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  • Varroa in my new nuc

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #3521  by ccarman
 12 Jun 2019, 16:12
Hi, Newbie here! So I picked up a 6 frame nuc last Thursday 6/6 and had to let it sit until Saturday 8/6 as the weather was bad before installing the bees in the hive. I put an inspection board under the nuc box and then the hive and in 6 days there are around 75 varroa and have I found bees flung out with DWV. Obviously I am not happy that the supplier has given me a colony in this state. What do I do? I did ring him on the second day to let him know about the high count but he was not concerned and said they would be ok until September and treat then. I was so excited and looking forward to starting my adventure into bee keeping but this has really dampened my spirit.
 #3527  by NigelP
 12 Jun 2019, 21:23
Firstly name and shame the seller...he is doing you a disservice and assuming you being new to the game will not know better.
You obviously do. Some of the bigger bee and queen suppliers try to do the same thing.
Get some Apivar strips as soon as you can and stick one in between the frames. In about 6 week you will have a very low varroa count.
 #3531  by ccarman
 12 Jun 2019, 21:42
When collecting supplier told me he had done 70 nucs so hope all are not in the same state mine is. This is just spreading disease unnecessarily down to bad husbandry. I spoke to my local seasonal bee inspector today and as I won't be collecting any honey this year he recommended Apiguard so have ordered some online. They seem to be a strong colony so hopefully they will fight these little blighters off and head strong into the Winter. Thanks for any advice given.
 #3532  by NigelP
 12 Jun 2019, 23:01
Hope the apiguard works for you...not had a lot of success with it myself in the past; which is why I recommended a treatment that is 100% guaranteed to work.
The problems with apiguard is some bees ignore it and don't distribute it around the hive, some take exception and dump it outside hive before it has any effect. Sometimes (like now) the ambient temperatures are on the low side for the thymol to work effectively.
One thing worth doing is monitoring the mite fall during the treatment to see if it is working.

Also are you sure they are "chucking out" bees with DWV...this is quite unusual behaviour...you usually find several inside the hive when it gets bad. Usually it's Chronic bee paralysis (CBV) virus when they chuck bees out...pile at foot of stand all shiny and feeble.

Good luck and hope all works out well.
 #3538  by Jim Norfolk
 13 Jun 2019, 08:48
I agree with Nigel :o , Apiguard can give variable results but it generally works and if you are monitoring it is easy enough to see if it is working or not and come up with another strategy. In this case since the bee inspector has advised using it then I would go with it. The only problem I can foresee is that if you do use it then any honey stored will have a thymol taste. This is only a problem if you were to sell any and any such honey is best left for the bees. If you are using Apiguard on a nuc, then the dose should be halved, hopefully the bee inspector also advised this. Also it is worth opening up the ventillation in very hot weather should we see any :lol: or partially folding down the lid on the Apiguard to slow the rate of release.

On the subject of DWV bees being ejected Nigel, I have seen them from time to time in some colonies and even have photos of them. They are mostly drones who bear the brunt of the varroa infestation.
 #3542  by AdamD
 13 Jun 2019, 11:56
With a high varroa count in June, I would not want to wait until September. The only time I would wait is if I had honey that was about to come off. To not treat until September is daft in my view.
In fact many beekeepers treat too late in the year. With the treatment taking a month and then 3 more weeks before bees emerge after treatment, September is not the time. I do recall reading somewhere that it takes a couple of brood cycles for the colony to rid itself of the viruses associated with varroa - that is AFTER the varroa have gone. So if you have a heavy infestation and treat in September, the colony is shutting down brooding in October/November in any case and those bees could have viruses that will remain in the colony all winter.
Generally apiguard or apilife var (both thymol based) work well. Occasionally, as has been mentioned, they don't. However treating now means that you have the time to get the colony 'clean' before it's too late. We'll be interested to learn of the mite fall when you do treat.
 #3546  by ccarman
 13 Jun 2019, 13:49
NigelP wrote:
12 Jun 2019, 23:01
Hope the apiguard works for you...not had a lot of success with it myself in the past; which is why I recommended a treatment that is 100% guaranteed to work.
The problems with apiguard is some bees ignore it and don't distribute it around the hive, some take exception and dump it outside hive before it has any effect. Sometimes (like now) the ambient temperatures are on the low side for the thymol to work effectively.
One thing worth doing is monitoring the mite fall during the treatment to see if it is working.

Also are you sure they are "chucking out" bees with DWV...this is quite unusual behaviour...you usually find several inside the hive when it gets bad. Usually it's Chronic bee paralysis (CBV) virus when they chuck bees out...pile at foot of stand all shiny and feeble.

Good luck and hope all works out well.
Thanks for the advice.
I'm going to wait until the weekend when weather warms up to apply the Apiguard and I will continue to mite count during the treatment period. I know I'm new to bee keeping but have done and still doing lots of research, so may be incorrect. My hive is on decking so can see bodies and dying bees everyday. Some have wrinkled deformed wings and are runtish with fat abdomens (so guessing DWV) and now I have found some with k wings(guessing acarine)!!
Please advise what you would do treatment wise and I hope there isn't CBV in there aswel!
 #3547  by ccarman
 13 Jun 2019, 13:50
NigelP wrote:
12 Jun 2019, 23:01
Hope the apiguard works for you...not had a lot of success with it myself in the past; which is why I recommended a treatment that is 100% guaranteed to work.
The problems with apiguard is some bees ignore it and don't distribute it around the hive, some take exception and dump it outside hive before it has any effect. Sometimes (like now) the ambient temperatures are on the low side for the thymol to work effectively.
One thing worth doing is monitoring the mite fall during the treatment to see if it is working.

Also are you sure they are "chucking out" bees with DWV...this is quite unusual behaviour...you usually find several inside the hive when it gets bad. Usually it's Chronic bee paralysis (CBV) virus when they chuck bees out...pile at foot of stand all shiny and feeble.

Good luck and hope all works out well.
[Thanks for the advice.
I'm going to wait until the weekend when weather warms up to apply the Apiguard and I will continue to mite count during the treatment period. I know I'm new to bee keeping but have done and still doing lots of research, so may be incorrect. My hive is on decking so can see bodies and dying bees everyday. Some have wrinkled deformed wings and are runtish with fat abdomens (so guessing DWV) and now I have found some with k wings(guessing acarine)!!
Please advise what you would do treatment wise and I hope there isn't CBV in there aswel!
]
Last edited by ccarman on 13 Jun 2019, 14:53, edited 2 times in total.
 #3548  by ccarman
 13 Jun 2019, 13:53
Thanks for the advice guys and girls!!
I'm going to wait until the weekend when weather warms up to apply the Apiguard and I will continue to mite count during the treatment period. I know I'm new to bee keeping but have done and still doing lots of research, so may be incorrect. My hive is on decking so can see bodies and dying bees everyday. Some have wrinkled deformed wings and are runtish with fat abdomens (so guessing DWV) and now I have found some with k wings(guessing acarine)!!
Please advise what you would do treatment wise and I hope there isn't CBV in there aswel!
I'm not intending to harvest or hope for any honey this year, I just want to ensure they fight off all these issues and enter as a strong colony into the Winter.
I will keep you all updated, thanks for your concern xx
 #3551  by NigelP
 13 Jun 2019, 14:06
Jim Norfolk wrote:
13 Jun 2019, 08:48

On the subject of DWV bees being ejected Nigel, I have seen them from time to time in some colonies and even have photos of them. They are mostly drones who bear the brunt of the varroa infestation.
One lives and learns, not something i have come across. I've seen the piles of bees ejected from CBPV infected hives.... fortunately in other peoples ...