Backyard Beekeeping Q&A 202, Spring Varroa Mite Attract and Kill Method? Cage Drones & REMOVE MITES
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- Welcome to another episode of Backyard Beekeeping Topics.
Today, we start off with some new scientific observations made by Dr. Zachary Lamas.
With his observations regarding varroa destructor mites demonstrating a preference for young drones over nurse bees, I may just have a method for controlling the drones and giving the mites time to collect on young drone bodies so we can remove the drones and mites together.
If you want to attempt to count varroa destructor mites on drones, I am suggesting the use of this Queen Cage, but instead of caging the queen to make a brood break, spring may be the perfect opportunity to draw mites to drones and drone frames and using the Queen Cage to contain the drones until the varroa mites attach to them for easy removal.
This is the cage I'm using: (not an affiliate link, no compensation for sharing this link): www.betterbee....
They have both deep and medium Queen Isolation Cages.
If it holds queen bees, it can also contain drones while you count mites and get a sense of your real varroa population.
SHOUT-OUT for today is this RUclips video where you can learn about the valuable research that Dr. Lamas has done, and continues to do, please tell them I sent you :)
• "Why don't we sample d...
I think we may have a fantastic new tool for controlling varroa destructor mites in spring, with no chemicals.
Key Video moments - 19 minutes and 13 seconds (Testing the wrong bees)
1 hour and 9 minutes in, this could be an effective varroa management practice.
FOLLOW THIS LINK TO LEARN ABOUT CREATING A BROOD BREAK BY CAGING THE QUEEN:
www.fredsfinef...
Today's topics are in order below:
1) Is it safe to use Oxalic Acid Vapor on hives with honey supers and brood?
2) Can I use QMP instead of Swarm Commander to attract swarms to swarm traps?
3) Question regarding moving bee hives. I need to move them 30-40 feet while keeping them on my property. Is there a faster way?
4) My brother is starting with bees and plans to put them in the chicken run because it already has an electric fence. Just wondering if this is a good idea for the chickens?
5) Do you remove leftover honey from hives in spring? If so, what time, and how?
6) My Flow-Hive boxes don't match the standard Langstroth medium supers. You are going to produce a new video showing how to make a matching shim and medium super. Would you mind leaking your solution?
*This is my Flow-Hive Page*
www.fredsfinef...
7) I have a question about winter bees. At what time during spring do we expect to see those die off?
8) What are your thoughts on putting a lean-to over the hive? I get told to put them in full sun and then afternoon shade. Thoughts?
Instead of a full structure, where cooling is the desired effect, consider a sail shade system that can be taken down during winter:
amzn.to/3TYKVzi This is an affiliate link, you can also just google sail-shade systems.
9) Why are people so leery of bee packages? They are cheaper than nucs.
Deeper Reading about what package bees may be going through:
academic.oup.c...
Please Participate in the BIP Survey:
Starts April First: beeinformed.or...
NOTE: The fine art shown at the end of today's FAQ, though suitable for framing, is not for sale. Sorry.
1) Is it safe to use Oxalic Acid Vapor on hives with honey supers and brood? 29:03
2) Can I use QMP instead of Swarm Commander to attract swarms to swarm traps? 33:57
3) Question regarding moving bee hives. I need to move them 30-40 feet while keeping them on my property. Is there a faster way? 39:07
4) My brother is starting with bees and plans to put them in the chicken run because it already has an electric fence. Just wondering if this is a good idea for the chickens? 46:03
5) Do you remove leftover honey from hives in spring? If so, what time, and how? 48:47
6) My Flow-Hive boxes don't match the standard Langstroth medium supers. You are going to produce a new video showing how to make a matching shim and medium super. Would you mind leaking your solution? 54:11
7) I have a question about winter bees. At what time during spring do we expect to see those die off? 59:22
8) What are your thoughts on putting a lean-to over the hive? I get told to put them in full sun and then afternoon shade. Thoughts? 1:02:14
9) Why are people so leery of bee packages? They are cheaper than nucs. 1:08:10
Thanks, Adam, as always.
Ure like clock work bro
"because I 'take care of myself cause that's the golden rule or something..." Your humor cracks me up! Love it.
:)
I bow down before the fabulous artistry of Mrs. Fred... As an unregistered beek, and a subscriber, I may not be worthy of beholding the radiant beauty of that chicken...🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Now, you have reached a true understanding of what it's like to have that art staring me down... (">
Hats off to Mrs.Dunn👏
I'll pass that on, I'm sure she will appreciate it.
Thanks for this information. I am considering becoming a bee keeper and have been watching your channel for several months. This information on varroa mite control is a game changer for me. I was holding back because this issue. Zac Lamas’ talk and your suggestion of the drone separation cage is excellent. I share your enthusiasm. Finishing planning soon to begin bee keeping next spring!!
Great info. You could cage your drones, remove them, and then treat them with OA vaporizer. That would kill all the mites and then release the drones.
Lots of options and room for experimentation.
Good idea but there is always 99.9% accuracy and we don’t need any survivals I think physical removal is the best like with CO2
Omg the end where you share the art! I laughed so hard. You are hilarious. 😂thanks Fred.
Thanks for the SBGMI video recommendation. Thought-provoking to say the least. A really interesting experimental design, too. Thanks, too, to the person who let you know about this.
Thanks, and yes, I'm also grateful when people send valuable references my way :) better together! :)
Great watch as always , have a fab weekend everyone 👍🏻🇬🇧
We drove 2 hours to Better Bee this morning. They were curious why today there were 234 sales on their queen excluder frames! Staff, as always, was fab and we all had some laughs. Anxious to apply this method! Genius!!
Hi Vee, is that true? That's really funny! :) and wow, I'm impressed! Thank you for sharing.
@@FrederickDunn Yes, our cashier then was going to watch your video. The warehouse worker asked us if there was a sale today on them because everyone was ordering them. I think many of us will be experimenting along with you! Wishing everyone a great season!
Just ordered my queen cages (2) I’m going to give this a try on 2 of my 5 hives. I already used the green drone frames so this is a logical next step.
Sounds very logical indeed, that’s probably why very old beekeeper’s knocked of most drone brood
It's Fred-day! Yeah!!
:)
It’s always Fred Dunn Friday for me !😁
I did see the Dr. Lamas video and I am going to try your caging of drones idea! Thanks!
Wow. Interesting stuff Fred.
Thanks, Bruce! :) I have to agree :)
Another video with great info re drones. Thx Fred.
Very welcome
Thank you Fred, as always, have a fantastic weekend!
Thanks, you too!
That's really sounding good, to check mite loads, I diffently will try this system thank you
I am so glad you shared your wife's artwork with all of us. You are a model husband. I have much to learn.
I always support the arts, and celebrate talent.
😂
Great Idea, I just ordered a deep Queen Isolation Cage and going to try this method. Thanks for all the helpful video's.
I hope several people try it out, so we can all compare notes regarding how it worked out. I'm looking forward to that method over caging the queen and then doing a treatment. If I can get my drones to attract the mites, it's going to be a fascinating spring season.
Wow. I have just recently watched that presentation and planned on doing my own comparison. I didn’t look forward to hand picking and realized mites kept hopping on young drones. I was going to use the cage but didn’t quite know what to do with the live drones. If they were healthy (mite free) they could return wherever they like. Just because we think we know everything drones do, I believe they belong in the hive. I have considered treating a frame with OA spray if heavily infested and heading towards a sudsy dip just to see how effective it may be. The cage is also helpful if you forget you have drone comb in…
This was a fantastic idea! this is kind of providential to hear your hypothesis on the cage/frame method and answers a nagging question for those who are really focused on flooding DCA's with great drone genetics - how do we keep them alive but yet handle the Varroa!
Please keep data and track the results to share with us later! It will be a great discussion to have at the end of our Northern Beekeeping season for sure!
Thanks for sharing your video! It was an aha moment for me when I realized that Dr. Lamas was observing. I'm definitely onboard with the genetics being the long term answer on varroa. For now, this is going to be an interesting chemical-free method for pulling drones with mites. It all made sense to me :) Also, thank you for chiming in and watching.
Totally agree with you about how interesting the video on drones and varroa is, makes you think.
I just ordered s2 cages and 4 drone combs, gonna give it a try..
@@jcbethke1 Rock on!
I am really looking forward to lots of feedback from other beekeepers on this, and I hope everyone documents their method and results. I don't think it will be a happy spring for the drones... and mites won't be happy either.
I loved the drawing of the chicken at the end! 😂
Thanks, me too :)
Thanks Fred for a great Q and A. I love the way you explain your answers to questions. I’ve learned so much listening/watching the last few videos. I extracted honey from my winter from dead outs and after jarring it eventually turned and crystallized vs. summer extraction liquid.
I got mine last yr ! ,after seeing Dr.Peck talk about it and had a long wait for them to get more made-up..betterbee gonna need to ramp up production big time ! Thank you!!!, for putting this out ,it makes a ton of sense on how mites spread hive to hive.
Hi Phil, yes, I wanted one of those as soon as I saw one. I received mine back in January, and had it in mind when I watched Dr. Lamas's presentation. The drone management application seems stronger to me than making a brood break. BUT, we'll see how that goes.
Dinner for you putting Annette under the bus! lol 👩🏼🎨 love You all.
Ohhhh, thank you, Martha! :) you are alway too generous! :)
Interesting information thanks for sharing Fred
Thank you for stopping in! I'm glad you found the information to be interesting, and I also hope that your RUclips channel is doing well! I wish you all the best with your bees. :)
Frederick, we are very much impressed with your work and engagement. You find time to answer all comments! We watched the presentation of Dr Z.Lamas to get the whole point. Indeed it is very exciting. Thank you for broaden our minds and finding one more way of using our isolation cage! we look forward to see how the method works this Spring. We are available for any technical comments on construction of the cage , in case we can improve anything in it. Thanks again :-)
Thank you so much! You have provided us with excellent tools.
@@FrederickDunn 💚
Good job Fred. Glad you see the potential of the frame isolation. Those polish keepers have some great ideas and skills
Yes they do
Genius as usual. 😊
Not sure if you saw my Facebook post a few weeks ago about the highest mite count I’ve found in any feral colony alcohol wash to date. That sample had a much higher than normal amount of drones which turned up a much higher than normal amount of mites compared to what I typically sample which usually turns up between one to three mites per hundred worker bees. I like your new method you’re implementing.
Hi Randy! That's very interesting! I definitely think, now that I've seen Dr. Lamas' video, that we need to look harder at those drones! But, we have to get them while they are young, apparently they are not so appetizing once they are fully mature and aging. Thanks for commenting! :)
Fredic Dunn are you saying that us old fat dudes aren’t as appetizing
Submitting drawings and/or photos to Fred Dunn is like cooking for Gordon Ramsey! Enjoy the couch Fred.
She thought it was the funniest thing ever! So, I did not get any angst :) BUT, she said that's the last drawing she will be doing for me (';')... which makes it all the more valuable!
Fred, I watched the same video a few days back. Not aware of the cage you demonstrated in this video, I was playing around with ideas to trap the sealed drone. Your idea is far superior. I will be testing this method this year on a few colonies. Yes, I've ordered a few of the cages. I really like this idea and along with OAV treatments could put a huge dent in the mite load prior to winter.
Thanks Bill, I think this is going to be another valuable tool in our varroa management challenges.
What a fantastic strategy. I just picked up a bunch of those iso cages and drone frames from betterbee. I’m going to test this theory!
What if you take one step further and put that iso cage in a quarantine box for 24hrs and treat with OA.
Then open cage after you treat the drone frame so they all go back in your apiary hives.
I also want to mark drones with different colors to test drift of drones.
I've also joined the fray. Ordered from BB, hope you left me some.
I have trouble with the girls drawing the drone frames, even with an extra coat of wax. Sigh. They ignore them completely, going to spray new ones with propolis tincture.
I think you're going to see quite a bit of drift. Sounds like fun. I'm not sure how long drones manage without nurse bees feeding them. That's also a consideration when removing them from the parent colony.
Hey Bohemia Bees: I was thinking the same thing in re: drone quarantine and treatment, although my thought was to keep the drone frames in their individually labeled iso cages for treatment so they can be returned to the correct hive without drifting. Might a half-day post-treatment quarantine be enough? Worth a try...
Hey Fred: I just ordered 3 queen iso cages from BetterBee. If all of us giving your idea a try report back afterwards, it would make for a marvelous study.
Jason they very very good for queen breeding and mites treatment and drone breeding 🐝 they com from Poland I use myself them top cage's 👌💪💪🐝🐝
I was just talking to my wife about Drone combs the other day and lol. i was saying almost what you were saying about Varroa and drones. I was more so talking about counting dead mites after freezing. and isolating drones and such. it sort of just popped in my head. you explained it a whole lot better.🙂
Great idea, that is the most wonderful chicken drawing ever !!! Bees are flying in Vt. today. Finally..🐝
I agree, a masterful zen illustration of the majestic chicken.
This is great food for thought! Hope to see an update on this proces later and some video on this drone isolation.
#1 - my vision of treatment is now sponges for low level constant treatment and adding OAV treatments in the evening when the drones are home during season peaks.
Sometimes I set a cardboard nuc with a drawn frame at the old location and collect any leftovers and the shake the in front of the new loc. After a couple of days of this they figure it out.
Great info Fred
Thanks, Peter!
from Ohio hear really Love your show very informative old hobby bee keeper
but still learning a lot of new stuff
love the reserch stuff
Thank you so much, I'm glad to help present some new information for you.
I was already going to use drone comb based on my mentor's guidance. Now I will try the queen/drone cage varroa mite control idea. At this time I have one hive but I love trying ideas. I know I need more hives for more control in observations but I start where I am.
Yes, the drone comb has been around for quite a while to aid in mite mitigation. I think we have a nice enhancement for that valuable tool.
Great start to the show Fred -thanks for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching :)
Great information Fred! Thanks for sharing as usual!
Thanks, Bill!
I believe it is worth a try
Me Too...
Great chicken picture !!!
I may have to turn it into a t-shirt design. ;)
As usual very informative video. PS I love the chicken. Lol
New Zealand, I make my fondant recipe 1 kg Icing sugar+ 1 destspoon Gelatin, +1.5 destspoon Glycerine + 1/2 cup gulose syrup,+
1/4 cup of water +
Dissolve Gelatin, 20 second in microwave +
Add Glycerine +
Add corn syrup +
Once mix thoroughly together +
Add Icing sugar +
Mix to a dough texture +use a 60 mm spacer on top of brood frames in winter time,+
Put directly on top of the brood frames +
Can cover top of fondant with plastic, or baking paper,stop from drying out ,used 2 kgs over winter time,8 July, then the 1st August ,feed 10 kgs sugar syrup,frame feeder close to brood nest as possible, keep the syrup warm,
Sounds like you really have that dialed in, and must be handy in the kitchen as well :) Thanks for sharing!
Nice idea 👏🏽
Hi Fred, great info as usual.
I like your idea.
Here is mine.
We have queen pheromones available for purchase. And we also have ready drawn manufactured comb. Presently brood or honey.
Why not try to isolate the fresh drone brood scent and make a synthetic copy into a spray. Use your synthetic drawn drone comb and spay with the sent. After a day of the scent of fresh drones, mites should be drawn to the cell. The next day removal of the frame would potentially remove many mites. And could be easily frozen.
I know the hard part would be isolation of the scent the mite is attracted to. Without taking away all that effort to fully raise those drone brood.
Thanks for your time.
Anthony in Nh
Hi Anthony, I know of three research centers that are already working on that, and have been working on producing a varroa lure. Finding out what they are attracted to, distilling that down, and working with that pheromone while making it stable enough to last a reasonable amount of time is at the center. It's not easy, but I hope they really do come up with a pheromone based varroa lure so we can trap those tiny nightmares.
This opening is probably the the most interesting what if I’ve ever heard, if in fact it works it will be a huge breakthrough, it will help the bees , it will help the market have more items to manufacture and market , the “drone observatory trap” you just solved economical and entomology issues 🙂 i got a handful of green drone frames now I just need some of the betterbee queen containment cage / “Fred’s varroa control cages “ your gonna be rich !! 😂 really though, this is a fascinating concept that I am definitely intrigued and will give this a go , on a large scale just think about all of the millions of bees that wouldn’t have to bee euthanized for test purposes,this whole idea is huge , I can’t wait to try it !
Happy Friday Fred! This was a great Q&A to sit on the couch and enjoy my rum/tea tonight. Cannot wait to hear the results of caging the drones to count and kill those mites. I hate mites. Chicken feather mites, varroa...grrrrrrr.
What a wonderful video. I can’t wait to see your results about drone catching and what their mite load is, compared to mite loads on nurse bees. 😊. I’m going to use the very system, the frame cage, to cage my queen in a 5 frame nuc to limit population growth so she won’t swarm … that way I can “bank” a queen until I need her.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my question regrading the QMP, and your explanation made sense!! my wife heard you mentioning my channel and gave me a look about me wanting to catch swarms…. We tend to have spicy feral bees in our area 😊 thankfully packages are starting available and guess thats the route I will need to go…
You're very welcome! I'm also glad your wife was listening in :)
Great idea with the drones 🐝👍
Thanks 👍
I wish you would do a VERY simplistic, easy to understand step-by-step explanation on how to set the SLOW MOTION on your AX 700 video camera! I have had the same model camera now for two years and have YET to understand how to operate this function! I so enjoy your video work as well as all your bee BEEhavior observations. Thank you!
I haven't done photo/video gear related videos for a while, but I will try to put that on my to-do list. Thank you for the compliment.
I just ordered two, because I'd like to try it in combination with other treatments.
That's going to be very VERY interesting!
I believe you're on to something, Fred!! I also believe that's what killed my hive. The fact my hive had and accepted drones last of December . Now that you mention this, these were old drones. I'm sure they was some drifters. WITH MITES!! 😮thanks Fred very intriguing
Your wife and her art is awesome/ genius but your sense of humor is superior 😝😝😝
I my turn it into a sweatshirt and give it to her for her birthday :)
@@FrederickDunn that would be awesome 😋way more valuable than a high dollar gift 🎁, my wife gets mad if I spend money on gifts , MoonGun Farm and Forge is what I do to give money to her horse / livestock rescue/ sanctuary- Havensgate Farm sanctuary is where she wants me to put every spare dime , I have spent a fortune rescuing animals but I told her I am obsessed with saving the bees again and the good thing is one of my customers has a large eco nonprofit that is going to give us large grants when our nonprofit status goes through and then maybe MoonGun Farm can sustain and then I can buy some of your fancy merchandise and gift it to my wife because I will then be able to afford it lol 😝 I have huge plans on making natural habitat to sustain and house millions of honeybees at our farm , and I will of course provide them with quality log hives which I am working on now , so the hives will look like trees and not boxes everywhere, I will show you after I get one close to complete, I have about 16 acres to give to bees , I have to save the rest for my wife’s horses and our baby goats , the goats are 3 years old but they are still my babies lol
It's an interesting idea. I will check it out Fred. I wanted to let you know, I have been using the hive alive fondant for a couple years now and my bees can't get enough of it. What I do is cut three slits making a square but don't cut the fourth side, slip it inside the fondant package. It not only seems to hold it open, but also keeps all your garbage in one place. Don't know if that helps.
Great tips, thanks :)
Hey Fred.Another interesting Q&A. Thanks! The bee informed partnership survey has launched. I completed it yesterday.
That's great, thank you for participating in that survey :)
At the beginning of your discussion you mentioned virgin queens and strong drones being able to fly for mating. And then went on to your idea about trapping drones and testing them for mites. Are you concerned about having enough drones for mating queens? My wife Rhonda loves your channel! We both learn a lot from your videos.
Thank you
Hi Peter, I'm only caging one frame of drones, I'm leaving the rest. If we get varroa numbers down, then there will be plenty of varroa free drones coming along as they would likely be in drone production for several weeks. If we reduce the drone pool, I don't think it's significant unless we were to remove ALL drones. Colonies that prove to have small varroa numbers won't have a continuation of drone trapping. At least that's my take on it.
@@FrederickDunn thank you, that makes sense to me.
It really makes sense to me, I think I want to think about it a little more for my operation but I like it. Instead to follow this for sure.
It's definitely not a call to action, I'm sure those who try it out will be sharing the results. I think it's going to be interesting to say the least.
I was just reading ABJ Dec 2023 and found an article, Tina Sebestyen, that gives an example of how she did the drone/mite test. Interesting result! I was wondering how your testing of the cage worked last year. Any chance for a follow-up fluff session?
Trapping drones in the isolation cage makes a lot of sense to me. I had already ordered one and plan to try it.
I'm inspired... let's see how that goes.
My wife is so talented I don’t know what she would do without me.
:)
Napolean Dynamite reference priceless!
Thank you! You are the first one to make that connection :) you just made my day.
I told my wife about what you said and we laughed pretty hard. I told her if you really liked the picture you would catch her a delicious bass😂
#8 - I am going to try this this season, as I struggled with wet bottom boards this winter.
Hi and thank you. Starting my 4th spring beekeeping and have learned more useful and successful information from you than from ANY other source. The information and advice you provide is so appreciated! I think your idea of caging the drones might work brilliantly and I would like to try it. My question is, can you advise on the “ideal” timing of putting the cage in the hive based on general location? I am in the Pacific Northwest in zone 8b.
Thank you so much :) I'm so glad to have helped you with your beekeeping. Regarding timing, it's usually during your strongest nectar flow when colonies rear large numbers of drone brood. This is definitely regional as it ties in with strong bloom cycles.
Dr. Zac Lamas spoke at our monthly bee club meeting in February, and suggested testing 40 Drones for Varroa mites.
that's right - but unfortunately nothing hard and fast about threshold numbers in relation to the drone hosts...
Hey! My family and I did two years of work on this in Vermont and me in Maryland. It looks like colonies with multiple detections on drones in the spring is enough to warrant action, but people will have to establish thresholds based upon their geographic area. There's one group led by a beekeeper doing their master beekeeper project in Colorado, James Wilson and I are going it in Virginia this year.
@@zacharylamas8016 Yes, I'm at Rockwood Beekeepers in Chesterfield, Virginia.
Hi Zachary, so nice to see your comment here! I really appreciated the presentation, as you already know.
Thanks!
Thank you very mucyh, Yvonne :) I appreciate that!
Fred I like your idea of caging the queen with a drone frame. My question is how you plan to get the queen out of the cage before you put the drones to sleep or are you going to put her to sleep too and then put her in the hive. Thanks .
After the drone comb is all in production, and the drones are starting to be capped, that's when I'd open the cage and remove the queen and let her get back to the worker brood. You have plenty of time to close them up before any drones begin to emerge. I would not put the Queen to sleep as I would with the drones. I hope that helps :)
thanks for all the wisdom you beestow upon us
Thank you!
Wow and to think I was going to suggest you watch the bug farmer's newest video, where he gets a swarm on his head. Nevermind this is much more important. Thanks for bringing this new information to your viewers. Probably won't be able to get one of those cages now lol I definitely like this idea.
Swarm on his head? (';')( ';')... !
@@FrederickDunn he had a swarm and some of the bees wound up on top of his veil. pretty funny
Hello Dear Frederick 🥰🥰🥰🥰
You should share your wife’s art every week! Fred’s Fine Art Finale!
I would... but she said she's never doing another drawing for me (';')... so... ( ';')... I guess not...
GREAT INFO ON MITES,,,,Thursday Lake Erie blizzard an 21 degrees,today 53 raining all day,,i cant check nothing till mid April,,MAYBE??
Here, all next week will be warming up and the bees will be flying. But you're right, opening hives is pushed down the timeline.
Solar Sails.
Watching someone pour a bunch of powdered sugar on packaged bees is pretty interesting. When done suspended over a sheet of paper. The number of groomed off mites is interesting.
Great way to find out who not to get packages from :)
1.use formic acid early in spring = less varroamothers to lay eggs kater
2. Cut out dronecells each week = less surviving varroa.
3. Use rhubarb that is sliced every week on the frames when you have them = thats natural oxcal acid that doesnt ruin the hlneu and you get less varroa.
4. Use powdersugar like rain on the bees = the bees will take that away on each other and with it the varroa if theres any
5. Use a bee gym in the entrance in the hive = to get rid of varroa.
6.Use formic acid after taking the honey in the fall.
7. Use the oxide acid when they go in to wintersleep.
All those things together will help the bees against varroa best.
The medical treatment might make the varroa finally be resistant and make big farma rich.
Thanks for sharing all that you're doing.
Going to order a cage and try it. Already have the frame. Backyard beekeeper Cathy
I think they are going to be very handy for a lot of applications. I'm glad I got my order in. I never really liked my old confinement cage that had to be against one end of the hive in order to work.
If it's a big hive I will put a new box there with a frame of brood and they usually will build up again
Fred, this drone bait is very exciting! It got me thinking about swarms, do swarms have drones also? Have you done mite counts on swarms? I know you and others suggest treating a swarm for varroa because there is no brood for a bit of time. Thanks for the excellent bee footage and all your hard work. Minorcas are 3 weeks old and all alive so I feel like a successful chicken minder at the moment. 1 case of wry neck and he is fine. 3 cases of pasty butt, cleaned up several times and they and fine too. Chicks are big enough that I need another feeder, they are too big for all of them to fit. Thanks for the suggestion for this breed, I am learning so much and that is really fun for me.
Pasty butt is due to stress ("> If you put an old fashioned feather duster in the brooder with them, they won't get that issue, and will think the duster is their mother to stand under. :)
Lol, love the chicken ❤
:)
Make real sense to me, esp in spring build up time, the time aspect is a stumbler, I can’t see a lot of people sitting there picking mites of drones, may be knock them out as you say and then wait for them to wake in a container then sugar shake them. Another thing is due to many lazy people they may just kill the lot and then the drone population may be effected. So I guess you would set the cage up and put queen in just until she has laid the drone eggs then release her, which would I guess only be for a few days. I wanted this year to try a forced brood break during our June gap like Richard Noel does each year, but maybe I’ll try a drone trap, I already have co2 just need to set up some sort of container for the cage trap. I might even catch some drones by hand and have a look at how many they are carrying. Going to go watch the link. Thanks Fred always learning
HI Emma, I was onboard and planned to do brood breaks with these isolation cages, but now that I know I can simply hold drones in and use them to draw mites, I'm changing my approach. This leaves the queen laying and worker production uninterrupted. If we can get the varroa under control in spring, then I think we'll be well ahead of the management game.
It would be very useful to see a demonstration of you knocking out the bees with the CO2…
I’m a new bkeeper and I am going to try your new method.
That will be part of my drone/varroa monitoring video series coming along this year.
I'll expect to see a chicken drawing at Hive Life silent auction next year 😆
I am keeping this one, who knows where it may show up :) It's truly a thumbnail masterpiece...
Makes sense to me
Mrs. Fred is an artistic genius! So much better than Hunter Biden; I'd buy that chicken.
Thank you for answering my question about bee packages. I bought packages from Barnyard Bees in Georgia and was very happy with the results. They always ship through USPS, and that's the only way I'll go.
On the subject of the fondant; I did make 1/2 packages which I sealed with the food savers. Worked perfectly. Three packages were completely gone or almost, and I had one dead-out. I will however use you straw scaffold idea next year. Simply makes sense. Thank you so much; Huntnlady in New Mexico.
That's great, I know that David wants to be able to quit his day job one of these days. He definitely sells lots of packages and queens.
Cool idea there Fred. Instead of testing at all though, why not just OAV the whole hive 2-3 days after your caged drone frames have hatched? I'm sure there will be some phoretic mites outside of that frame as well - knock them all down, I reckon. Keep us informed on your practice of this over the spring. I look forward to doing my own trials next spring (I live in NZ).
That's an option. I'm sure everyone will come up with their own methods for control. I'll be fiddling with them this year. We'll see.
Holy cow, you got a lot of comments this week.
Another thought, When your drone comb is capped do an assay on the drones pupae and count the mites. Cory Stevens does this on worker brood to see what level of VSH is in the hive. Pull out a hundred drones and that would be your percentage of mite infestation Is this simple and you don't have to buy the cage.
Hi Russell, that would skip over the real advantage of allowing the drones to emerge, and then serve as living varroa attractants. If we took them out as pupae, then we'd likely find some mites that were reproducing in those cells, BUT, if we allow the drones to emerge and hold them in the cage, then varroa that are on worker bees and on worker brood will, according to studies, move over to the drones and climb onto their bodies. I see this as a much better method potentially.
@@FrederickDunn Fred, you are right, it would miss a big benefit. But could it also serve to be an effective tool especially in the spring when a person is wondering if they should do a spring mite treatment. Washes of nurse bees will almost always show a low number but they are there in the drone brood. Taking out 100 pupae to get a count, then put the frame back in and let them hatch out. 100 drones pulled out early and leaving 5,000 should still be effective.
I think MOST of the mites will come from the drone brood that just hatched AND nothing is keeping them in.
I may hand catch and inspect some drones. Once I'm sure they are mite free put them in a cage just to see how many mites they attract.
You could do lots of experiments to see what the mites are attracted to. The good news is that Dr. Lamas has spent a long time establishing that attraction. But you're right, you could free any drones that are clear of mites.
Ok Fred, I'll consider this new idea about looking more closely at drones, and I'll watch the video you referenced,
BUT
If young, freshly-emerged drones are so nutritious & appealing to mites, why do the mites not attach themselves to drones in the cells, pre-emergent, and just stay there for several days, post-emergence?
Hi David, to that I say, how do you know they are not still attached to the emerged drones? Since we don't look at the drones for mites, this is the point that Dr. Lamas is making, and has made. The drones emerge and move around the frames with varroa mites on their bodies. The next level is that free roaming mites are attracted to those young drones (2-3 days old) and also climb onto their bodies, demonstrating a preference for the drones over their attraction to nurse bees. This is what's so novel about Dr. Lamas's findings. My bees groom the newly emerging drones and workers as they emerge. That doesn't mean they are killing the mites. This frees the mites to roam the comb and re-attach themselves to nurse bees or young drones with surprising agility.
Lol..the ending!
:)
now i need a c02, tupperware set up,....i already use those cartridges for my bike tire kit
Super handy! I buy those canisters in packs of 10. Not very expensive.
Heck with the CO2, use a hive body instead of tuperware and give em OA. Much easier to count dead mites and you can then release the drones.
You could try that. Anything is open at this point. The CO2 idea was so they could do their targeted 40 mite sample rate as described by Dr. Lamas. But yes, you could put them in a nucleus hive and while still in the cage, perform a OAV treatment as the mites would be highly exposed. If you remove the entire frame and drones with mites on them, then you also remove any mites that are still under the brood caps. It's a huge hit on the mites when all of those bases are covered.
Lol I hope you took care of those chicken! 😂
Very good idea I used the same technique to catch drones on order to inseminate the queen with only this drones...
I hear a great deal of conversation around hive alive fondant, i tried it for my first time this winter in my mild climate of South Carolina, and they seemed to enjoy it. My question is, how do you think it would be if used on splits, swarm catches, weak colonies or is it mainly intended for winter use?
If the weather is nice enough for syrup, then I'd use that over the findant. Particularly when you're working up a swarm, or small split. Sugar syrup would be a much better boost for them at that time of year in my opinion.
@FrederickDunn Thank you, i usually come up with more questions in my head than i do answers to keeping my bees in the best way possible, I really value your opinion and love the content you create.
wish you did this a week ago, i just pulled a green medium frame,loaded w capped drones,and frozen 2 days yesterday i used a serated uncapping knife to cut the cappings and used a garden hose to blast the pupae out for birds ,which worked well,and can be replaced in hive,i have 4 of those green frames, and the queen isolation cage,but will definitely give this a shot,i wonder how mite attract to drones,is it by scent,hiw do the mites know what a fat bee smells like...thank you for losing sleep for us
Hi Mark, I think your opportunities are still ahead, we have plenty of drone production I'm sure. I've always thought the removing of drone brood was OK... as the mites are often in there. But I REALLY like the idea that mites in their dispersal phase will be attracted to the young drones and will clamor onto their bodies. This is something that I really want to see for myself, and of course make macro video of the results. Dr. Lamas has really lit a varroa management fire in my mind :)
@@FrederickDunn yep im watching the video link if him ,great research,how they buffer the coming onslaught, late season,ill be getting those green frames redrawn,i didnt hear him talk about dawn ultra ,instead of alcohol
@@sonofthunder. He didn't, that's my preference.. Dawn Ultra Free and Clear, works better than the alcohol. :)
How about when you put a queen cell in a box with some she hatches off but she really don't have enough to really get started put her in the cage on a frame and hang her outside then put those bees in the box did she come out of do you think that would work