One of the reasons I like keeping my own bees is the same reason I like growing my own vegetables: no chemicals, no pesticides, no GMO’s, nothing but natural. Well, that works pretty well for the veggies, but apparently not so well for the bees. I tried to get away without putting in Apistan this year, and, lo and behold, I started to see lots of bees crawling out the entrance to the hive with withered wings, a sure sign of Varroa mite infestation. They looked sort of like a leaf that’s had all the green part picked out, just leaving the veins behind. So sad. OK, I’m sorry little girls. I put a couple Apistan strips into each hive and things started to clear up about two weeks later. I still feel bad and hope that not too much damage was done.
When will we have varroa resistant bees colonies around here?
One does not need a varroa resistant bees colonies. There is a different way how to fight varroa as well – the thermotheraphy that kills varroa by using high temperature in the beehive.