Beekeeping Through the Eyes of a Biologist
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Contents Testing Hypothesis #2. 2 Let’s Do the Calcs! 11 Conclusions 11 Why Would Mites Prefer Drones?. 12 Acknowledgements. 12 Citations and Notes 12 Drones and Varroa Part 2 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ November 2023 In the May issue of this journal, Dr. Zac Lamas presented some findings of […]
Read MoreContents The Proposed Hypotheses 2 Monitoring of the Mite Infestation. 3 How Best to Obtain a Representative and Consistent Sample?. 3 Testing Hypothesis #1. 4 Field Observations. 5 Results. 9 The Take Home. 15 Citations and Notes 16 Drones and Varroa Part 1 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ October 2023 […]
Read MoreTips for Using the XXX cup for Monitoring Varroa TAKING THE SAMPLE Use an 18-quart dishwashing tub and a stainless-steel half cup (125 mL) measuring cup (for measuring live bees, a deep cup is more accurate than a shallow cup). Take the bee sample from a frame (or frames) adjacent to the broodnest, but not […]
Read MoreContents The Donor Colonies 1 Tagging. 1 Results and Discussion. 2 Did the Tagged Bees Behave Normally?. 2 Progress of the Colonies. 4 Answering our Questions 4 Observations from the Donor Hives. 5 Correlation With Varroa Infestation. 6 Tag Recovery by Date. 8 Timelines of Recovery of Drifted Bees 9 Relevance to Mite Immigration. 10 […]
Read MoreContents Questions to Answer 1 Materials and Methods 2 Placement of the hives 2 Preparation of the Mite Donor Colonies. 3 Tagging the bees 3 The Control Group. 7 Preparation of the Mite Receiver Hives 7 Eliminating the mites. 7 Magnetic tag recovery. 9 The stickyboards. 10 The hive scales. 10 Layout of the Donor […]
Read MoreI’ve been speaking on a daily basis with one of the two beekeepers whose operations are infested, as well as others in the industry. So far, over 1000 of their colonies have been euthanized, with many more planned to be burned. As you can imagine, this is very emotional for those beekeepers, who have also been prevented from […]
Read MoreRefining the Mite Wash: Part 3 Dislodgement, Precipitation, and Separation Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in September 2020 In my last article I showed how mites will quickly drop off the bees’ bodies if immersed in 91% alcohol. But there are still more steps remaining to separate the mites from the sample of […]
Read MoreRefining the Mite Wash : Part 4 Comparing the Release Agents Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in October 2020 As I tested different release agents for varroa monitoring, I was often surprised by the results, which then raised new questions about why some worked better than others. So I ran a number of […]
Read MoreRefining the Mite Wash- Part 2 Mite Release Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First Published in ABJ in August 2020 The high efficacy of hand dishwashing detergent at getting mites to release their grip on bees bestirred me to investigate this finding more deeply. What I’ve come to realize is that there are four steps involved between […]
Read MoreRefining the Mite Wash Part 1 Treatment Threshold and Solutions to Use Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in ABJ July 2020 Once you’ve shaken a sample of bees, you then need to separate the mites from them. There are various recommendations for using alcohol, detergent water, powdered sugar, ether, or CO2. I’ve been using inexpensive […]
Read MoreMite Drift Quantification: A Citizen Science Project Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com I’ve updated the instructions at the link below: @Citizen Science Mite Drift Instructions
Read MoreIf you prep correctly, it only takes a few minutes to determine the varroa infestation rate of a hive. Here I show how to do it in under 4 minutes. View a video that my assistant Brooke Molina shot the other day with her cell phone:
Read MoreThe Varroa Problem: Part 10 Smokin’-Hot Mite Washin’ Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com First published in ABJ September 2017 If you had asked me even a month ago as to how many of your hives to sample for varroa, I’d have suggested using Katie Lee’s plan of 8 hives per apiary [[1]] (in truth, we’ve rarely […]
Read MoreA Test of Using CO2 for Bee-Friendly Mite Monitoring First Published in ABJ April 2017 Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com Beekeepers who monitor the varroa level in their hives tend to be more successful at keeping their colonies alive and healthy. But no one likes having to sacrifice bees to take mite counts. So when I heard […]
Read MoreAn Improved, but Not Yet Perfect, Varroa Mite Washer Randy Oliver ScientificBeekeeping.com Originally published in ABJ in Oct 2013 Update 4 July 2022 for the benefit of Aussie beekeepers. The simplest version of a mite wash cup is with two 16-oz clear plastic cups and a piece of tulle fabric: We no longer use alcohol. […]
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