Flow hive in Kansas

[Dawn_SD]

@Jerry

This hive is brand new this year, middle of may when we put the 3 lbs. of bees in, is it usual to have varroa this soon?

I just posted some photos on another thread. This hive is from a package installed in mid-April this year, from a very reputable supplier. It absolutely needed treating, even after less than 5 months:

Oxalic acid vaporizer

If you are willing to use Oxalic Acid (Savogran Wood Bleach from Home Depot is about $8 and is absolutely perfect), then I suggest you do it now. We treated a couple of days ago, and this is a photo of the accelerated mite drop. Basically a nightmare! [IMG_2933] Here is a close-up: [IMG_2935] We will keep treating every 5 days, until we see less than 25 mites on the slider.

If we hadn’t treated, it would have been a disaster. It still might be…