Varroa mites = negative!

This last Friday, Steve drove Chris, David, Geetha, and me (Claire) to the hives to meet Arvin, who led us through our first check for varroa mites. (Given that - spoiler alert, if you didn't read the post title! - we didn't find any, it may also have been our last check before winter).

There are different methods, but Arvin's choice procedure involves rolling bees in powdered sugar, which I like to imagine they maybe enjoy, or at least tolerate. We checked combs for queen activity, evened out aberrant sections of comb-pulling (some with honey, some with larvae - some with both!), then filled a mason jar with bees - about 1/3 full - and a tablespoon of powdered sugar. The lid has a metal grid on it but the bees were small enough to get out, so we worked quickly, rolling the bees around (looked like we were coating them in flour) and then shaking out the jar over a laminated, gridded white sheet of paper.

Some of the bees cleaned each other off, some rolled around trying to shake off the sugar, and a few got broken up (= dead) in the process. You can see them in the videos I've uploaded here, where Geetha and Chris peer over the sheet looking for mites - Arvin says under ten is acceptable, in general, and thankfully we didn't see any.