Having put the board in on Monday as the forecast was cooler weather we waited 5 days to see the outcome.
The board had been painted white to aid seeing the mites. Vaseline was applied to the edges and from the front to back to form 4 oblong areas prior to putting the board in the base of the hive.
After 5 days the board was removed and this is a picture of what was found
Clearly, there are mites in the hive and we must treat to ensure they don’t become a threat to the colony. As this is a health colony we are taking advice on the treatment we use because we wish to minimize the disruption to the hive and the brood. More information about Varroa can be found here: http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageid=93
We have decided to use a Thymol based product in the hive and will be adding this to the top of the brood box mid-week. We will need to either add an empty superframe or an eke to give some height above the brood box.
According to Dave Cushman’s Excellent site http://www.dave-cushman.net/ an eke box is derived from the saying to eke out which for many beekeepers is how they are able to maintain their hobby.
On Dave’s site, there is a plan and instructions for building an eke which is well thought out with respect to the sizing and how the resulting eke can be used in multiples to make a super or brood box. Very clever.
However, we had some spare lengths of timber all the same thickness and width so used those. The box was made using screws and glue and although nothing fancy is square and will do the job.
Incidentally, Dave’s site is a mine of information on beekeeping amongst other hobbies and interests he had. Sadly no longer with us, his site is still updated by a beekeeping friend.