Open mesh hive floors (From Smallholder)

Open mesh hive floors

7:10am Monday 21st November 2011 in Bees

It is approaching December and the bees are well tucked up for winter. Although the apiary looks a quiet place with nothing much happening, there is in fact something very important going on behind the scenes.

Actually, it would be more correct to say that it is taking place underneath the hives.

It is mite monitoring time. But it is the collecting trays beneath the open mesh floors that are doing most of the work for me. The trays have been catching hive debris for a couple of weeks now. The debris may look like rubbish to most people but it contains valuable information for me.

I am interested to know how many dead varroa mites there are on each tray because from that number I can calculate how many live mites there are likely to be in each of my honey bee colonies. That will help me to decide whether or not I need to apply an extra anti-mite treatment this month.

For the full article and images see the December edition of Smallholder.