I was showing my daughter my hives yesterday and noticed several lethargic bees on the ground. A dozen if not more.
I noticed one of them had stick-like wings.
I’ve had my bees 12 days now so I assume the bees are a mix of old and new rejected bees.
Is it too soon to treat for varroa and do I need to do a mite count?
No, not too early to do a treatment - I personally recommend Vape of Oxalic Acid - 3 treatment 5 - 6 days apart - the reason for this is the sealed brood are not treated - the full brood cycle is 24 days for Drones you need to get the larvae when unsealed - that is why you need to understand the bee life cycles.
3 days egg, 6 - 7 days Larvae and 14 - 15 days as sealed.
Doing the vape over 15 -18 days covers the whole brood period for Drones and the whole hive is treated.
Wipe the correx/corflute board it can have a light smear of oil if you want.
Watch the Varroa drop over 3 weeks - wipe the board and see what the drop is 1 week after the last Vape.
That is how I do it.
Do a sugar roll to see if you have a problem first.
You shouldn’t with new bees but there’s always the chance.
Look up “sugar shake” here http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-11-mite-monitoring-methods/
If you do then you have to decide what to use.
Oxalic needs kit which you would have to buy or borrow.
MAQS may be an option as would some sort of thymol treatment. See what your fellow beekeepers use for a Spring treatment as the last two can cause the queen to temporarily stop laying but she should catch up pretty quickly…a matter of days.
Never rely on a natural mite drop on your inspection tray as an indication of degree of infestation; it is notoriously inaccurate.
Let us know how you get on
PS I’m not a fan but as an emergency measure if you have a high count there is a place for a synthetic pyrethroid.