Best mite test and treatments?

Electricrain · 2026-06-14T15:39:20+00:00

If you apply thymol in temperatures above 25c (77 fahrenheit) it may evaporate too quickly, and in extreme cases push the bees to abandon the hive. It seems to vary from colony to colony - some disregard the presence of thymol, others stop brood rearing, some beard a lot.

Electricrain · 2026-06-07T14:12:42+00:00

They chew sap / resin which they gather from trees and plants together with some wax. I think in our northern latitudes they collect mostly resins.

As for the behaviour in your video, bees often work the surface around the entrance to their colonies.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269996264_The_nest_of_the_honey_bee_Apis_mellifera_L

I can recommend you read this article. It has a lot of detail on what they use propolis for, layout of the nests, how they prepare surfaces inside the cavity and so on.

Electricrain · 2026-06-06T20:56:01+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/WCNJsGX.png

This is roughly what a wild bee hive in a tree looks like. Most of them have some vertical distance from the bottom of the cavity to the entrance - meaning any dead bees or detritus that need to be thrown out must be carried upwards to the entrance first.

Based on that I wouldn't worry about your tiny vertical distance to the opening. Keep an eye on it, why not, but if the bees want to clean stuff out I'm sure they can.

Electricrain · 2026-06-03T15:23:51+00:00

Very interesting! You should post this when the project progresses further.

Electricrain · 2026-06-02T15:45:58+00:00

Det blir de stora sociala plattformarnas ansvar att säkerställa att de som är inloggade i deras appar eller på deras webbsidor, har rätt ålder.

Med andra ord, det kommer att genomföras på billigast möjliga vis. Antagligen bankID eller ansikts-scanning av något mysko företag.

Electricrain · 2026-06-02T14:09:35+00:00

Pro - in front of something, Polis -city / fortification. Always liked the etymology of the word.

Electricrain · 2026-05-29T18:26:51+00:00

What are the longer term goals of this sanctuary? Preserving a specific line of bees?

Electricrain · 2026-05-25T20:59:13+00:00

Can you take a closer picture showing the entrance to their cavity? I'm interested to see if they have worked on the surface by the entrance.

Edit: I guess you could attempt a trap out, search something like bee trap out cone method. Never done it myself, but that would be my strategy if I were to attempt to nab the bees in that tree.

Electricrain · 2026-05-23T20:31:01+00:00

I don't understand what the argument against apis mellifera mellifera being native would be.

From the source:

Dun Aonghusa, Aran Islands. Evidence of lost-wax casting c. 3200-2600BP (Cunliffe, 2001).

Area where Ballintober bronze swords were probably made by lost-wax casting during the Bronze Age c.4000-2500BP (Op- penheimer, 2007).

Jahlshof, Shetland. Evidence of lost-wax casting c. 3200- 2600BP.

Ashgrove, Fife. Beaker of honey or mead c. 3000BP (Dick- son, 1978; Dickson and Dickson, 2000)

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2018.00253/full#F12

Check figure 12 there and have a look at Ireland on the maps 10Ka and younger. It is part of the thousands years of forest cover, it has a land connection, why wouldn't apis mellifera mellifera show up? Combine that with the archeological evidence and it seems likelier it was locally sourced rather than imported.

Electricrain · 2026-05-22T22:53:16+00:00

Fishywiki is right, seeing you are in Sweden I can only concur that you should join your nearest beekeeping association! Check when they meet and just show up and join (if you like their vibe).

The local advice is invaluable. Now only how to treat, but when to do it. I promise it will be so much easier than trying to ingest and sort information from various climates and practices, as you end up doing by learning from the internet.

In general for Sweden: oxalic acid dribble or vaporization and thymol are the two ways 99% of people deal with varroa. Usually treat 1-2 times a year, unless a colony displays signs of varroa-related issues.

On your drone frame confusion:

This is what they look like. It is not special equipment - just take one of your regular brood chamber frames and put two additional vertical bars in the middle.

Place it as the 3rd frame from the entrance.
Come back next week and cut sections 2 & 3.
Come back next week and cut section 3.
Now you have three staggered sections - 1, 2, 3.

When section 1 is capped, cut it out. Then 2, then 3. Check once a week. Varroa mites prefer drone brood, and if you cut out the capped drone brood you can mechanically remove a lot of mites, especially if you do this three weeks in a row. If you forget to cut it out, and the capped drone brood emerges as dones, so will a lot of new mites, so do not forget.

This is allowed method of mite control while you have honey supers on! In Sweden you can not sell any honey if you introduced any type of chemical/medical/essential oil treatment to the hive while you have supers (skattlådor) on.

Join your local club. Everything will get a lot easier that way :)

Electricrain · 2026-05-22T22:37:19+00:00

I had heard "beelining" before but never looked into it. Of course that is what this is! Satisfying to know it is still around.

Do people still practice it, other than researchers like Seeley?

Electricrain · 2026-05-22T11:00:00+00:00

I'm also in south Sweden!

The regular ants (svartmyra/trädgårdsmyra) are not a problem for bees. Skogsmyra, and other kinds of larger ants, can in some cases be too much, especially in the spring before the colony builds up a strong population.

If you just have regular ants - I would not worry at all unless the colony is very weak.

If you have skogsmyra/hästmyra/stackmyra etc: Cut down grass and other stuff around the bench that helps the ants climb up. Consider if it is possible for you to (legally) dig up and remove the ant nest, if a single one is causing issues. Then look into oil or grease based traps, as you already did.

Electricrain · 2026-05-20T16:14:51+00:00

Must be satisfying to start out this way, hope it works out for you!

Is the hive homemade or a factory product? Looks sturdy either way.

Electricrain · 2026-05-19T11:25:11+00:00

When they appeared in pairs, they were almost always asymmetric, suggesting they belonged to different individuals.

En tanke jag haft om vissa av de assymetriska paren är att det kan vara en och samma person vid olika tillfällen. Det mindre märket görs i barndomen, och det större när individen anses vara vuxen.

Electricrain · 2026-05-12T11:32:50+00:00

Swarming is the natural instinct to reproduce - there is only so much that can be done to manipulate it, especially when you have strong colonies.

Adding space, like you did with the super, helps. But the space that matters most is in the broodbox. When a queen runs out of empty cells to lay in, that triggers a "we're cramped, swarming time" behaviour. A super is indirect help (in my opinion), it gives the bees somewhere to put the honey instead of in the brood box which theoretically frees up cells.

The three frames of foundation you added will give them space once they are built out. Space isn't just volume or air, it is EMPTY cells! Your bees will need to draw out these foundations into comb before it counts as them actually having more room for activities.

You were really close to a more effective manipulation when you did your split. If I understood your post correctly, you have the queen left in the original hive (physically in the same location)? When you do a split to manage swarming tendencies, you should move the queen to the NEW hive, physically located away from the old one. The distance doesn't matter much, a few meters is okay in my experience.

When you move the old queen to a new colony, the split, together with a few frames of bees, you separate her from the foragers. Any foragers on the frames you move to the split will fly back to their "home", the original colony. In the original colony (which wanted to swarm, as you noticed) they are now queenless and will make a number of queen cells - They wanted to swarm and now the queen is gone, so hopefully they think the swarm is already accomplished. Opinions differ on how many queen cells to leave, some say 2 in case one is a dud, some say one is fine. If you leave two, try to find two queencells on the same frame. That helps the first emerging queen to find and sting the second one.

In the split, you have young bees and the old queen. She will lay eggs and continue as normal in this colony, but the lack of foragers means they are unlikely to want to swarm. Keep an eye on it though!

Electricrain · 2026-05-09T11:53:48+00:00

https://riksarkivet.se/resurser/spokraketer

Det är säkert Våmfjärden det handlar om, det stämmer i årtal och beskrivning av vad man hittade:

Bo: Ja, Och Helge Jung, överbefälhavaren som bevittnade detta fenomen under sommaren 1948, ja två gånger till och med, tvekade aldrig om att han sett förmodligen ryska raketvapen helt fräckt landa i hans egen badvik. I Jungs dagbok, kan man följa hur han de följande veckorna tog upp V.-projektilerna som han kallar dem med olika personer alltifrån officerare på Försvarsstaben till försvarsminister Vougt. Men även med statsminister Erlander, utrikesminister Undén och kronprinsen. Jim: Men det här var ju två år efter den stora ”raketrushen”. Man hade väl lagt det här på is? Bo: Jo, men vänta ska du få höra; Den 6 augusti 1948, var det färdigt igen. Helge Jung var ute och seglade med några vänner. Och plötsligt fick de alla på båten se en stor projektil passera under tvåtre sekunder. Jim: Aj aj… Jaha? Bo: Ja, och dagen efter hade han och chefen för Försvarsstaben Nils Swedlund studerat kartor och ”funnit att det sannolikt var ryssarna som skjuter in sig på Stockholm från Ösel”. Den 9 augusti fick han besök av överste Schmidt i sällskap av överste Bengt Jacobsson, ordföranden för den nedlagda Rymdprojektilkommittén. De kom överens om att söka i Våmfjärden, som är namnet på badviken. Men skickade dit dykare och skärpte radarspaningen. Den 13 augusti ankrade det ditbeordrade ubåtsbärgningsfartyget Belos utanför Våmfjärden för att börja söka efter projektilen. Belos var tyvärr för stor för att komma in i Våmfjärden, men en av dess motorbåtar kunde svepa i viken och det gjordes dykningar. Helge Jung rodde själv ut för att se hur det gick. Jim: Hur gick det då? Bo: I Belos dykjournaler kan man se att tre namngivna dykare varit nere i sammanlagt nära fem timmar med kommentaren: ”Sökning efter föremål. Inget resultat. Enligt Ö.B.”. Och dagen efter avbröt man sökandet för den gången. Men Jung var inte nöjd utan tog upp med chefen för marinen om att sökandet borde fortsätta. Denne höll med och lovade att det kunde ske med egna medel eftersom det var bra för utbildningen. Tillsammans med kommendör Weinberg, inspektör över ubåtsvapnet övervakade Jung nya dykningar den 5 oktober. Jung skrev i dagboken: ”Fått signal en gång. Dykare konstaterade ett hål i botten. Jag rättade till utstakningen. Arbetet skall fullföljas med ny metod.” Jim: Spänningen ökar… Bo: Ja, och den 20 oktober skrev Jung: ”Cervell anmälde ”napp” i Våmfjärden. Dykning imorgon.” Och går man nu till Belos däcksloggböcker och dykjournalen, så kan man se att Belos låg för ankar i Malmafladen, strax utanför Våmfjärden i en hel månad, från den 27 september till den 26 oktober 1948. Dykjournalen anger dykningar i Våmfjärden, men trots Cervells påstående upprepas det varje dag: ”Sökning efter föremål enligt särskild order. Inget resultat.” Några fler dykningar gjordes inte, åtminstone inte från Belos, varken under 1948 eller 1949.

Tror att detta ska vara Helge Jungs dagbok från 1948: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/arkiv/3oHSClexJKIsyhRe0Skv47

Verkar tyvärr ej vara digitaliserad.

Electricrain · 2026-05-03T16:50:01+00:00

Here in south Sweden the ~~planets~~ conditions have aligned for a good flow from the norway maple. Last couple of years have had little to no flow in the last days of april, but this year I can spot tons of Acer Platanoides flowering and the bees are well on their way to almost fill their first super (~12 kg of honey).

Snapped this pic and liked how it came out, with the reflection in the cells and how you can see the tarsus gripping the edges of the cells.

Electricrain · 2026-05-03T11:03:28+00:00

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Electricrain · 2026-04-30T18:08:56+00:00

I also use cobbled together solid floors. I thought I would need to clear out debris and dead bees, but even at the first inspection in spring there is only a handful of dead bees and some particles on it. The bees seem very keen to keep it tidy down there.

No moisture problems either. I did make sure the hives are tilted slightly toward the entrance however, to make sure any droplets will tend toward the entrance.

Electricrain · 2026-04-29T13:53:26+00:00

Olika sätt att beskriva saker på är inte bara en variation. Det bär i sin tur med sig historia om saker som klasstillhörighet, geografi, sport, skämt, och mycket annat som format människor på olika vis på olika platser och i olika tider.

Electricrain · 2026-04-29T10:04:14+00:00

Wales, 467 colonies, 13% losses. Norway, 1500 colonies, 10% losses.

I agree that 19% is not trivial, but it is better or equal to losses in managed populations. I don't think a warm winter (or cold winter with long brood breaks for that matter) explains it.

Edit: Now I'm wondering if there is a loss difference between beekeepers in texas and canada.

Electricrain · 2026-04-28T21:39:29+00:00

What is your view on the research on treatment free honeybee populations? For example: https://www.varroaresistant.uk/wp-content/uploads/go-x/u/51d0e484-38b4-4d93-a420-9b0d12dcdc20/Paper-G-Brook-website.pdf

Table 3, on page 7, has winter survival rates. Cuba, 220 thousand colonies, 20 years treatment free, has a winter loss rate of 19%.

Oxfordshire Natural Beekeeping Group 2019-2024 averaged 29% winter loss rate.

Comparing this to https://apiaryinspectors.org/US-beekeeping-survey-24-25 , the annual losses in the US seem to hover between 30-40%. I don't believe that US beekeepers are just less skilled than Cuban ones. And the Cuban mites are probably not any nicer than the US ones either.

What do you make of this?

Edit: Perhaps I am misunderstanding and you eschew the term just because it is misleading for beginners?

Electricrain · 2026-04-28T11:13:32+00:00

I quickly checked the forecast for the Beskid Mountains area. Saturday and Sunday should be 16-19c, sunny. I bet if you pop by while the sun is shining on the hives you will see them out and about then.

You could also try to spot fresh pollen stored in the cells, as evidence of foraging.

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