Hit the thumbs up for us everyone! We love our subscribers and we love our visitors! We want to keep making content for you - so the help is deeply appreciated!😎😎😎
I’ve been following a wide range of excellent beekeepers from the northern hemisphere for many years and your presentation has really confirmed what I’ve read and learnt about early detection and early treatments especially drone removal and there are a number of different methods of doing it but it can be done with due diligence from the beekeeper.
Dr. Lamas - I read your article concluding that worker bee cannibalism of DWV-infected drone brood coupled with trophallaxis can enable spread of DWV to non-infected workers. My question: If I am using green frames as a mite trap, after freezing the frame with capped drone brood, and returning the frame to the hive to be "cleaned up" by the bees, am I also going to see the canniballizing workers infected -- or does freezing the frame also kill the viruses in the uncapped brood on the frame?
In your eg 1 in 10 of your colonies is loaded with mites. Would you be treat all your colonies in that apiary as a result of your findings in 1 colony. Currently this is required in Australia atm. We are learning from you here.
Most US beekeepers follow a protocol that if one colony is "sick" with infestation levels above an established threshold, typically 3% or more... then they will treat the whole apiary. This is a prescription for large scale operation. In smaller scale, you have time and ability to monitor each hive - the SBGMI recommends you treat each colony as an individual and select the ones that are identified as better through that monitoring process.
I used OA in late fall and Early spring. I was worried because of mild winter and they had brood earlier. So I culled some drone comb and went through it and found no mites. I'll do alcohol wash when they build up more. I also manage in summer. Counts were low on mites. But I check drone brood. I got push back from groups on Facebook about going through them. I do have pictures if you want them. I value your opinion.
Im wondering if you could come up with an alternative sampling that compares to alcohol washing worker bees. Eg: 6 mites on drones is the equivalent of x number of mites in an alcohol wash. Im asking as a queen breeder who would prefer to sample drone brood (its in all of my colonies) rather than alcohol wash. This would be an earlier indicator from what Im understanding from this presentation which would give us a heads up to treat earlier potentially.
These are great questions for sure. Like an alcohol wash - there will be variance in the factors (brood/drone brood/colony size) - that will determine equity in the sampling methods.
I wonder if early sampling from worker washes can be so variable that might no be even worthwhile. Spring sampling of drones could give us a huge head start in evaluating colonies. Jamie Walters looked at drones AFTER an alcohol wash and found many still attached to them. I did drone larvae sampling and found that to be very easy. Looking forward to more testing next year
thanks for the ongoing research ,wish science could modify varoa to be sterile,im hovering around 20 colonies, and treating with oxalic vaporizor, i think it affects their feet,vua the sharp crystals,that form,and formic iff gasssing under caps,ive yet to try other dribbles ,or chemical strips,hoping your pheremone bait trap analyzing is successful. i mentioned earlier that dawn dishsoap seemed to release mites better than alcohol,the future is bright
Maybe work on boosting the anti viral properties of bees so if they get bit they can fight it off? How do mites know to pick out a drone cell. Does drone feces smell different?
In my humble opinion Quarantine or isolation is the best way set up a yard and leave it on its own . As far as possible fr other beekeepers 6miles or more .if possible Any brood etc to boost ,mating with drones in the neighbourhood and other bees coming in such as swarms etc are the only variable you have to deal with . If you move them you increase the likelyhood of sharing pests and diseases .
Hit the thumbs up for us everyone! We love our subscribers and we love our visitors! We want to keep making content for you - so the help is deeply appreciated!😎😎😎
I’ve been following a wide range of excellent beekeepers from the northern hemisphere for many years and your presentation has really confirmed what I’ve read and learnt about early detection and early treatments especially drone removal and there are a number of different methods of doing it but it can be done with due diligence from the beekeeper.
Awesome again, thanks so much Dr. Lamas.
Thanks for watching @kathygill8281 we hope you keep supporting our channel!
Another Great Video, Speaker and Content!!! Thank You Dr. Lamas , James and SBGMI Keep up the Awesome Work for 🐝& Beekeepers everywhere! 🐝❤🌻👍
Dr. Lamas - I read your article concluding that worker bee cannibalism of DWV-infected drone brood coupled with trophallaxis can enable spread of DWV to non-infected workers. My question: If I am using green frames as a mite trap, after freezing the frame with capped drone brood, and returning the frame to the hive to be "cleaned up" by the bees, am I also going to see the canniballizing workers infected -- or does freezing the frame also kill the viruses in the uncapped brood on the frame?
In your eg 1 in 10 of your colonies is loaded with mites. Would you be treat all your colonies in that apiary as a result of your findings in 1 colony. Currently this is required in Australia atm. We are learning from you here.
Most US beekeepers follow a protocol that if one colony is "sick" with infestation levels above an established threshold, typically 3% or more... then they will treat the whole apiary.
This is a prescription for large scale operation. In smaller scale, you have time and ability to monitor each hive - the SBGMI recommends you treat each colony as an individual and select the ones that are identified as better through that monitoring process.
If I had chickens, drone cone removal would be more fun. Thanks Dr. Zac, thanks James, great information.
Of course. That's what we are here for!
I used OA in late fall and Early spring. I was worried because of mild winter and they had brood earlier. So I culled some drone comb and went through it and found no mites. I'll do alcohol wash when they build up more. I also manage in summer. Counts were low on mites. But I check drone brood. I got push back from groups on Facebook about going through them. I do have pictures if you want them. I value your opinion.
Im wondering if you could come up with an alternative sampling that compares to alcohol washing worker bees. Eg: 6 mites on drones is the equivalent of x number of mites in an alcohol wash. Im asking as a queen breeder who would prefer to sample drone brood (its in all of my colonies) rather than alcohol wash. This would be an earlier indicator from what Im understanding from this presentation which would give us a heads up to treat earlier potentially.
These are great questions for sure. Like an alcohol wash - there will be variance in the factors (brood/drone brood/colony size) - that will determine equity in the sampling methods.
I wonder if early sampling from worker washes can be so variable that might no be even worthwhile. Spring sampling of drones could give us a huge head start in evaluating colonies. Jamie Walters looked at drones AFTER an alcohol wash and found many still attached to them. I did drone larvae sampling and found that to be very easy. Looking forward to more testing next year
@@nkapiariesjeffbeezos796 thanks for the feedback!
@@nkapiariesjeffbeezos796 dawn dishsoap has shown a better mite release than alcohol
thanks for the ongoing research ,wish science could modify varoa to be sterile,im hovering around 20 colonies, and treating with oxalic vaporizor, i think it affects their feet,vua the sharp crystals,that form,and formic iff gasssing under caps,ive yet to try other dribbles ,or chemical strips,hoping your pheremone bait trap analyzing is successful. i mentioned earlier that dawn dishsoap seemed to release mites better than alcohol,the future is bright
The dawn dish soap recipe is very cheap and extremely EFFECTIVE!
Look up Green Light BioScience work on their RNA mite treatment. They're working on exactly that idea (making mites non reproductive)
Maybe work on boosting the anti viral properties of bees so if they get bit they can fight it off? How do mites know to pick out a drone cell. Does drone feces smell different?
Honestly if we stopped migratory beekeeping, would that curve varroa mite?
That is a GIANT question with GIANT implications! The movement of Varroa via package, migration, or nucleus colony is a problem in all of it's facets.
I agree, but look at what we had to do and go through with covid..... Is it that different with livestock virus's?
That and other bad habits spread disese rapidly
ie leaving equipment out for the bees to clean or rob
No expert, but I would suspect individual viruses may or may not act the same. @@BobsBeeCompanyofSoCo
In my humble opinion Quarantine or isolation is the best way set up a yard and leave it on its own . As far as possible fr other beekeepers 6miles or more .if possible
Any brood etc to boost ,mating with drones in the neighbourhood and other bees coming in such as swarms etc are the only variable you have to deal with .
If you move them you increase the likelyhood of sharing pests and diseases .