Our Backyard Bee Journey!💗🐝

[Sally PB]

Regarding testing for mites... Are you planning to do a sugar shake or alcohol wash?

Hubby was all for doing sugar shakes, with the idea that it wouldn't kill 300 bees. But at our last bee club meeting, it seems that *most* of the bees in a sugar shake still die, and it's a less accurate way to check for mites. So hubby is reluctantly agreeing to doing an alcohol wash for our next mite test.

 

[drstratton]

Regarding testing for mites... Are you planning to do a sugar shake or alcohol wash?

Hubby was all for doing sugar shakes, with the idea that it wouldn't kill 300 bees. But at our last bee club meeting, it seems that *most* of the bees in a sugar shake still die, and it's a less accurate way to check for mites. So hubby is reluctantly agreeing to doing an alcohol wash for our next mite test.

We're doing the alcohol wash. For all of the reasons you stated. More accurate and they will die with the sugar shake too. Only it will basically be a slow sort of suffocation, instead of pretty much instant with alcohol. I don't really like the idea of killing 300 bees per hive, but it will help us to know how to treat, so that we can save thousands.

 

[GunnyBun]

Before reading this article I had no idea bees could even get mites! I guess no creature can avoid parasites. It’s sad that you will have to kill some of the bees but I understand it is for the better of the colony!

 

[drstratton]

Before reading this article I had no idea bees could even get mites! I guess no creature can avoid parasites. It’s sad that you will have to kill some of the bees but I understand it is for the better of the colony!

Yes it is very very sad. The mites are from Asia and are slowly spreading around the world. There are some areas in Australia that are still mite free, but I'm afraid, not for much longer.
I want to go the natural route, but to do that means killing drones. There is really no way too completely eradicate them. Some bees are kind of mite resistant, meaning they are good at cleaning them out of their hives. And from what I understand, but there are a lot of opinions out there, going the natural route helps the bees to become even more hygienic than they already are. Bees keep their hives very clean. When the mite resistant bees sense mites in the cells, they will actually open the cell and remove the infected larvae. So even they kill their own to save the many.

 

[Sally PB]

It seems like bees are individuals but they are a collective organism too, ie, the hive.

 

[drstratton]

It seems like bees are individuals but they are a collective organism too, ie, the hive.

100%! Their goal is for the hive to survive. They die when they defend the hive, they replace the queen if she starts to fail, they kill any with deformities and the drones only serve one purpose, to mate with a queen and die in the process. They are kicked out of the hive when resources become to low. It is a brutal, but efficient society. They are the most amazing and resourceful creatures, I've ever studied.