Getting ready for cold weather is a two-part project with our bees.  The first step is to make sure they have enough honey, but equally important is ensuring the bees are healthy enough to make it through the winter.  That means counting varroa mites to see if these blood-suckers will weaken our colony unduly.

I wasn't terribly concerned about varroa mites this year for a variety of reasons.  Most importantly, we started with a package this spring, which (like a hive split) naturally causes a break in varroa mite reproduction and lowers populations of this pest drastically.  We also paid extra to get bees from a source that doesn't treat chemically, meaning that the colonies which can't handle mites have been bred out.

So I wasn't surprised to find only 22 varroa mites on my stickyboard after a three day test.  There were so few mites on the board that I counted every one rather than measuring out sample regions!

If your mite counts don't turn up as stellar as ours, you should first estimate how many mites you had fall per thousand bees in the hive --- it's not as big a deal to see a lot of mites if you have a lot of bees.  Next step is to use these organic varroa mite solutions --- we've used options 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9 so far.

Now I just need to sit back and watch the bees sock away honey, then leave them alone until spring.