Diagnosis of diseases

Twelve and a half euros to stop treating blind. Proportionally, it is the purchase that improves the most decisions in the whole apiary.

The varroa count

The EasyCheck (€17.99) and the 3-in-1 Varroa Tester (€12.50) do the same thing: separate the mites from a sample of about 300 bees so you can count. With alcohol, with icing sugar or with CO₂ (€16.95 for the gun), which has the advantage of not killing the sample — the bees go back to the hive.

That number is what tells you whether to treat and, repeated afterwards, whether the treatment worked. A treatment with no follow-up count is not finished: you may be writing off a resistance failure as solved.

Foulbrood: reading the result properly

The field kits (€12.90-13.90) are indicative. They serve to confirm a suspicion on the spot, not to close a diagnosis or to rule anything out. A negative alongside clear symptoms is not an all-clear.

And the important part: American and European foulbrood are notifiable diseases. Faced with a positive, or with brood that smells, sunken perforated cappings or ropy larvae, the correct step is to notify the official veterinary services. You do not treat it on your own and you do not move material out of the apiary.

The rest of the health front is in bee health; authorised treatments in varroa medicines.