The weather is still overcast and damp with a cold wind, no bees flying. If this weather continues we will not be able to get any cars onto the field for the opening of the Apiary next Sunday.
The varroa boards were removed in order to take the “Spring” varroa drop count. Armed with a magnifying glass we scanned each board and then as a double check scraped the detritis into a jar, added Methylated Spirit stirred and counted the varroa that floated to the surface. Dividing the varroa count by the number of days the boards were in place (9 days) gave us the daily drop count, at this time of year it should ideally be less than 2. Hives 5 and 7 gave a count of less than 1 and Hive 2 a count of 3.
Fera recommend we consider employ drone brood removal for low infestations so we will need to set this up for Hive 2 when we carry out our Spring inspection.
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- varroa count with meths
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- varroa float to top
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