Mites Again- And A Warm Year
I removed the vented tops- as they have a space where some of the hives are building burr comb, and some of those have brood in them already- so I scraped the comb out and put on standard inner covers until I revise the tops.
Unfortunately, in the brood I had to pull off, there were plenty of mites- a surprising number-and a concern. Here are some images of a typical selection. Most brood had over two mites. I treated some hives early last year as well, and I'll need to treat this year too. It amazes me that after the winter there are this many mites ready to go.
Part of the reason- might be the warmer, milder winter we've had. I wasn't sure that this was actually the case (I always think this)- so I downloaded the CSV data for last year and this year from January 1 and charted the data in Excel for temperature maximum, minimums, and medians. Below is last year in blues, and reds for 2015. The horizontal green line is 50 degrees- which is the minimum that the MAQS mite treatment will work at. And it clearly shows (the left is January, right is up to today) that it's been a very warm year.
Unfortunately, in the brood I had to pull off, there were plenty of mites- a surprising number-and a concern. Here are some images of a typical selection. Most brood had over two mites. I treated some hives early last year as well, and I'll need to treat this year too. It amazes me that after the winter there are this many mites ready to go.
Part of the reason- might be the warmer, milder winter we've had. I wasn't sure that this was actually the case (I always think this)- so I downloaded the CSV data for last year and this year from January 1 and charted the data in Excel for temperature maximum, minimums, and medians. Below is last year in blues, and reds for 2015. The horizontal green line is 50 degrees- which is the minimum that the MAQS mite treatment will work at. And it clearly shows (the left is January, right is up to today) that it's been a very warm year.
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