One of the most critical aspects of maintaining healthy colonies is the control of Varroa mite levels. If you are a regular reader of these blogs, this will not be surprising to you. Visual inspection after applying a treatment may indicate a high mite drop but this may not be sufficient to determine if Varroa levels have been reduced to a satisfactory degree. One of the ways that BIP Tech Transfer Teams work with beekeepers is to quantify Varroa levels in order to determine the efficacy of a treatment and decide if further intervention is necessary. This level of vigilance can and should be part of every beekeepers’ management plan. The Tech Teams perform timely sampling and provide real-time, data-driven, decision power to improve colony health and these data help inform the data we share with the beekeeping community at our research site. PLEASE take a minute and donate now to our efforts. We want to help make you the best beekeeper you can be.
