Today was mite testing day. Here’s how it worked:
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find a frame ideally with almost capped brood
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alternatively one from brood chamber with “enough bees”
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shake the bees from the frame into a small tub
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pour or scoop 1/2 cup of (300) bees
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put those in alcohol or windshield washer fluid in the test jar
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swirl to kill bees and loosen mite’s grip on bees
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count mites
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strain fluid and mites and swirl bees again
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repeat until there are no mites
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count mites
I don’t have the data we collected, but the mite counts I did see looked every low. There were a couple of colonies that had low population and/or no brood. These were not tested.
There is another blog post with pictures about the process: Varroa Mite Inspection and Treatment
