugar roll instead. I used separate containers to hold bees so that I wouldn't be shaking the same bees again. A total of seven bars were shaken, but I did not weigh the sugared bees. The container I used was a metal cooking pot with a metal screen for ventilation and to keep them from flying out. A little under 110 mite drop from this one sugar roll. This process took less than an hour to complete.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

squarepeg said:


> very cool rio. i'll be doing mine soon.


Have you done yours, and if so what are the numbers?


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

believe it or not i was still harvesting honey when i wrote that rio. my plan was to do a really good fall inspection after the goldenrod was finished to include mite counts, but the demands of the day job and bad luck with the weather not cooperating on my off days left me only able to get hive weights at the end of october.

i was really hoping to get them to see if there was a relationship between mite count and winter survival in my tf yard. so far i still have 19 out of 19, but i think i have one that is dwindling based on not much cluster roar with the stethoscope compared to the rest.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Squarepeg, to bad but I certainly understand. Timing can be tough.

Any other TF folks have mite counts for the fall? It would be nice to see the relationship of fall mite counts and winter survival, along with what genetics are involved.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Colleen O. said:


> Your numbers look pretty good to me!
> 
> I did detergent washes today but I shook and reshook until I was pretty sure I got all the mites. I've never done it before so I may have missed a time shaking requirement. I had one that was really low (around 1%), another low (1.7%), one intermediate (3.5%) and two high (9.8% and 11%). The lowest one is a Minnesota Hygienic X Missouri Mutt queen (early summer split after the original queen left with a swarm) and the rest are requeened (all but the highest were splits) this August using Ferguson Buckfasts. The Buckfast with the lowest count has the runniest queen and workers but they are gentle. The intermediate count colony is my favorite, they are really gentle and not runny in the least. I also observed them chewing out mite affected larvae once during an inspection.
> 
> ...


Good observations! Have you been making two counts, one in spring and the other in fall? Then you would be able to measure the increase of mites.

Swarming helps bees a lot. It is a kind of natures way in an emergency situation: imagine the situation where there were no humans on earth. If a beehive would have too many mites, bees would change the queen or search for a new location. The new queens would all mate with drones from that area. The drones would have been selected through huge mite loads in all hives. That´s why heavily infested bees change their queens often. They reckon it is a way out of the misery. With new queens they would be better of with hopefully better (selected) genes in their new offspring. And as extra plus there is pause in brood rearing.

The hive with the highest mite load was not a split. That is why making nucs is a standard prosedure in TF beekeeping. At least in the first 10 years.

Were the bees chewing the brood in the cell or were they pulling it out?


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

Juhani Lunden said:


> Good observations! Have you been making two counts, one in spring and the other in fall? Then you would be able to measure the increase of mites.
> 
> 
> Swarming helps bees a lot. It is a kind of natures way in an emergency situation: imagine the situation where there were no humans on earth. If a beehive would have too many mites, bees would change the queen or search for a new location. The new queens would all mate with drones from that area. The drones would have been selected through huge mite loads in all hives. That´s why heavily infested bees change their queens often. They reckon it is a way out of the misery. With new queens they would be better of with hopefully better (selected) genes in their new offspring. And as extra plus there is pause in brood rearing.
> ...


Thanks! I'm trying to learn and get better at this so reading a ton, inspecting fairly often, and taking notes.

I restarted this spring (2nd year) so the fall count was my first. I hadn't thought about doing a spring count too but that is a great recommendation. I started an overwintering spreadsheet and originally set out to do the count for that but realized the value of the information as soon as I finished the first one.

After some reflection as to the mite counts I found, it occurred to me that I had added bees from the original hive to two of the nucs. One got significantly more bee infusions than the other and the mite counts reflected that with the second highest getting the most and the intermediate count hive getting some as well. The two nucs with the lowest mite counts were already established and didn't need any additional resources. The one with the highest count still went into winter the strongest and I didn't see mite vectored viruses showing up so it will be interesting to see how they do.

The mite I saw being removed appeared to be chewed out. I was inspecting and saw a piece of larvae drop onto the top of the adjacent bars. When I checked it out I saw the mite on it. It happened long enough after requeening that I know it was this queen's genetics so between that and the source of the higher mite numbers likely being from donated comb and bees I have some hope for this nuc. I must admit to really rooting for them though because they are the nicest to work out of this bunch.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Mid winter report. 9/9 alive. I placed 10 lb of sugar on the top bars about 3 weeks ago mountain camp method. Today was 32 degrees out and full sun, all the colonies are taking cleansing flights. I popped the top to check last week and they had decent sized clusters and seemed to be doing well. Most were on the sugar. I can see two possibilities, they did not have enough stores or they are above the stores. I will have to wait to spring to find out.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

awesome man. maybe we're over the hump. i lost a couple of dinks earlier this winter, but the remaining 17 are humming along. my biggest concern at this point is that they are queenright.


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

For doing alcohol washes what is the approximate volume of 100 bees and what mite count per 100 bees is the threshold for (1)treating, for (2)panic for (3) comfort zone ?


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

WBVC said:


> For doing alcohol washes what is the approximate volume of 100 bees and what mite count per 100 bees is the threshold for (1)treating, for (2)panic for (3) comfort zone ?


a half cup is approx. 300 bees. threshold is one of those things that varies among sources.

you might be interested in these:

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-11-mite-monitoring-methods/

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/an-improved-but-not-yet-perfect-varroa-mite-washer/


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

RiodeLobo, that is great! Do you plan to do a spring count? 

I lost the one with the second highest mite count (9.8%) but it was also the smallest cluster/weakest. The one with the highest mite count/largest cluster is doing really well so far. (Surprisingly. No evidence of viruses either but they haven't started brooding yet.) The one with the best mite count seems to be doing well but I didn't open it up when I checked the others so I am basing that on bees flying on warmer days and being able to feel the warmth from the cluster under the wool over the bars. The remaining two are in trouble with small clusters but the queens are still there so I have them in the garage to try to help them through the coldest days while I get a smaller nuc box built that should be easier for them to keep warm. If they weren't the nucs with my favorite queen and the queen with the best mite count of my Buckfasts I wouldn't go to such extreme measures. We'll see what spring brings but at this point I think I will have at least two colonies coming out of winter. If the other two make it I don't think I will get any honey off them, they will have a way to go to rebuild.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Colleen, if you make it through winter with all 4 alive, split brood from the strongest colony and add it to the others. This will do two things that you will need. It will suppress swarming in larger colonies, and it will turn small colonies into productive honey makers. One warning, when you move brood, you will also move mites.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Colleen O. said:


> RiodeLobo, that is great! Do you plan to do a spring count?


Yes, around the 1-2nd week of April I will do another count. Assuming that they all make it until then with that data, the fall count, how the colonies did this winter and their performance last year I am planning on splitting most of the colonies (the bottom 6), and leave the 2 best together. The plan is to raise queens from the top 3 colonies for the splits, including the top producers from my "TX free" queens I bought last year. I will replace the queens of the of the lowest performing 2 colonies. I plan on using Oldtimer's graftless system to raise the queens starting the last week of April or sooner, weather, bloom and drone dependent. I have to raise them earlier than I would like due to the commercial guys usually show up in June and I don't want their drones in the mix. This should improve the overall performance and decrease the duds, while maintaining the genetic diversity that I currently have from 3 different queen producers.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

RiodeLobo,

Temperatures are finally starting to get above the mid-forties during the day and my remaining two colonies are rebuilding. I got a chance to peak in at them a couple weeks ago and both had started a limited amount of brood rearing. One could use some pollen so I put a bit of supplement in but at this point I am starting to think they have made it through the winter.

The two left standing? The Buckfast with the highest mite count and the one Minnesota Hygienic X Missouri Mutt colony that had the lowest mite count. Once their populations have built up enough I plan to do spring tests too. It will probably be around the first week of April for me as well.

In general I think the other colonies had clusters that were a bit small for as cold a winter as we had but the Buckfast colony that had the best mite count died of dysentery. There was fermenting honey in their combs (frothing) and streaks on the hive walls. The size of the hygienic colony wasn't much larger than the colonies I lost but they didn't have as much bee die-off which I think was related to a lower mite infestation. The Buckfast colony that made it had maybe half again or more as many bees as the others (I combined a weak split back into it in time for the fall flow) and despite a really high mite count didn't suffer huge losses and shows no signs of mite vectored viruses (yet). I'm keeping an eye on them for signs of viruses and will be really interested in the spring mite count on this colony.

If I had it to do over, I would pinch the queen from the weak colony and combine it with the intermediate count colony that I really liked. They would have had a better chance of making it then. I now have a much better idea of how strong a colony needs to be to make it through one of our colder winters.

Just as a side note, the Buckfast colonies were all really frugal with their stores but the Minnesota Hygienic X Missouri Mutt colony was just about out when I checked them. They went through 8 bars of honey. The Buckfast colony that is left went through less than 6.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

*Baker Valley Update*



RiodeLobo said:


> I. TBH, started spring 2012. 4 mites Production package queen. No excess production, barley survived winter 2012.
> II. Lang, started spring 2013. 0 mites Production Package queen. No excess production.
> III. Lang, re-queened summer 2013. 4 mites Olympic Wilderness Apiaries queen. No excess production
> IV. Lang, re-queened summer 2013. 7 mites Olympic Wilderness Apiaries queen. No excess production
> ...


Spring update.

I. Queen-less, 5lb honey remaining. Main cluster starved. Will add frame tomorrow.
II. Queen right, open nectar, brood over 2 frames.
III. Queen right, open nectar, brood over 2.5 frames.
IV. Queen right, open nectar, brood over 2 frames.
V. Queen-less, 15 lb honey, gave open brood from colony III.
VI. Queen right, open nectar, brood over 2 frames.
VII. Queen right, open nectar/5lb honey, brood over 3 frames.
VIII. Queen right, open nectar/5lb honey, brood over 2 frames.
IX. Queen right, open nectar, brood over 2.5 frames.

I think they are working willows. 2nd week of April dandelions should bloom. Should start queen rearing the end of April and split the 2nd week of May.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: Baker Valley Update*

not bad rio. have you got drones there yet? not seeing many here, but it shouldn't be long.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

*Re: Baker Valley Update*

Yes I saw a couple when I was going through the hives, and there is a little drone brood. Even if the queens don't mate well at least the extra brood will bump up the population and I can requeen later in the spring.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: Baker Valley Update*

yeah, and prevent laying workers too. good job.


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## mike bispham (May 23, 2009)

Fusion_power said:


> Colleen, if you make it through winter with all 4 alive, split brood from the strongest colony and add it to the others. This will do two things that you will need. It will suppress swarming in larger colonies, and it will turn small colonies into productive honey makers. One warning, when you move brood, you will also move mites.


I'm worried there may be costs to this plan.

First, you tend to lose the ability to select on productivity. Not entirely perhaps, but the more you mess around like this the more you make it harder to get true readings of capability.

Second, you may be introducing mite resistant bees into the second hive that will give 'false readings' again. 

Third, colonies treated this way may, all else being equal, produce fewer drones than those allowed to get large. I don't know whether to preserve my best queens by keeping them in nucs or let them go for it. 
Perhaps the answer is to keep them small and add drone comb to bring up drone numbers. 

Mike (UK)


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## mike bispham (May 23, 2009)

RiodeLobo said:


> ...I am planning on splitting most of the colonies (the bottom 6), and leave the 2 best together.


The problem with lots of splitting is, again, you tend to make it harder to locate the most resistant. I'm going for a more organised grafting system with dedicated brood and bee-raising colonies so that I can leave those under assay alone, in the interest of getting true readings of mite management, general health and productivity abilities.

Mike (UK)


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

mike bispham said:


> The problem with lots of splitting is, again, you tend to make it harder to locate the most resistant. I'm going for a more organised grafting system with dedicated brood and bee-raising colonies so that I can leave those under assay alone, in the interest of getting true readings of mite management, general health and productivity abilities.
> 
> Mike (UK)


Good point, however I need to expand and splitting is the most economical way to do that. I intend to retain most of the queens that I had survive the winter. The two early queens will be replaced and home grown mated queens will be placed in the queenless side of the splits.


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

Hello Dan, interesting thread. As second year queens they should really start to show how well or not they are dealing with mites. Those clusters sound small. I would be curious to know if they would take pollen supplement or sub. 

Are the queens marked?

We have already started splitting our overwintered production hives... however they did get a toasty little vacation in the almonds. Breeders left in Oregon seem extra good this year to. Hygienic behavior tests and mite counts shortly.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Some are marked. Our first good flow is still weeks away, and it is still cool weather up here. I am not to worried about the cluster sizes, I want bees that will adapt to the local environment, so a later start is better around here.


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

Were the queens from us marked? It is very useful to know if they swarmed or superseded.

Adapted to local environment is a good thing and our goal also, but in drought or flood years the bees and beekeeper can benefit greatly from a little management. Jackson county just got declared drought conditions. Last year was dry to. On a side note we have had bees winter very well in Christmas Valley... probably some of the toughest conditions around.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

RiodeLobo said:


> Good point, however I need to expand and splitting is the most economical way to do that. I intend to retain most of the queens that I had survive the winter. The two early queens will be replaced and home grown mated queens will be placed in the queenless side of the splits.


Yes, there is no point saying don´t do splits, if bees are needed. Doing your own splits makes more sence than buing bees (as they allways have not resistant bees and therefore cause a lot of troubles in a treatment free apiary)

I was forced to do AS MANY SPLITS AS I COULD for many years to maintain even somehow reasonable number of hives. Summer 2013 was the turning point, from now on I´ll do* max one nuc from one hive*. This way I´ll try to make my breeder evaluation more precise.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

JBJ said:


> Were the queens from us marked? It is very useful to know if they swarmed or superseded.


Yes your qweens are marked and two of the three I got last year are my best colonies. One never expanded past 1 deep so I combined it with the other two in the fall.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

Colleen O. said:


> I did detergent washes today but I shook and reshook until I was pretty sure I got all the mites. I've never done it before so I may have missed a time shaking requirement. I had one that was really low (around 1%), another low (1.7%), one intermediate (3.5%) and two high (9.8% and 11%). The lowest one is a Minnesota Hygienic X Missouri Mutt queen (early summer split after the original queen left with a swarm) and the rest are requeened (all but the highest were splits) this August using Ferguson Buckfasts. The Buckfast with the lowest count has the runniest queen and workers but they are gentle. The intermediate count colony is my favorite, they are really gentle and not runny in the least. I also observed them chewing out mite affected larvae once during an inspection.
> 
> All five are nucs and my hope is that I will come out of winter with two or three colonies.


I did Spring mite counts yesterday on my two overwintered colonies. The (1.) Buckfast colony with the highest count (11%) in fall and the (2.) Minnesota Hygienic X Missouri Mutt (~1%) in the fall are the two that made it. The spring counts were a bit disappointing but they were already brooding when I peaked in mid February so I guess the mites have been brooding too.

The spring inspection and detergent wash mite counts:
(1.) 9.9%, 49 mites off 493 bees. 6 1/2 bars mostly filled with brood (honey and pollen on them too). Observed mites on bees and DWV bees during the indpection and took the sample from that bar. Buckfast queen, very frugal use of honey over winter. Very gentle bees.
(2.) 3.1%, 8 mites off 254 bees. 5 bars brood, sixth cleaned out and ready. Lots of pollen and some nectar coming in. Went through almost all their honey by mid February, gave them three more bars at that time. Bees are a bit defensive but not aggressive or nasty.

I'm left in a TF quandary. The Buckfast has some qualities I would like to keep and mix with some more mite resistant stock but I can see a crash coming soon if I do nothing. They are recently out of the grandaddy of brood breaks but are only down a little over a percent. The MNH Mutt is already up 2% coming out of the winter brood break.

On the bright side, someone local has a Warre that has been neglected (just bees left to their own devices) but has made it through the last three years continuously occupied and they are willing to let me either swarm trap or take it.


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## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

Colleen, how did your bees do over the winter? I have one Buckfast hive and 2 Buckfast queens coming from Ferguson Apiaries. My first year overwintering.


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## RiodeLobo (Oct 11, 2010)

Colleen O. said:


> I'm left in a TF quandary. The Buckfast has some qualities I would like to keep and mix with some more mite resistant stock but I can see a crash coming soon if I do nothing. They are recently out of the grandaddy of brood breaks but are only down a little over a percent.


What about splitting that colony and raising a queen off your better colony (or bringing in another queen)? That way you have an insurance policy and still get to keep the genetics of the Buckfast queen.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

Cloverdale said:


> Colleen, how did your bees do over the winter? I have one Buckfast hive and 2 Buckfast queens coming from Ferguson Apiaries. My first year overwintering.


My Buckfast were from Ferguson as well. I got 5 but by time they arrived it was a bit late in the season so the clusters were a bit small. I had a push-in cage failure on one and recombined those bees into the colony that successfully overwintered. That being the colony that had the highest mite count but made it through the cold tells me something about minimum cluster size for a cold winter here. Unfortunately the Buckfast colony that had the lowest mite count was lost to dysentery. The second lowest lost all but a handful of attendants and a stupid move on my part cost her life. The last was the weakest (smallest cluster) with the second highest mite count and I lost it first. In hindsight after the mite counts I should have pinched the two high mite count queens, combined my favorite with the larger colony and combined the other two. They may all have made it then. As far as going through honey stores the Buckfast colonies went through only a tiny portion of their stores. Maybe a third or less than what the MNH Mutts used. The remaining Buckfast colony and the one that I liked working best had very gentle bees. In all I really liked them and will try them again in the future. Two of the four that I did mite counts on had some encouraging mite counts so I hope to try again in the future when I can be better established and have bigger winter clusters.
What was your experience? Did you test for mites?


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

RiodeLobo said:


> What about splitting that colony and raising a queen off your better colony (or bringing in another queen)? That way you have an insurance policy and still get to keep the genetics of the Buckfast queen.


My plan was to take a split from both with both queens put into nucs. Then if they make enough queen cells take another split off with an extra cell or two so that I end up with 4 nucs and 2 hives. Then I can see which queens perform the best and keep those. I was hoping that if I kept the Buckfast queen in a nuc I could reinforce her colony with brood from the more mite resistant colony if needed. Does that sound reasonable? The stores frugality was something Brother Adam bred for and to see such marked evidence of it was impressive. I would really like to see that incorporated here. If I hadn't checked the MNH Mutts would have run out despite being otherwise healthy. If I get to take over the neglected Warre colony hopefully they can add to the mix. Right now they are a complete unknown other than at least 3 years with no intervention other than a little honey robbing.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Colleen O. said:


> In hindsight after the mite counts I should have pinched the two high mite count queens, combined my favorite with the larger colony and combined the other two. They may all have made it then.


I would be a pit causious about uniting colonies, that are having problems, with healthier colonies. There might be viruses and uniting can cause more harm than good. Good surviving colonies with low mite counts are best suited to make increase. I would leave the ones with troubles untouched, or carry them into one special yard of weak colonies. Sometimes some of them can suddenly start growing again, most of them will perish.


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## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

I just went into my hives today....the Buckfast hive did great, exactly how yours did; minimal usage of honey, hardly touched the candy board and they weren't interested in the pollen pattie.
I used the screened bottom board for mite counts and treated with MAQS in the fall. They were very gentle and had a good sized cluster. I am very happy with them and can't wait for the queens to come in June.


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## Colleen O. (Jun 5, 2012)

Juhani Lunden said:


> I would be a pit causious about uniting colonies, that are having problems, with healthier colonies. There might be viruses and uniting can cause more harm than good. Good surviving colonies with low mite counts are best suited to make increase. I would leave the ones with troubles untouched, or carry them into one special yard of weak colonies. Sometimes some of them can suddenly start growing again, most of them will perish.


I was concerned about that. In the fall the only sign of problems were the mite counts. The one I lost to dysentery, I believe the honey got fouled by small hive beetles because it was frothing/fermenting in the comb.

I would like to keep both overwintered queens here at my home yard where I can keep a close eye on them but when I take the Buckfast queen out and the new queens are mated I could take that original colony (minus the original queen and a few bars) to a remote location. Would that be enough to minimize the potential problem?

Would it be better if when I remove her I release her in a nuc made from my colony with the better mite count and no sign of viruses? Then I could take the whole colony with their newly mated daughter queen to the remote location.

Right now the Buckfast colony is building better than the MNH Mutts but the mutts are catching up fast (they were 3 brood bars to 5 a few weeks ago) and seeing 4 DWV bees and having such a high mite count I think the Buckfast will start falling behind in the next month or so.


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