Subject: VARROA DECIMATING IN THE YUCATAN

From: "Federico Berron A." <[email-masked]>
Date: 30 Apr 1996 15:53:22 GMT

Varroa just appeared in the Yucatan, and is causing huge damage as
beekeepers have not good support from official agencies, they are
nearly 7000 with an average of 25 colonies each.  We look to receive
articles (as American Bee Journal april and may issues 96) which we
will translate and pass to as many as we can.
Also we can receive on site help and find unexpensive accomodations.
Beekeeping is practically the main rural activity as the Yucatan is
all a hard rock.  We really cant imagine what will happen if it all
passes away.  All help will be appreciated.
Federico Berron A.
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (EStockwell)
Date: 30 Apr 1996 20:00:08 -0400

My husband and I have been keeping our hives for over 10 years now against
trachael mites and varroa mites without chemicals. We first encountered
acarapis woodi in the early 1980s and varroa mites came officially into
our area
in 1992. They say you have to treat with chemicls, but this is not true.
To fight
both does not take much money but a lot of patience and work. Basically,
cull drone brood to less than 10% of each hive, make sure your brood combs
are
the old world standard size of  I'd say for your area of 856 sq decimeter,
no bigger
than 800 sq decimeter. We just spent 10 years retrogressing our bees back
onto
the old world size brood combs to combat mites. As a side effect you will
find
that when you do so chaulk broods will drop off and so will foul brood
infestations.
We do not use TM to treat anymore. We use propolis patties. Why? 
because propolis patties are a natural anitbotic for all virul, fungal,
and bacterial
infections in the bee hive and before a queen bee can lay an egg, the
nurse bees
must first coat the inside of the brood cell with a clean layer of
propolis before she
can lay. If you use chemical treatments, in the long run you will
contaminate your
combs and honey. First the brood combs and your bees will start to die
from
chemical  contamination because propolis has a high affinity for absorbing
all
chemicals. Much more so than beeswax. This is why as beekeepers use
fulvalinate in 3-5 years they run into problems because the wax is letting
off
residues it absorbs but more importantly, the propolis has become
contaminated
causing direct contact on the eggs and  larva and more and more brood
suffers and eventually dies.
It takes 4-6 years to breed through varroa and 3-5 years to breed through
trachael
mites. With both it will take approx 6-7 years. If you use queens that are
raised
and aclamated to your area and you can get to three brood boxes, cull
drone
brood down to natural levels you should have no problem in breeding thru
the
situation. It is only when you get stupid and don't want to take the
initial cut of
suceptable stock that you run into problems. On small comb with queens
raised
to match by your latitude you should bottom out with 30-40 percent of your
base
bee stocks in place. Then pot progressive, 30% splits to about 50% splits
to
75 % etc. Never make up nucs with less than one full deep box of brood
with
accompanying pollen and honey. Practice survival breeding  because if you
don't,
you will always be in a crap shoot in that if you buy someone elses bees
you 
will always have to resituate them to your area with its natural flora to
let them settle out. for more info write: Dee Lusby 3832 east Golf Links
Rd,. Tucson, Az
85713.

info from Dee Lusby
via
Ed Stockwell
EStockwell