TRIALS UNDER PROTOCOL

First experiment from January to October 2005

Place: Toulouse (southwest of France; 100 km from the Pyrenees).

Number of colonies: ten on tubes boards and ten on mesh boards.

Bees: Buckfast

Last anti-Varroa treatment: August 2004

Brood surface in May: +25% with tubes boards

Mean honey harvest in spring : no honey flow

Varroa mite falls: +30% with tubes boards

Infestation rates in Sept. 2005:

Tubes boards: from 1.1% to 8%, 5.5% on average

Mesh boards: from 5.4% to 20.1%, 8.9% on average

Download the : "Toulouse trial report"

Second experiment from January 2006 to June 2007

Place: Vesoul (east of France, less than 100 km from Switzerland)

Number of colonies: ten on tubes boards and ten on mesh boards.

Bees: black bees

Last anti-Varroa treatment: APIVAR from September to December 2005

Brood surface in April: +93% with tubes boards

Mean honey harvest in spring: 29 kg with tubes boards; 14 kg with mesh boards.

Varroa mite falls: equal between January and August;

3 times higher on tubes boards from September till January.

Nearly 5 times higher after replacing a mesh board with a tubes board.

Less than half after replacing of a tubes board with a mesh board.

Infestation rates in Aug. 2006: tubes boards : from 1.51% to 6,54%, 4.42% on average

Mesh boards : from 1.69% to 11.62%, 6.13% on average.

Download the : "Vesoul trial report"