Bee Biosecurity Chat

I thought I'd share what I am doing about Varroa since I found it in my apiary a couple of weeks ago. My levels were just below/at the treatment threshold (3/5/6) and all three hives still seem to be thriving. This is all new to me!

As my first approach, I'm following the most comprehensive guide I found on using a Frame Isolation Cage to force a brood break and remove breeding mites from the hive: https://share.google/LVhxABGkWj7awjR7h.

This was something mentioned in the Varroa training, but with very little detail.

Step 1 was to catch the queens and place each one on a frame in a cage for two weeks. This took a while, with two of my three queens not very cooperative in being found. This means my hives are staggered by a few days.

Step 2 is to release the queen from her cage and place the caged from back into the brood box (day 14). I've done this for the first hive. I couldn't actually see the queen as I opened the cage, but it was clear that she'd been laying in there for the two weeks. Since I couldn't see her, I brushed all the bees from the frame before I put it back. I'll make sure I spot her on Step 3.

Step 3 is to remove the caged frame and freeze it for a couple of days, which will kill both the brood and any mites breeding under the caps. The guide suggests to do this on day 19, which is tomorrow for the first of my hives. That should leave close to 0 capped brood in the hive - possibly a little drone brood if she was laying any.

Step 4 would be to treat the hive with some kind of miticide so any phoretic mites (mites on adult bees) are killed. This would be done on day 23. I haven't decided whether I will do this - I'll do a mite wash and see what my numbers are. If I have very low mite counts (<2?) after the brood break I might delay treatment.

Photo of the queen isolation cage in hive #1. I was able to squeeze all 8 frames back in.

What is everyone else doing? Is anyone else trying queen isolation caging?