Disclaimer:

This blog explains how I keep bees. It works for me, it might not work for you. Use my methods at your own risk. Always wear protective clothing and use a smoker when working bees.

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Monday, May 22, 2017

They're Ba-ack - Mites

I was out helping a friend do some dividing and requeening. As we were looking through the colonies a mite was spotted on a bee. Looking at more and more of the bees as we were looking for the queen we saw more and more mites. We did see some mites in the drone brood as well when burr comb was broken open between boxes. The colonies were in good shape with good populations of bees.
  Over wintered colonies are building up in numbers of bees, but so is the mite population. Mite treatments on strong colonies should go on soon. If the are left untreated, viruses may start showing up. Colonies with high mite counts today may not survive until August unless the mites are brought under control.
 With the nectar flow just around the corner, the mite treatment that should work well at this time is Mite Away Quick Strips (MAQS), the active ingredient is Formic Acid. It is a seven day mite treatment. So the mite treatment will be done before the nectar flow hits. Mite Away Quick Strips can be on during a nectar flow.
 Package bee colonies new this year can have one MAQS srip on the hive around mid June.
Here is the YouTube video about  MAQS: