Unfortunately, Toby's hive (which I didn't send to WSU) was showing signs of an exploding mite population: mites visible on adult bees when I inspected the hive and even some bees with deformed wings. The queen even stopped laying. Signs of trouble! So I went ahead and started a treatment with Formic acid. I checked it again today and did a "sugar shake" to measure the mite load. Here's how it goes:
I put a piece of screen in the lid of a mason jar.
Opened up the hive...
Stuck about 3/4 cup of bees in the jar with some powdered sugar.
And then you shake the sugar and mites out onto a paper plate.
Hmmm. It turned out to be 2.4 mites per 100 bees. So lower that it was before most likely. I think this seems to work a little better than the sticky board.
