We took samples of floorboard scrapings at the end of September to send off for analysis for bee diseases. We collected a weeks’ worth on an insert over the mesh floor.The results came back over the Christmas period - nothing to report except varroa, but then we already knew about that.
We took the samples after applying apistan, which skews the results slightly, but the count of varroa on the poly hive was 2, and on the wood hive, 23. This is not unexpected, since the wood hive had a much bigger colony and had been established for longer.
Looking at the [Graphs provided by EMBA](http://www.edinburghbeekeepers.org.uk/downloads/Kate%27s%20Integrated%20Management%20Notes.pdf “” ) we can see that this equates to a mite population of around 320 in the wooden hive. This is not an amount to be concerned about, but I will be taking floorboard scrapings again in March to see what state they are in going into the new year.
