Here in The Netherlands, we have lived with Varroa for years now, I personally combine 3 methods for managing Varroa: 1) Cutting drone brood during the season, 2) Thymol after taking the honey and 3) Oxalic acid beginning of winter and when necessary also end of winter when there is no brood. The latter is of course not suitable for warm climates, but broodless periods can be induced by splitting as described by @ceej2739. A broodless queen box on its original location can be treated within the week and the queenless split(s) after three weeks when that brood is all matured and new queens have hatched. I have been advised by experienced beekeepers to combine methods and for me that has worked fine until now and it does not involve any hazardous stuff like formic acid or other even more environmentally harmful chemicals... Good luck!
No brood break this winter Mark, even in my hives that were in the high country. Just too wet and warm this winter and many eucalypts flowering throughout. I am going to pull supers in a few days to give them some room with the new empties and swarming has started too. As for Varroa there is still a good chance to beat it if everyone does the right thing but with each event, we seem to happy to let it rip because people seem to think biosecurity is someone else's problem until it bites them. It's pretty much the same tale with all disease and pest incursions only the ones where everyone takes a hard line do we win. We all like our livestock a little too much and its difficult to destroy your own stock. Good luck everyone have a safe season.
hopefully i can continue with my small batch unique honey from way down south aus , I can see kangaroo island from my hives. Mostly pink gum and melalucca here, I just don't want to have to deal with them little mites as it will turn an enjoyable past time into a total shitfest. fingers crossed we are safe for a long time. Love your work 👍
I admire your enthusiasm but feel that hygienic feral swarms are gonna be the go once varroa sets in proper. Livid over how poorly NSW government handled this
If you are trying to get a hive broodless try a flyback split. All the brood goes in a new box, queen stays with field force at the old location. If you treat you can do so pretty much immediately with the queen’s box, and a few weeks later with the new box once the brood is all hatched out and they raised a new queen. You can then recombine if you want, or not if the split appears strong enough, depending on time of year.
I dont know how labor intensive you want to go, but here in Idaho a lot of smaller keepers powder sugar dust weekly to keep verroa numbers manageable. I dont know how feasible that is for a large operation, but powdered sugar is cheap
I am concerned as a home 2 hive beekeeper. I really do not like the possibility of more chemical use. Mainly as I am at times accident prone & I don’t know what I may poison.
The best thing you guys have going for you is the heat. Varroa dont like the heat above 40 degrees. If you think about the actual brood cycle of how long brood is capped you could really look at an oxalic acid regime of 1 treatment every 5 days over a 3 treatment course. You dont need the brood break.
Best guy I could tell you to get a hold of is Bob Biney in the USA. That guy has all the answers. And a lot of solutions. I'm guessing since we're in the end of summer in the USA these vids are about 6 months behind august. That about right?
U just have to treat them after every capped brood batch has hatched so roughly 7 day do that 4 times so basically for 1 month every week do the varroa killing method
You need a chat with Frederick Dunn the way to bee and get some decent advice , you can sort the hives without spending as much as you think , you just need pointing in the right direction to buy the right equipment for treating varroa quickly and efficiently,
@DarrenUkno1 Frederick Dunn is not in Australia we will all have to take advise from them BUT as Mark said it all depends on what the Governments say we can and can’t do. It’s a scary time for us all.
@@rhondasavva2500 I know Fred’s in USA , advice for equipment and how to use I mean , like when he interviews cedar from flow hive , it’s how we all learn to deal with these things by friendly chats , that way it isn’t so scary, uk 🇬🇧 is dealing with Asian hornets right now and we can’t let them get a foot hold in the uk either , bees are having a tough time so we need to pull together somehow 👍🏻👍🏻
I totally agree with you the more knowledge we have the better we will be. I follow Fredrick Dunn and a lot of overseas beekeepers. Keep learning is what I say.
Last I heard, after what happened last year with us victorians just sending any and every hive we had, including the shit ones, up to almonds, is they're looking at paying per frame instead of per hive this time ($12 was mentioned)..
You clutz, this is Australia, not Alaska, we don't get brood breaks here, we are too good for that stuff. Try a couple of hives on Mt Kosciusko, you might have a chance.
Good luck with your mites
Here in The Netherlands, we have lived with Varroa for years now, I personally combine 3 methods for managing Varroa: 1) Cutting drone brood during the season, 2) Thymol after taking the honey and 3) Oxalic acid beginning of winter and when necessary also end of winter when there is no brood. The latter is of course not suitable for warm climates, but broodless periods can be induced by splitting as described by @ceej2739. A broodless queen box on its original location can be treated within the week and the queenless split(s) after three weeks when that brood is all matured and new queens have hatched. I have been advised by experienced beekeepers to combine methods and for me that has worked fine until now and it does not involve any hazardous stuff like formic acid or other even more environmentally harmful chemicals... Good luck!
No brood break this winter Mark, even in my hives that were in the high country. Just too wet and warm this winter and many eucalypts flowering throughout. I am going to pull supers in a few days to give them some room with the new empties and swarming has started too.
As for Varroa there is still a good chance to beat it if everyone does the right thing but with each event, we seem to happy to let it rip because people seem to think biosecurity is someone else's problem until it bites them. It's pretty much the same tale with all disease and pest incursions only the ones where everyone takes a hard line do we win. We all like our livestock a little too much and its difficult to destroy your own stock.
Good luck everyone have a safe season.
hopefully i can continue with my small batch unique honey from way down south aus , I can see kangaroo island from my hives.
Mostly pink gum and melalucca here, I just don't want to have to deal with them little mites as it will turn an enjoyable past time into a total shitfest.
fingers crossed we are safe for a long time.
Love your work 👍
I admire your enthusiasm but feel that hygienic feral swarms are gonna be the go once varroa sets in proper.
Livid over how poorly NSW government handled this
If you are trying to get a hive broodless try a flyback split. All the brood goes in a new box, queen stays with field force at the old location. If you treat you can do so pretty much immediately with the queen’s box, and a few weeks later with the new box once the brood is all hatched out and they raised a new queen. You can then recombine if you want, or not if the split appears strong enough, depending on time of year.
Good luck. I’m sorry to know the mites are there too.
Hi mate how did you set up the lift at the back of your truck thats pretty smart for not lifting the hive can you tell me how you set that up plsss
Love the videos and we miss the video’s
Mark unrelated question.... what do you use to close your hive entrances for transport?
You can cage the queen to force a brood break
I dont know how labor intensive you want to go, but here in Idaho a lot of smaller keepers powder sugar dust weekly to keep verroa numbers manageable. I dont know how feasible that is for a large operation, but powdered sugar is cheap
What if you scratch all the capped brood and give them the oxalic acid treatment or whatever immediately so no varroas hiding
I am concerned as a home 2 hive beekeeper. I really do not like the possibility of more chemical use. Mainly as I am at times accident prone & I don’t know what I may poison.
The best thing you guys have going for you is the heat. Varroa dont like the heat above 40 degrees. If you think about the actual brood cycle of how long brood is capped you could really look at an oxalic acid regime of 1 treatment every 5 days over a 3 treatment course. You dont need the brood break.
Best guy I could tell you to get a hold of is Bob Biney in the USA. That guy has all the answers. And a lot of solutions. I'm guessing since we're in the end of summer in the USA these vids are about 6 months behind august. That about right?
Well he’s in Australia so it’s their winter currently. So this is current time for him.
U just have to treat them after every capped brood batch has hatched so roughly 7 day do that 4 times so basically for 1 month every week do the varroa killing method
You need a chat with Frederick Dunn the way to bee and get some decent advice , you can sort the hives without spending as much as you think , you just need pointing in the right direction to buy the right equipment for treating varroa quickly and efficiently,
@DarrenUkno1 Frederick Dunn is not in Australia we will all have to take advise from them BUT as Mark said it all depends on what the Governments say we can and can’t do. It’s a scary time for us all.
@@rhondasavva2500 I know Fred’s in USA , advice for equipment and how to use I mean , like when he interviews cedar from flow hive , it’s how we all learn to deal with these things by friendly chats , that way it isn’t so scary, uk 🇬🇧 is dealing with Asian hornets right now and we can’t let them get a foot hold in the uk either , bees are having a tough time so we need to pull together somehow 👍🏻👍🏻
I totally agree with you the more knowledge we have the better we will be. I follow Fredrick Dunn and a lot of overseas beekeepers. Keep learning is what I say.
@@rhondasavva2500 definitely, never stop learning , I’m never gonna be some brain box but I enjoy watching Fred’s videos , I trust Fred’s information
Why not make a push in cage with #8 mesh.
Last I heard, after what happened last year with us victorians just sending any and every hive we had, including the shit ones, up to almonds, is they're looking at paying per frame instead of per hive this time ($12 was mentioned)..
does this mean that someone opens up all the hives to count the frames of brood.? Good chance to kill the Queen.
Last week the dpi killed all my bee hives there manor need a lot of work
They had one chance at stopping this scurge and they muffed it.
The strips might work for you, because they don't require a brood break.
You clutz, this is Australia, not Alaska, we don't get brood breaks here, we are too good for that stuff. Try a couple of hives on Mt Kosciusko, you might have a chance.
How I do it I' make a nuke with the Queen and let the box make their new queen and right before she starts laying good treat it for Mites
Formic Pro.
That stuff is getting expensive. But it works well.
Just maybe its the corporate government not doing ITS job
😢