Varroa mites and the purpose of foundationless frames
Varroa mites are the worst pests affecting
honeybees in our area. In fact, most
beekeepers around
here will tell you that you can't keep hives without using chemical
treatment
for mites --- they put in chemical strips religiously every fall to
kill off the arachnids.
Of course, telling me I can't do something is like waving a red flag
in front of a bull*, so I'm bound and determined to prove my friends
wrong. If you need a more scientific reason to forego the
chemicals, you should also be aware that beekeepers are overtreating
and the mites
are developing a tolerance to the chemical.
One of the causes of our varroa mite epidemic is the foundation most
beekeepers fill their frames with. Foundation is a thin sheet of
beeswax imprinted with hexagons to show the bees where to build their
comb. The foundation does a good job of keeping the bees from
building crooked combs, but the width of the store-bought hexagons is
significantly larger than the width of hexagons bees would build by
themselves with no foundation. The larger cells give the varroa
mites lots of room to slip down into the cells with bee larvae and suck
them dry, but beekeepers put up with it because the larvae that do
survive tend to be bigger and are able to produce more honey.
I'd rather have a little less
organic honey than a little more honey which has come in contact with a
chemical. By using just a small strip of foundation at the top of
my frames, I'll be able to give the bees a hint where to build their
comb without inviting varroa mites in for a party. (Read all about
foundationless frames here.) I was also careful to get hives
with a screened bottom board so that I can monitor my mite populations
in case I need to take drastic measures.
* You do know that bulls
are color blind and respond to red flags only because of the motion,
right?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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