Boarding School

You'd think as a teacher with all those holidays we have, it would be a real pain to go into school during the holidays to check up on the hives. That's what I thought, too. But I thought that's the price I pay for having them on site where I can access them everyday, rather than having them at home,where I'd only see the bees at the weekend.
As it turns out, I had to go into school today (and will be there tomorrow, too), as I still have some marking I didn't finish in the chaos of the end-of-term rush. I also need to do some admin, order stationery &c.
But this is meant to be about the bees.

Being in school, I thought I'd use the opportunity to put in the varroa boards so that when I go to the hives again on Saturday (or Sunday) for an inspection, I can do a varroa count. For this purpose, the boards are painted white so it's easier to see the mites on them. Hope that's true....

The varroa board half in, with the one for the second hive propped in waiting

Varroa (more properly and aptly: varroa destructor) are mites that cling onto the bees and suck their blood, thereby weakening them and possibly also giving them lot of lovely diseases. They breed in the larval chambers and then attach themselves to adult bees. Every so often the mites fall off and if you have a mesh floor to the hive and a board underneath you catch the falling mites, who are helpless on the board like on a serving plate. Depending on how many there are on the board you are either ok or in deep trouble.

I have no clue whether I'm meant to be doing that now or should have done it ages ago, I just thought I'd do it. I don't have the feeling that there should be that many mites as my bees all look healthy and happy. But the count will tell.