Sugar shake

[cindi2]

On Sunday last, I performed the sugar shake on my 10 colonies.  After about an hour I removed the newspaper that I had put underneath to catch most of the sugar.  Then put in the sticky boards.  I removed those about 30 hours afterwards.  The mite levels were pretty low in my opinion.  I tallied the amount of mites and this is what I found:
Nuc 4 (1)
Nuc 3 (12)
Nuc 2 (14)
Nuc 1 (6)

Package 4 (4)
Package 3 (4)
Package 2 (2)
Package 1 (zero)

Old overwintered colony (2)
Nuc made 2 weeks ago (zero)

I will do the shake again in 10 days, just to keep on total top of things.  
By the way, I think that I have the issue with the gateway timeout resolved.  We'll see how it goes.  I can't post pictures yet because I have a new user account, but I think that will not take too long.  Have a wonderful day, great life, and best of health.  Cindi

[super dave]

does  the mite  count increase the closer you get to fall ?-- i have been wondering this -- does any one know

[Brian D. Bray]

Mite increase is a direct result of bee population increase.  since the mites need bee larvae to reproduce the more brood that is produced means more mites are produced.  As the mite population grows they are able to reproduce in increasing percentages to the bee brood increase.
That means that as the summer progresses the amount of mites in a hive also increases.  This is why a sugar shake should be done at least during the slack time between flows and another series of 3-4 shakes in the fall to greatly decrease the mite load.  A large mite load in the fall when the bees are dying off means a higher percentage of mites remain on the remaining bees.  The more mites the less bees will survive the winter.  2nd or 3rd winter with a heavy mite load and you loose the hive.