Welcome The BIP Box! Our newest feature also being presented on Project Apis m. Here we will give you short updates on our BIP Tech Teams and BIP projects. We look forward to partnering with PAm to help get the word out on BIP activities. Please join us here each month to learn what we are seeing.
January found us meeting with our tech teams and holding our first BIP stakeholder meetings at both national conferences. Thank you to all that attended and participated!
We are concerned about high mite loads in some areas as well as accompanying high losses with associated risks of not meeting pollination needs. Based on 2015 data, we highly recommend that varroa monitoring be done pre and post pollination events and striving for as low as possible mite loads (zero) by May to reduce the damage done by mite growth in late summer and early fall.
Colony management is difficult, but for commercial operations, having the capability (staff) to inspect each colony at least every 10-14 days is critical if you hope to be proactive in varroa and disease control. This seems like a small thing, but success is more likely if colonies are inspected, not just opened, every 2 weeks.
