Spent about an hour sitting right at the entrance of my hive watching the girls kicking out about 4 drones, but also looking for mites. Would it be odd not to see any on the foragers? I have not yet built a screened bottom board to check for mites but thought I might see at least one bee with a mite.
I have seen a few here and there on my bottom boards so I know I have them, but have yet to see them on my girls during a hive inspection... So I am doubtful you would see them on foragers zooming in and out the hive.... Just my opinion...
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Perhaps you may notice mites on emerging bees, If you brake drone brood, and you see several mites, things are in bad condition. If you do not see any, hives still may have 300 mites in autumn.
I looked one of my strong hive. There were no mites on workers bees but drone pupae had hundreds.Every drone pupa produce 10 mites. After a week I will make a false swarm ans gasifý the mites, and late from brood. Otherwise hive is dead in August. I did not treat hive last autumn.
You start seeing mites consistently on your foragers....you've got some really BIG mite issues. Don't worry, your bees have mites. It's just about the load amount, and you're never really going to know accurately until you start to do samples and counts.
As Finski and Nature says, uncap some drones if you want to see your mites. They'll be there.