ETHER ROLL

[COLVIN]

I DID AN ETHER ROLL YESTERDAY AND THIS IS THE  RESULTS.
I GOT ABOUT 100 BEES IN A JAR ( 1ST. TIME I HAVE DONE THIS, ALL BEES DIED :( )AND GAVE THEM A 1 -2 SECOND  BLAST. SHOOK HARD AND ROLLED. I COUNTED ABOUT 15 MITES IN  JAR (ON SIDES OF JAR.)

I HAVE ORDERED DRONE FOUNDATION BUT CAN'T GET IT UNTIL MARCH 23 (SHIP DATE TO ME).
THOUGHT I WOULD TRY FINSKY'S WAY OF MOVING DRONE COMB OUT UNTIL I FINISHED THE PROCESS.

DOES THIS MITE COUNT SEEM HIGH?

COLVIN

[Michael Bush]

It is significant enough I would be planning what to do.  BTW a sugar shake won't kill the bees.  :)  Just do it like you did with the ether except put a tablespoon or so of sugar in, and shake.  Then dump the sugar out on a piece of paper and shake it out on the paper to see the mites.

You can put powdered sugar on the top bars and knock it down between the frames or shake it on with an old baby powder dispenser filled with powdered sugar.

If you're using comb drawn from worker foundation and there is little drone comb in the hive, a full empty frame in the brood nest will usually result in all drone comb, especially if it's the season to rear drones (which it isn't quite here yet).

[Jack Parr]

I DID AN ETHER ROLL YESTERDAY AND THIS IS THE  RESULTS.
I GOT ABOUT 100 BEES IN A JAR ( 1ST. TIME I HAVE DONE THIS, ALL BEES DIED :( )AND GAVE THEM A 1 -2 SECOND  BLAST. SHOOK HARD AND ROLLED. I COUNTED ABOUT 15 MITES IN  JAR (ON SIDES OF JAR.)

I HAVE ORDERED DRONE FOUNDATION BUT CAN'T GET IT UNTIL MARCH 23 (SHIP DATE TO ME).
THOUGHT I WOULD TRY FINSKY'S WAY OF MOVING DRONE COMB OUT UNTIL I FINISHED THE PROCESS.

DOES THIS MITE COUNT SEEM HIGH?

COLVIN

Aren't you near Rossman Apiaries in Moultre GA? www.gabees.com I think.  

The Finsky idea is a good one using one medium frame in the brood box equipped woth deep frames IMO. Or cutting out half of the deep frame foundation. Let the bees build their drone cells in one area.

I did purchase some Pierco frames for drone brood but it seems like a complete deep frame is maybe more than needed?

As I recall from my recent digging around ( last week ) in my hive boxes there was quite a lot of drone cells scattered around but not quite equivelent to a complete deep frame.

I broke open almost all the drone cells I found and there were many mites within. 4-5 in one cell :!:  in some of them. I was doing a Sucrocide treatment at the time also.

[Finsky]

there was quite a lot of drone cells scattered around but not quite equivelent to a complete deep frame.

When bees have open gaps in the middle of frames they like to make drone combs and they have no need to scatter drones here and there.

[COLVIN]

OK, I ORDERED THE SMALL CELL FOUNDATION. DO I JUST CHANGE OUT LITTLE BY LITTLE UNTIL ALL IS WELL?  ALSO WHAT IS BWT SUGAR?

COLVIN

[Finsky]

OK, I ORDERED THE SMALL CELL FOUNDATION.

http://www.algonet.se/~beeman/research/cell.htm

[Jay]

BTW a sugar shake won't kill the bees.  :)  Just do it like you did with the ether except put a tablespoon or so of sugar in, and shake.  Then dump the sugar out on a piece of paper and shake it out on the paper to see the mites.

BTW= By the way, it's not a kind of sugar. BTW you can just use confectioners sugar. :D

[Dale]

15 mites is a bit high.  I do not like to see more than 6 mites per 1 cup of bees, and thats about 300 bees.  I also use the sugar roll method.  It accomplishes the same thing without killing the bees.