NZBF: Sticky board on new hive

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Stephen Horsley

Stephen Horsley

40
29
Wellsford
Experience
Beginner
After being wiped out I was notified about a swam and collected as much as I could. Placed in new box and monitored over a week. It wasn't a large swarm, about 2 frames. Could not find queen so was in doubt I caught her? So I purchased 5 brood frames with bees and a new queen. The queen was added by installing in queen box with 4-5 bees and a marshmello. I placed 4 bayvarol strips and a sticky board. Removed the sticky board after 3 days and counted 61 mites. Hard to know if the swarm was heavily infected or the new brood and bees? Dividing that by 3 gives 20 mites a day. This seems high. I am happy to treat now as I've been burned once already. Have placed another sticky board and will monitor in 3 days time.

How often do I monitor with sticky boards to obtain effectivness of treatment?
 
Alastair

Alastair

Founder Member
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10,042
Auckland
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Semi Commercial
Of course it is not possible to know which or both of your bee sources came with the mites. However the important thing is you are doing something about it, so, nice work (y).

There are no fixed rules about how often to monitor, if you want to do it every 3 days then so be it. If you are buying sticky boards that will be expensive, a much cheaper option is use a board of some kind, preferable of the material they make election banners from, cut to the right size and spray with some cooking oil to trap the mites. just scrape off and re spray each time you inspect it.

If the mites are in the brood you will not see numbers reduce much for a couple of weeks until a full cycle of capped brood has emerged. After that you will see numbers reduce, hopefully to nothing, this can take a coupe of months.

Keep us updated will be interesting to see how you go :)
 
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yesbut

yesbut

Staff member
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Nelson
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I also was "wiped out", mainly by PPBK....I too have hived a tiny after swarm, was unsure about Queen until eggs appeared on inspection 10 days later...just been out in the pouring rain to deliver them a frame feed.....I'm wondering about buying a bit of Feedbee.....good idea ? Waste of $$ ?
 
Stephen Horsley

Stephen Horsley

40
29
Wellsford
Experience
Beginner
Thanks John, will read with interest and yes am aware of the corflute/oil options.

Yesbut, sorry not familiar with this so can't comment. I was hoping to find eggs but the window to pick up some reinforcements was narrow and couldn't wait longer to see if they might appear. Was told the queen would be difficult to spot as she would have been malnourished from the swarm.
 
yesbut

yesbut

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Nelson
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Hobbyist
Stephen Horsley said:
Thanks John, will read with interest and yes am aware of the corflute/oil options.

Yesbut, sorry not familiar with this so can't comment. I was hoping to find eggs but the window to pick up some reinforcements was narrow and couldn't wait longer to see if they might appear. Was told the queen would be difficult to spot as she would have been malnourished from the swarm.
Click to expand...
Malnourished is not the word, it's "virgin"....unmated, no eggs on board, essentially just a colour difference amongst the throng, very hard to see.
 


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