Apiguard

[czar1960]

Morning all. The other week i read on here about taking off the supers when applying Apiguard. I have never done it before and was never told about it by bee club members when i started. I have left supers on for the past 5 years and there has never seemed to be a problem. Am i doing wrong by leaving the supers on?

 

[VEG]

The instructions that come with it say not to use when supers are on.

 

[Chris58]

We are about to use Apivar for the first time, do we take the super off? It's mainly there as hive is full of buzzy bees and we're feeding them syrup.
If we have to take super off, we understand we break the tablet into 4 and place it at each corner on top of the brood box, but do we take off queen excluder and the feeder?

 

[enrico]

There seems to be some confusion here! You can leave the supers on BUT I would never use the honey in them for human consumption. The ONLY supers I would leave on would be those being used for winter feed and even then I would mark them to make sure I did't extract honey left in there over winter next spring!!!! I just don't fancy poor honey when I could have the real stuff without the Thymol!
You can feed while treating but once again I would try and work it so that you treat and then feed. The best way with Apilife is to break the tablet (There are 2 in each packet) into four and put a piece NEAR each corner. Leave enough room to put a crown board on over the top that has a bee space underneath it. Replace every week for four weeks. Don't be surprised if your bees eat the tablets or push them sown through the hive and out of the entrance! Try and close the hive up as much as possible. I leave the varoa board in place and use a reduced hive entrance.
So If you have supers on for winter feed no problem. If you have them o for your food then take them off with bee escapes. You can always add them again later after treatment but once they smell of that stuff YUC!
Hope this helps
E

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

We are about to use Apivar for the first time, do we take the super off? It's mainly there as hive is full of buzzy bees and we're feeding them syrup.
If we have to take super off, we understand we break the tablet into 4 and place it at each corner on top of the brood box, but do we take off queen excluder and the feeder?

Apivar or Apilife Var?

 

[Ruary]

Apivar or Apilife Var?

Or even ApiGUARD which is what the question was originally about.

Ruary

 

[Appinpiper]

My normally placid bees don't half get annoyed when I put in the Apiguard.

 

[victor meldrew]

Or even ApiGUARD which is what the question was originally about.

Ruary

Maybe but apilifevar is approved rather than apivar , worth a mention it would seem?
VM

 

[MandF]

I think it is worth pointing out that apiguard will taint any honey in those supers, so make sure that honey is used for the bees (if necessary bruise it and put it above the crown board at some point).

After they have removed the honey, the wax/comb will initially smell of thymol but this will evaporate off over time, and should be gone by next spring when you might need to add them again (for your own honey).

I have left some supers on whilst treating, but these will all be removed for overwintering, and I am marking them just so I know to use them after my others which were off - so that the ones which smell of thymol will get a little extra time to evaporate off.

So, to recap - make sure any honey in whatever supers on at the moment is fed or taken down by the bees, empty comb should be fine to re-use as you see fit next season.

That is how I understand it.

 

[drstitson]

aside from tainting honey ALL thymol treatments work best in the minimum space possible (ie brood plus eke max.).