Most people treat for Varroa in Spring and Fall. In my climate, we are in high summer. I treated my hive before the usual nectar flow. I just treated again yesterday with OAV. This is a sobering photo of the core flute slider 24 hours after treating. All mites in the photo were dead (not moving), but the point is, never assume everything is OK, just because you don’t see mites on the bees (I don’t, and I do sugar roll counts, but I want to be clear). Please don’t get complacent, your colony is counting on your counts and actions.
Ugh, that is an awful sight Dawn! Good they’re dead and off the bees, but now we know how much stress they’ve been under with all those things sucking the life out of them. Not to mention disease they’ve managed to transmit.
You can do it very early morning, as you suggest. I actually prefer to do it in the evening, but then I am not a morning person. Usually by close to sunset, most bees have stopped flying, and so I set up everything a bit before that, then once everything looks quiet, I go ahead.
