New data about our experimental hive, which goal is to eliminate Varroa mites in the bees family.
The control
of the quantity of Varroa mites in our
experimental hive continues. The task of our experiment - is to minimize the mites population to such
an extent that it will cease to be dangerous for the bees. For the moment, it
seems to us that we succeed. As we said earlier, we do not use any preparations
for the treatment of bees ... We do not use not only chemical compounds, but
also more harmless essential oils ...
So our
regular control, carried out 6 days after the previous one, again gave the
result - 6 Varroa mites ... But we want to draw your attention, that the
composition of the showered mites has changed! If earlier we saw mostly adult
females of red-and-brown color, now we see 50% of pale red females. This means
that these are not matured females that died in brood cells. So, we can make
conclusion, that a new generation of mites came out with young bees, the
vacated cells were cleaned by young bees, and dead mites were thrown out ...
Theoretically, the mites' population should grow ... If it is true or not, we will understand
according to results of our next controls...
In any
case, the number of free-falling mites indicates a very low level of infection
of the family, and we do not see an increase in the population of mites during
one and a half month of observations. The fall remains for all this time a
little bit more, or slightly less, than one mite per day, which, according to
the formula proposed by reputable scientists, means that there is a population
of 1x30 = 30 mites in the family, 65% of which are in the brood, and 35% on
worker bees. This means, that if our family consists of both, 9 brood frames,
and an appropriate number of bees, and approaches to 30,000 units, the percent
of infestation of the family is about 1 mite per 1000 bees, or 0.1%, and has
been maintained at this level for one and a half months! !!
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