Apilife var - bees out of hive

[honeylover]

First year of treating with apilife var. Put on one strip for each brood box in a double brood broken into 4 pieces in corners on top of brood box. I've read that bees may 'beard' on front of hive and mine are. Apilife was put on yesterday afternoon, checked yesterday evening and bees over front of hive. Now weather is awful here, pelting rain, breezy and cooler at 16 degrees and on checking this morning, bees are still out clustered on front of hive.

Should I just leave them to get on with it, be patient and they'll go back in or do I need to do something, take apilife off? I just worry that it can't be good for them to be out on the front of the hive in this weather.
Thanks for any help.

 

[madasafish]

Happens quite often just leave it . They'll eventually go in.

I gave up on Apilife Var for that very reason.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I used Apilife for two years running.
I used to get a little bearding on the first day.
Last year the queen in my strongest hive stopped laying permanently and the colony dwindled away over winter.
I'm using Hivemaker's recipe this year and making my own and maybe MAQS next year.

 

[Tom Bick]

First year of treating with apilife var. Put on one strip for each brood box in a double brood broken into 4 pieces in corners on top of brood box. I've read that bees may 'beard' on front of hive and mine are. Apilife was put on yesterday afternoon, checked yesterday evening and bees over front of hive. Now weather is awful here, pelting rain, breezy and cooler at 16 degrees and on checking this morning, bees are still out clustered on front of hive.

Should I just leave them to get on with it, be patient and they'll go back in or do I need to do something, take apilife off? I just worry that it can't be good for them to be out on the front of the hive in this weather.
Thanks for any help.

Dont know what part of the country you are at but it just may be a bit early and a bit to warm right now.

 

[PaulCarroll]

Tom,

I am going on holiday on the 4th September and intend to treat my hive the day before I leave, would you consider that too early or possibly too late, given I live in the South East, I calculated the timing was about right?

 

[honeylover]

In York, temp 16 today and predicted to be min 12 overnight and max 21 daytime over the next week. Thought this would be ok. Thoughts? Have I jumped the gun?

 

[Tom Bick]

I don’t know what apilife var recommend but I understand for thymol based products if my memory serves me right the day temp should be over 15* so the bees are active and to give a nice even evaporation into the hive.

Paul I am also in the South East but like to start my treatments mid August but will decide on the weather but I think that should be ok, this gives me a better time to apply more treatments if I think necessary.

Honeylover perhaps a bit early but you have started now and other people in the past have mentioned the strong reaction with the bees to apilife var in the first few days so it may reduce as the initial shock to the bees reduces. Other people may recommend removing it or you could remove a few pieces for now just to reduce the impact. The bees are probably well on the way to removing it anyway providing they can see it with their eyes all running, bless them it’s for their own good or at least that’s what I tell my bees.

One point is the thymol products can cause the queens to stop laying s so don’t be surprised to see a lack of eggs and brood during treatment.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Tom,

I am going on holiday on the 4th September and intend to treat my hive the day before I leave, would you consider that too early or possibly too late, given I live in the South East, I calculated the timing was about right?

the London SBI advises to treat Mid August to the end of August in london becasue the main london flow is over

we tend to treat from the 3rd week of august to the august B/H weekend , this means that at the end of the treatment the bees are still active in the hive as daytime temp is above 14/15c and they are not starting to think about clustering

The Queen will be starting to make your Winter Bees soon, they need to be as Varroa free as possible so the virus load is low

 

[PaulCarroll]

Thank you guys, helpful, I may bring forward the treatment by a week or so based on your comments. - Appreciated.

 

[Arfermo]

the London SBI advises to treat Mid August to the end of August in london becasue the main london flow is over

we tend to treat from the 3rd week of august to the august B/H weekend , this means that at the end of the treatment the bees are still active in the hive as daytime temp is above 14/15c and they are not starting to think about clustering

The Queen will be starting to make your Winter Bees soon, they need to be as Varroa free as possible so the virus load is low

Fully agree - too early just yet. Last week in Aug early enough for Thymol based products. MAQS is a different matter they say but not much practical experience on it by anybody just yet as it's very new.

 

[honeylover]

Thanks for the replies. Just been to check again and bees still over front of hive but probably less than before and remain very calm. There also don't seem to be lots of bee corpses around so thinking their night camping out doesn't seem to have caused carnage yet. Have decided to leave the apilife var on, cross my fingers and keep an eye on them over the coming days. It's nervewracking being a beekeeper!

 

[MuswellMetro]

Fully agree - too early just yet. Last week in Aug early enough for Thymol based products. MAQS is a different matter they say but not much practical experience on it by anybody just yet as it's very new.

yep agree about MAQS, i will lets the forum members test it first and see how many can kill their bees by not applying it correctly LOL