Bee Biosecurity �“Breaking the Bees Brood Cycle”�

James Templeman

MBAi Biosecurity &

Education Officer

Beekeeper since 2010

After arriving a swarm of bees to an empty box, I fell in love with the amazing and wonderful world of bees, I began my beekeeping journey, learning from books, YouTube videos and other commercial beekeepers in Chile. Went from one swarm to 250 beehives.

The biggest challenge of every season/year was always “Varroa Mite” !!!

Certificate III in Beekeeping

MBAi Biosecurity and

Education Officer since 2023

MBAi Apiary Officer 2020/2022

Bee Biosecurity Surveillance Officer DPI NSW 2022/2023

“Breaking Varroa Mite Life Cycle”

Synthetic / Organics

When you can see mites on the back of the Bees, this is just a tip of the iceberg, as the Varroa population will be in big numbers in the brood cells under the wax cappings

Varroa Controller

Formic Pro (Organic Acid) PERMIT NUMBER – PER95344

• Active ingredient: Formic Acid

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• Dose for full hive: 2 pads per brood chamber

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• Temperature: Only treat when ambient daytime temperatures are between 10°C and 29.5°C

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• Treatment time: 7 days.

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• Honey Supers On: YES

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• Withholding period: Only harvest honey after 2 weeks from the end of treatment.

IPM (Integrated Pest Management) for Varroa Mite Control��Brood Break (Cultural Management)�

A brood break in beekeeping is a period where the queen bee is prevented from laying eggs, creating a period without brood (newly hatched bees).

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This is a strategy used by beekeepers to disrupt the life cycle of the Varroa mite, a parasite that reproduces in capped brood cells. By interrupting brood production, beekeepers can reduce the mite population.

Why a brood break?�

Varroa Mite Control:

Varroa mites primarily reproduce within capped brood cells (cells where the larvae are sealed up and developing).

A brood break eliminates these breeding grounds, exposing mites to treatments and reducing their ability to reproduce.

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Integrated Pest Management (IPM):

Brood breaks are a component of IPM, which aims to manage pests using a variety of methods rather than relying solely on chemical treatments.

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Reduced Mite Loads:

By reducing the mite population, a brood break can help make the hive healthier and more resilient to other stressors.

How It Works

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• By stopping the queen from laying eggs, there are no new brood cells for mites to infest, forcing them to remain on adult bees where they are more susceptible to being removed by the bees themselves or through other control methods.

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Achieving a brood break:

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• This can be done by physically caging the queen within the hive, allowing her to be fed and cared for by the worker bees while restricting her ability to lay eggs. 

“Finding the Queen”

“Queen Caging”

Caging the Queen:

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A common method is to cage the queen bee for a period of time, typically 3-4 weeks, preventing her from laying eggs.

Queen Caging (Queen Isolation Cage)

Other methods:

Some beekeepers also use queen excluders or other techniques to restrict the queen's access to certain areas of the hive.

Re-Queening

Requeening a beehive involves replacing an aging or underperforming queen with a new one. This is typically done by removing the old queen, introducing a new queen in a cage with a candy plug, and then waiting for the colony to accept her.

Walk Away Split

Split Hive Method:

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Another approach is to create a split by removing the queen and some brood and nurse bees to a new hive, while the original hive creates a new queen.

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How to do a walk-away bee split?

A walk away split. You take a frame of eggs, two frames of emerging brood and two frames of pollen and honey and put them in a 5 frame nuc (making sure you get the queen), put the lid on and walk away.

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Come back in four weeks and see if there is a new queen and if she is laying.

Treatment for Phoretic Mites

Api-Bioxal (Organic Acid) PERMIT NUMBER – PER94609

• Active ingredient: Oxalic Acid

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• Dose for full hive:

50ml per hive Liquid-Dribble

or

2.3grs Powder-Sublimation

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• Temperature: None

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• Treatment time: Minimum of 5 days between applications (Either method only twice per year).

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• Honey Supers On: YES

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• Withholding period: 0 days. Hive re-entry

48 hours after treatment.

Important Considerations�

Timing:

The timing of a brood break is crucial. Beekeepers often consider the natural brood break in late spring or early summer, or they might plan it around the honey flow.

Treatment:

A brood break can be combined with other treatments, such as oxalic acid vaporisation, to further reduce mite populations.

Impact on colony:

A brood break will temporarily reduce the colony size as the existing brood hatches and no new brood is produced. Beekeepers need to be prepared for this reduction in colony size and potentially reduced honey production.

Labor intensive:

Finding and caging the queen, monitoring the hive, and potentially applying treatments can be time-consuming.

Thank You !!!