Honey Bee World

Thanks for the link and the data set.
I am doing the 5 day interval now, weather permitting. Rain/snow mix here today and only +2C.
Should be good for Saturday.

OK, did the full course of OAV treatments. 5 treatments, 5 days apart, 21 day interval.
My last counts on the drop boards were after 48 hours:
1: 187 mites
2: 20 mites
3: 8 mites
4: 6 mite
Nuc: 0 mites
So my worst hive, # 1, had 187 mites drop and my 'estimate', very conservatively, is a hive population of 40,000 bees. 3 high 10 frame deeps, call it 20 seams of 2000 bees each.
187 mites (phoretic) from 40,000 bees is an infestation rate of 0.47%. That is half the economic treatment threshold if I'm not mistaken. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
This hive also still has the most brood of the 5 hives.
All other hives are conservatively estimated at 20 thousand bees. I suspect in reality, 30, 000 bees.
Using 20,000 bees, infestation rates are 0.1%, 0.04%, 0.03% and 0% for the nuc.
I think I'm good going in to Winter.
Using Randy Oliver's Colony Demography chart (Manitoba Bees), I will do a final 'One-shot' OAV treatment on all hives around October 24th when they should be at minimum capped brood. If we get a +5C day, of course.
Best regards,
Brian

187 in 48 hours immediately after treatment is not too bad at all. What would be interesting, now, is the natural drop taken over three days beginning a week after the last treatment.

OK, Allen. Just cleaned off the drop boards and will count over next 3 days. Last treatment was Oct.4th,, more than a week, so should give natural drop. Good idea.
Best regards,
Brian

'Natural mite drops' for 4 hives. Counts done daily for past 3 days.
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Total Daily Average
Hive 1 12 12 11 35 11.7
Hive 2 7 8 4 19 6.3
Hive 3 0 0 1 1 0.3
Hive 4 4 4 2 10 3.3

Very limited debris on the drop boards of #2,3,and 4. Yesterday during the warmth before the howling wind storm all hives were seeing lots of pollen coming in. Grey, yellow, and brown; can't even guess where they are finding that. Definitely no nectar.
Seems like decent numbers to me.
Best regards,
Brian
53N, 115W, El.850M

I see my 'table' got compressed. Oops. It looked ok before I sent it.
Brian

Yes. That happens. Drives me crazy when I try to post one. I think we can figure it out, though.

3 days later...so 3 day natural drop...
Hive 1 - 14 mites 4.7/ day
Hive 2 - 4 mites 1.3 / day
Hive 3- 3 mites 1 / day
Hive 4 - 4 mites 1.3/ day

October 24 looks like a good day to do one last OAV, supposed to be +17C Randy Oliver's Colony Demography chart shows that to be a point of minimal brood, matching my own observations of 3 days ago.
Will keep you all posted. Be still, oh beating heart! LOL
Best regards,
Brian