July is a good time to start watching for mites in new colonies. This is a quick way to see what is going on and can give you a heads up if you need to do more in depth hive sampling. We will periodically put the trays in during the summer just to get a 24 hour mite count and give us an idea about what is going on inside the hive. This hive had a low mite number. If there had been more mites, or we wanted a more scientific number, we would have used a powdered sugar roll.
Not on a screen bottom board? Here is a link to using a powdered sugar roll to get a mite count. https://youtu.be/_1UTseN3Em8
Do you have a video on the powder sugar method with your screened bottom board? Or do I just put screen in for 24 hours and see what I get?
Thank you,
Robin
We show it in a couple videos, I’ll have to look up which ones. We just put the solid tray in the bottom board, spreadd 1 cup powdered sugar per hive body on the top box and let it trickle down, then see what drops in 24 hours! Pretty simple!
I have two hives. One hive the bottom brood box is close to 90%. Top brood box is probably 60%. The second hive bottom brood box is probably full and the top brood box is probably about 90% full.
I am still feeding them.
Okay, for some reasoni thought I was supposed to treat in June or July and then August with different treatment. I will watch for that video. Thanks
I would love to see videos on how to use the pesticides for mites etc that you recommend throughout the summer/fall. Iam going to do the powdered sugar but that is all I will have done so far.I know they should be treated in the summer and in the fall. Help ?
We will start treating the end of August (that is why our fall beekeeping class is the last weekend in August) so we will be shooting videos on that in the next couple of weeks! Powdered sugar and having an idea of mite load is great at this point in the season!