I don’t like doing an autopsy without first-hand observations, but your video shows good detail. The frames would not be as clean as yours are in your video and there would have been five times as many dead bees as you saw. They would be mushy-wet and covered with mold. You are correct that moisture is a leading cause of winter loss, but with moisture, the bees would have been moldy inside their cells and stuck between the frames, not lying on the bottom boards. Two months after you treated with Api Life Var, the varroa population exploded and (BOOM!) you now have dead hives. I think you may have had only about 50% mite kill. You might need four or five consecutive treatments which include some broodless periods. It’s less effective in a long-season climate like yours and especially ineffective when there is lots of brood in the hives. Under ideal conditions, Api Life Var may sometimes kill 95% of the mites, but you must have no brood in the hives. This is especially true if the bees have sealed brood (your hives had a lot of sealed brood) because the chemicals don’t reach the mites inside the sealed brood where mites hide and reproduce. I appreciate your intent to use an organic method, but the ingredients – thymol, eucalyptus oil, menthol and camphor – are only partly able to reduce mites. I noticed ( in an earlier video) that you used Api Life Var, which is an organic treatment for “the suppression of mites”. Not exactly what occurred in your hives, but similar. They used to call this colony collapse disorder. You had strong populations which dropped suddenly. I think that your bees have died from varroa mites and the viruses which mites carry. I am also associated with the local university’s ecology department.įirst, allow me to express my admiration for your enthusiasm and your attitude towards the world around you and also my condolences for the loss of your bees. I have been a beekeeper for 50 years – as a commercial operator and also as a teacher, leader or workshops, author of beekeeping books and journal articles. He asked me to write to you about your beekeeping disaster. My 15-year-old son, Daniel, is a huge fan of your work. Taras and I will appreciate your thoughts. Feel free to add your own comments below. Please watch his short video before continuing to read my blog post. Taras, a North Carolina beekeeper, suspects moisture killed his bees. Well, this winter, the Crazy Russian Hacker discovered that six of his seven hives – which were strong and healthy in September – are now dead. He makes a heck of a lot of mistakes ( “BOOM!”), but his love for his bees and his incredible enthusiasm are endearing. The young man has a staggering 10 million followers and his videos have amassed over two billion views. Stuff like the taste of military rations, how chainsaw guards work, dry-ice lollipops, exploding giant gummi bears (filmed in slo-mo) – all the while narrating in a thick Russian accent. A few years ago, he began making fun videos about things that interest him. My son is a fan of a YouTube sensation who calls himself the “Crazy Russian Hacker.” Taras Kulakov came to America from the Ukraine as a child refugee.
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