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Varroa treatment
Sep. 7th, 2009 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doodlemaierIt always seems to happen that when I attempt an inspection directly before leaving for an extended weekend trip, usually to visit on Helen's side, I go adorned with my girls' "blessings". I dipped out of work early to try and make it out of Dodge by 4pm, which was about the time I got into FR. As expected, my order from Betterbee had arrived and was waiting for me, but I would have to hurry.
The same pint jar that I had employed for the shake test would prove to suffice for the treatment, as well. I suited up and read the instructions in the Apiguard, fired up the smoker and started into the hive. I used the same method of dangling a shallow super above a pair of strategically placed cinder blocks as a staging area to transfer individual frames from the brood boxes to that they would be light enough to move. This proved to be not as essential in the case of the lower brood box which is significantly lighter for lack of stored honey reserves. I had to tear the hives all the way down to the bottom board so as to clean and inspect that and install my very first piece of homemade equipment, a screened bottomboard that was fashioned completely out of stuff lying around. Let's hope it functions as well as it fits!
But, it was about this time that I realized that my smoker had gone completely out. I could feel the first of what would be many bees climbing into the open, "bottomless" pockets in my white cover-all "beejamas" (whose ever idea that was totally earns an ass-kicking from what is, otherwise, one of the best fitting online purchases I've ever made). So I started dusting each of the brood frames before carefully fitting them back into the boxes, not looking for the queen specifically after having located a scattering of egg-laden cells in the upper brood deep. After a few frames I felt the first sting under my left arm and I tried maintaining composure for the sake and safety of the bees still on frames not yet replaced in the box. I dusted each frame from above, tilting it slightly so as to protect open cells and exposing the areas on the frames that contained the largest concentration of bees. This sort of attention to detail was extremely short-lived after my underwear started lighting up with bee stings.
From there the remaining frames were dusted quickly and liberally in their staging area and slapped back into their respective brood boxes (and hopefully into the original orientations and order), the upper brood box treated entirely in the same fashion and the clot of bees at the top of the lower brood nest were bulldozed out of the way as best and as gently as was possible before the obstinate ones were crushed between the two supers. After the fact I decided I ought to apply a tin of Apiguard in lieu of a more thorough sugar dusting and peeled the foil cover off like pulling the pin on a hand grenade and tossing it top-up and center-ish on the top bars between the reassembled brood boxes and closing it all back up. Fuck 'em!
Fuck 'em to death if need be. I did what I could to get the hive together again as fast as possible and with a bare minimum of casualties and escaped, myself, with a dozen individual stings that I could count distributed over either hip and half way up the left side of my ribs, and later pulled no less than a ½ dozen stingers out of my underwear. The one thing I wish I had done differently with my homemade screened bottom board is used finer mesh as the ¼" hardware cloth allows the bees access to the catch tray (ungreased) and took the time to reverse the original bottom board so that I could extract the tray from the back of the hive. I'll probably have to use it the way it is throughout the remainder of this season and replace the mesh this winter. I am unable to take accurate counts of the mite drop any way because I'm not there often enough. At this point I only hope they make it through the winter.
The same pint jar that I had employed for the shake test would prove to suffice for the treatment, as well. I suited up and read the instructions in the Apiguard, fired up the smoker and started into the hive. I used the same method of dangling a shallow super above a pair of strategically placed cinder blocks as a staging area to transfer individual frames from the brood boxes to that they would be light enough to move. This proved to be not as essential in the case of the lower brood box which is significantly lighter for lack of stored honey reserves. I had to tear the hives all the way down to the bottom board so as to clean and inspect that and install my very first piece of homemade equipment, a screened bottomboard that was fashioned completely out of stuff lying around. Let's hope it functions as well as it fits!
But, it was about this time that I realized that my smoker had gone completely out. I could feel the first of what would be many bees climbing into the open, "bottomless" pockets in my white cover-all "beejamas" (whose ever idea that was totally earns an ass-kicking from what is, otherwise, one of the best fitting online purchases I've ever made). So I started dusting each of the brood frames before carefully fitting them back into the boxes, not looking for the queen specifically after having located a scattering of egg-laden cells in the upper brood deep. After a few frames I felt the first sting under my left arm and I tried maintaining composure for the sake and safety of the bees still on frames not yet replaced in the box. I dusted each frame from above, tilting it slightly so as to protect open cells and exposing the areas on the frames that contained the largest concentration of bees. This sort of attention to detail was extremely short-lived after my underwear started lighting up with bee stings.
From there the remaining frames were dusted quickly and liberally in their staging area and slapped back into their respective brood boxes (and hopefully into the original orientations and order), the upper brood box treated entirely in the same fashion and the clot of bees at the top of the lower brood nest were bulldozed out of the way as best and as gently as was possible before the obstinate ones were crushed between the two supers. After the fact I decided I ought to apply a tin of Apiguard in lieu of a more thorough sugar dusting and peeled the foil cover off like pulling the pin on a hand grenade and tossing it top-up and center-ish on the top bars between the reassembled brood boxes and closing it all back up. Fuck 'em!
Fuck 'em to death if need be. I did what I could to get the hive together again as fast as possible and with a bare minimum of casualties and escaped, myself, with a dozen individual stings that I could count distributed over either hip and half way up the left side of my ribs, and later pulled no less than a ½ dozen stingers out of my underwear. The one thing I wish I had done differently with my homemade screened bottom board is used finer mesh as the ¼" hardware cloth allows the bees access to the catch tray (ungreased) and took the time to reverse the original bottom board so that I could extract the tray from the back of the hive. I'll probably have to use it the way it is throughout the remainder of this season and replace the mesh this winter. I am unable to take accurate counts of the mite drop any way because I'm not there often enough. At this point I only hope they make it through the winter.
