OK, think on this.....
After twenty two years as a bee keeper I sold all my stuff to a friend who in her late 60’s took up the pursuit. I spoke with her last evening at the DBHS class of 60 Seventy Five Year old Birthday bash. (we’re all 75 this year.
But I digress.....
Someone began to research the modern beekeeping practices that follow that developed years ago by A. I. Root. He developed the modern hive body that includes a brood chamber and supers for honey collection. He developed starter comb, a wax sheet rolled with the hexagonal cell imprint. The bees draw out that precise rolled pattern into the comb used for brood rearing or for storage.
It turns out Root slightly oversized the pattern dimensions.I’m not sure why but my friend told me root wanted to produce larger bees and a bigger cell allowed larger larvae.
Any way, the researcher studied wild comb and established new, smaller wax cell dimensions. A bee keeper can now buy the starter sheets with the smaller imprinted pattern. We are talking very small dimensional change here.
Bottom line, she has no mite problem with the smaller, theoretical natural instinctively cell size. Not only did the colonies cease dying, but the honey production per colony increased dramatically.
So, as beekeepers switch to the smaller wax cell pattern, the mite problem is apparently going to disappear.
That’s great news.
Another plague not mentioned here is the Small Hive Beetle. It is about the size of a Lady Bug and makes life for the bees in the hive very miserable. It is likely the cause for a lot of mysterious absconding, especially in the late summer or fall. The Small Hive Beetle comes from sub-Sahara Africa, normally would be expected to die from freezing temperatures. It apparently overwinters as an adult in the cluster or less likely as a larva in the comb kept warm by the cluster. The mature larva leaves the hive an pupates in the soil away from the hive.
The Small Hive Beetle may be responsible for the absconding behavior of the Africanized honey bee.