I was planning on combining two of my hives soon. One of them seems perfectly healthy. The other has varroa, but I was planning on having that hive treated with oxalic acid before the combination. This hive has a failed queen and virtually no brood whatsoever (I only saw 1 cell of capped brood during my last inspection), so mites hiding in the capped brood wouldn't be an issue. But here's the thing: this hive also has deformed wing virus. I saw a bee with deformed wings, so this means the infection is probably pretty bad. I think that if I combine the infected hive and the healthy hive, the virus will spread to the healthy hive and infect it, possibly killing it later on. Are my concerns valid? Would the infection spread if I combined the two hives?
Absolutely this is a valid concern. I would be very hesitant to combine a sickly colony with a healthy one. That being said, I don't know that seeing one bee with deformed wings would be considered a severe infection in a sizable colony. How large is the sickly colony? Treating will certainly help with the problem. I typically use FormicPro, which not only kills mites, but also tends to take out weakened or sick bees. I've never used oxalic acid, does anyone know if it has a similar effect?
I would be inclined to:
1) keep them separate. Treat the sickly hive with oxalic twice a week and let it runs its course and die out. Later, use the combs of resources (no bees) to support the healthy hive. Treat the healthy hive later with oxalic.
OR
2) apply the higher dose prescription on the package for FORMIC to the sickly hive, AND the longer lower dose prescription on the package for formic on the healthy hive. Wait 1 week. I would be looking for a large mite drop and a noticeable population drop in the sick hive. After seeing those success signs, then combine whatever is left. Much later, mop up with oxalic long after the colonies have been combined, have assimilated together, and have reorganized themselves into a stable colony.
To be clear, the valid concern about combining these is not the mites .. it is the virus` that the mites propagate. Sick bees brought in to feed the healthy brood in the other hive will result in another sick hive.
Hopethat helps.
Two points.
- if in a flow condition the hive can continue to make some honey. That would be the Only reason for letting them live on.
- if going to let them live on, then must treat to prevent spread to your other colonies or your neighbours colonies from drift, shared foraging sites, or robbing.
If neither of those points land value, then just terminate (euthanize) the sick colony and move on. It is sick and it is queenless, which imho is zero in value poses tons of risk that is best eliminated.
"Wait, what is the point of treating the hive if it's gonna die out anyway?" There is always the chance that the hive will survive. Expect to see a large amount of infected brood to be discarded during the oxalic acid treatment or any other treatment as the remaining bees clear out the heavily infected brood.
I would keep the hives separate, treat the infected hive and see what happens.
Do they have a lot of food? Open nectar and pollen? Also capped honey?
If the colony thinks there's not enough foor to raise brood, they will pull eggs. The Queen is laying, but the workers won't spend resources to raise brood. Try adding a quart jar of 1:1 upside down over where the brood nest was.
I've heard an estimate that it takes a frame of honey (2 frames of nectar) and frame of pollen to raise a frame of bees.
Quote from: Alklar20 on August 15, 2021, 04:45:27 PM
Quote from: Beeboy01 on August 15, 2021, 12:20:44 PM
"Wait, what is the point of treating the hive if it's gonna die out anyway?" There is always the chance that the hive will survive. Expect to see a large amount of infected brood to be discarded during the oxalic acid treatment or any other treatment as the remaining bees clear out the heavily infected brood.
I would keep the hives separate, treat the infected hive and see what happens.
"Expect to see a large amount of infected brood to be discarded..."
I said that the hive had "virtually no brood whatsoever" in the first post in this topic. This is due to a bad queen. I know this because during an inspection I saw the queen, but found no eggs.
Well if the hive is heavily infected with mites there is a good chance the queen has stopped laying because of stress due to the mite load. I've seen a lot of "poor queens" recover once the mite load has been removed. Good luck with the hive.