Varroa mites in low temperature

[Vicken]

Varroa mites get more aggressive in October and November, I read in a website that bees emerge from cells at 18 days in summer and 21-24days in cold periods, could this 24 day be a reason for the second deutonymph to get matured thus doubling amount of laying female varroa

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[BeeMaster2]

I have never heard workers taking 18 to 24 days to hatch. Where did you see that. Normally the hive bees keep the brood at a constant 95 degrees.
Smaller bees, on small cell or natural cell will hatch out a day or 2 earlier and this definitely limits the number of mites that make it out of the cell.
Mites evolved to breed off of drone cells that have a 24 day cycle.
Jim

[AR Beekeeper]

Temperature does have an effect on brood development, the colder the longer to development.  Bees control the brood area temperature as long as there are sufficient adults to cover the brood.  If there are not enough adults some areas are colder than others.

There is a natural range of brood emergence, even in controlled temperatures.  Worker brood in controlled temperatures in the laboratory have a range of 19.1 to 24.1 days with an average of 20.1 days.  Different strains of bees have different emergence times.  I have doubts that small cell size has an effect on emergence, I never saw that during the 3 years when I had small cell colonies.

[Michael Bush]

I've never heard anyone suggest that before... maybe.  That Varroa reproduce better in a cooler environment is known.  Your proposal could be the mechanism.  I don't know.

>I have doubts that small cell size has an effect on emergence, I never saw that during the 3 years when I had small cell colonies.

Did you attempt to measure it?  I did.

[Vicken]

I heard that on a BBC documentary if you don't believe it, could be fault info

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[AR Beekeeper]

M. Bush;  No, I did not measure it, I was just observing the stage of larval development in comb put in the brood nest for the queens to fill to use to make varroa free splits.  The colonies were on stands in pairs, one standard 5.2 and one 4.9 mm cells.  I would put in the center of the brood area in each colony a drawn comb, seven days later I would remove it and use it to make nucs.  The larval stage would be the same, as far as I was able to see.


What method did you use, an observation hive?

[Michael Bush]

>What method did you use, an observation hive?

I used a dry erase marker to mark the cell where the queen just laid with a letter or number and make an associated note to correlate the cell with the date/time etc. and updated the notes as it was capped or emerged.