Bring your veils for the first Spring meeting back at Garry's workshop. Jason Morgan will be demonstrating the alcohol wash to get an accurate count of mites in your beehive. If the weather cooperates, we'll get in a hive or two and walk through the process of taking a sample of bees and testing them for mites.

Broken down to its simplest form, we want to get the number of mites per 100 bees. However, instead of just taking 100 bees (one sample,) we'll take 300 bees (three samples). A level half-cup measuring cup is approximately 300 bees. We'll show what you need, and demonstrate the proper technique of swirling and washing the bees to make your test most accurate.

Bring your veils, a notepad, and your questions, and see you there!

Selecting the best brood frame to sample at Dave Rieman's last year.

Jason explaining the mite wash at a Sat. Field Day at Dave Rieman's last year.