Apiguard and winter.

[sukis-dad]

Hi

I have a small colony which, after a few problems with the queen, is doing very well with plenty of brood.
I put first Apiguard tray in my hive 23/09 and two weeks later removed it. The bees had not eaten all the Apiguard in the tray. Should it all be eaten?
The plastic sheet under the mesh floor is held up to the floor to keep the fumes in. Inspecting the plastic under the hive showed a good varroa drop.
I put in the second tray 7/10 and intend to remove it 4/11. I am still feeding sugar syrup. The girls are very active bring back lots of pollen. When should I stop feeding?
Should I keep the plastic sheet up against the floor for the winter to keep heat in or lower it to its normal position.
With a mesh floor do I need to put matchsticks under the crown board to increase ventilation?
From all the questions can you tell I am new to beekeeping?
All answers gratefully received.
Brian

 

[VEG]

Each tray only needs to be in for 2 weeks each total of 4 weeks altogether. Your treatment should finish on 21st October!! The bees dont actually eat the apiguard they just dump it out of the hive.

 

[OXFORDBEE]

That depends on the bees... Some ignore the Apiguard and poop all over it...

 

[jezd]

as above, apiguard on twice each for 2 weeks - I would not worry mind, make sure you bang oxalic acid on in late Dec

they sound like they are doing well, I am still feeding syrup and will continue until the daytime temps drop a little more

plastic sheet? take it off, matchsticks? if you have omf its hard to see why you need more ventilation

 

[Finman]

Apiguard is thymol based stuff. It needs over 15C day temp during cure.

.

 

[m100]

Apiguard is thymol based stuff. It needs over 15C day temp during cure.

.

any idea why the hive external temperature is a critical requirement?

 

[ainsie]

Hi m100,only a beginner but from my understanding apiguard to be most effective requires an active colony ie at ambient temp. above 15 deg. at 14deg and less the bees begin to form a cluster and are therefore less active.hope this helps. Ainsie.

 

[jezd]

Hi m100,only a beginner but from my understanding apiguard to be most effective requires an active colony ie at ambient temp. above 15 deg. at 14deg and less the bees begin to form a cluster and are therefore less active.hope this helps. Ainsie.

I suspect it work at slightly lower temps too, outside temp was less that 10'c for most of today and the hives did not cluster fully.

JD

 

[sukis-dad]

Hi

The instructions on the Apiguard box states "after 2 weeks replace the first tray with a new one. Leave the product in the colony until the tray is empty".
Surely to kill all the varroa it will need 6 weeks to cover all the brood cycles.

Thanks
Brian

 

[steve1958]

6 weeks is the recommended Maximum time,

Queen takes 16 days from the time the egg is laid to emerging
Worker takes 3 weeks
and the Drones 24 days.

(or so the book says)

So I guess a minimum time would be 4 weeks

 

[m100]

6 weeks is the recommended Maximum time,

Queen takes 16 days from the time the egg is laid to emerging
Worker takes 3 weeks
and the Drones 24 days.

(or so the book says)

So I guess a minimum time would be 4 weeks

That's correct but the reasoning isn't - it's not the time from egg laying that is important but the time from cell sealing as the female varroa are known to enter a cell just before they are sealed, so you need to cover the period from the time a cell is sealed to the time it emerges and can enter another cell.

For drones the cell is sealed on the 9th/10th day depending on who's book you read and emerges on the 24th day, so if a treatment with 100% efficacy is in the hive for around 14 days then that is all that is needed because efficacy is less than that you need to cover at least two drone brood cycles the period becomes 2 x 14 days.