The powdered sugar roll involves taking a sample of 400 (half a cup) or so of bees, and shaking them in a jar with two to three spoons of fine powdered sugar. After shaking the bees, the sugar is shaken through a sieve to remove the bees and then the collected sugar is spread out on a sheet of paper to allow the counting of mites. Divide the number of mites by 4 to get mites per 100 bees. Put the bees back in the hive, and remove the sugar.