Apivar clarification

[thorn]

I'm about to put apivar strips in my hives. The instructions say it should be used when the supers are not on the hives. Could someone clarify whether this means when the supers containing honey that you intend to harvest have been removed. Can you use it when you've nadired? Is the instruction given to ensure that there is not too much space, thus reducing the effect of the treatment? It surely can't be that it would contaminate the stores left for the bees, as there will always be stores in the brood frames.

 

[beeno]

I'm about to put apivar strips in my hives. The instructions say it should be used when the supers are not on the hives. Could someone clarify whether this means when the supers containing honey that you intend to harvest have been removed. Can you use it when you've nadired? Is the instruction given to ensure that there is not too much space, thus reducing the effect of the treatment? It surely can't be that it would contaminate the stores left for the bees, as there will always be stores in the brood frames.

I think it is as simple as this you are not allowed to use it with supers on as that would get the active ingredient Armitraz into the food chain whether nadired or not. However, the bees will eat the winter foodstores in the brood box and die come spring and hopefully an insignificant amount of Armitraz will be found in next year's honey.

 

[thorn]

But as all the honey in the nadired super will be consumed over the winter, that won't get into the food chain either. The cells are already drawn to the wax won't be contaminated by it.

 

[bobthecob]

Could someone clarify whether this means when the supers containing honey that you intend to harvest have been removed. Can you use it when you've nadired?

Yes, that's what it means, so in theory you can nadir. In the same way, you can use Apivar with brood-and-a-half, I guess. But you will need to be careful - if there is still honey in a couple of those super frames come spring you will need to ensure that you don't get confused and end up extracting that honey at some point during the season. You might need to mark the super frames to be safe. The safest route of course would be to take the super away, treat with Apivar, then bring the super back (and nadir it if you want), though that probably has other disadvantages.

 

[beeno]

You are not allowed to treat with supers on, so if you nadir it then it can only be used as part of brood and a half. There is always some residue in brood frames from what beekeepers treat their bees with, so lets not treat with supers on.

 

[Norton Caff]

From https://www.dadant.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/2011/09/FAQs_Apivar_US_2012.pdf

26. Has Apivar participated in residues trials, and what were the findings? Yes. The French agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety, has conducted residue trials on Apivar strips and found that:  No active ingredient residues were detected in honey after 10 weeks of treatment, regardless of the date of sampling. Others studies also proved that, in honey, the active ingredient is fully degraded after 10 days.  No active ingredient residues were detected in beeswax 24 hours after the removal of the strips from the hive. Amitraz does not accumulate in the honey and wax because of its instability in the hive’s acidic environment where it is quickly broken down by hydrolysis. Similarly, other studies concluded that residues of amitraz or its main components in honey consistently fall below maximum residue limits established by the European Medicines Agency. Source: Martel A.C. et al, Acaricide residues in honey and wax after treatment of honey bee colonies with Apivar or Asuntol 50, Apidologie (2007), 38, 2002, 534‐544 Source: R.M. Goodwin et al, Residues of amitraz in wax honey and propolis after using Apivar, 2002

From this I assume that by spring traces of amitraz will be gone.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You are not allowed to treat with supers on

Really - I'd like to see the piece of legislation that prohibits that.

 

[elainemary]

From https://www.dadant.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/2011/09/FAQs_Apivar_US_2012.pdf

26. Has Apivar participated in residues trials, and what were the findings? Yes. The French agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety, has conducted residue trials on Apivar strips and found that:  No active ingredient residues were detected in honey after 10 weeks of treatment, regardless of the date of sampling. Others studies also proved that, in honey, the active ingredient is fully degraded after 10 days.  No active ingredient residues were detected in beeswax 24 hours after the removal of the strips from the hive. Amitraz does not accumulate in the honey and wax because of its instability in the hive’s acidic environment where it is quickly broken down by hydrolysis. Similarly, other studies concluded that residues of amitraz or its main components in honey consistently fall below maximum residue limits established by the European Medicines Agency. Source: Martel A.C. et al, Acaricide residues in honey and wax after treatment of honey bee colonies with Apivar or Asuntol 50, Apidologie (2007), 38, 2002, 534‐544 Source: R.M. Goodwin et al, Residues of amitraz in wax honey and propolis after using Apivar, 2002

From this I assume that by spring traces of amitraz will be gone.

Yes I read that too. Also concluded it was fine to leave the super on with stores for the bees over winter. Tend to keep the first super for them.

 

[bobthecob]

Even if it has no effect on honey or wax (and my own view is that when using such chemicals we have a responsibility to follow the instructions), there is another reason to take a honey super off while using Apivar, I think. Doing so reduces the volume of the hive, thus making it more likely that a bee will walk over the Apivar strip, or be touched by a bee which has done so, which is required for Apivar's mite-killing mechanism to work. Of course, if you leave a super on, you could in theory offset this by using 3 strips rather than 2, but I doubt many people actually do this. So while I also like to leave a super of stores for the winter, I would take it off while using Apivar, then put it back on again, personally.

 

[Madge]

Amitraz does not leave any residues in honey or wax, but there are degradation products that probably do. Can I refer to another forum? It's just been discussed on SBAi, thread 'Apivar and wax'.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Amitraz does not leave any residues in honey or wax, but there are degradation products that probably do. Can I refer to another forum? It's just been discussed on SBAi, thread 'Apivar and wax'.

Yes. Please post a link ?

 

[Madge]

Yes. Please post a link ?

SBAi - Apivar and wax

 

[Erichalfbee]

SBAi - Apivar and wax

Thanks for that Kitta.
Nice to read fatshark again. He helped me massively when one of my colonies had CBPV
He used to post here.

 

[beeno]

Yes, thank you Madge. I know I am not a scot, but I am a celt, so can I join the SBAi forum since my computer does not seem to be compatible with this forum anymore?

 

[thorn]

The New Zealand Apivar website says it is recommended that it is used when the honey supers are not present so as to convey the image of honey as a natural product. This, and in particular the reference to the shallows as "honey supers" suggest to me that the use of Apivar when supers not containing honey intended to be sold is fine.

 

[Madge]

Yes, thank you Madge. I know I am not a scot, but I am a celt, so can I join the SBAi forum since my computer does not seem to be compatible with this forum anymore?

Yes, you can Beeno. It's a fairly quiet forum, with activity on the low side - but usually a well-informed site. There are non-Scots on there - England, Ireland ...

But I think your problem here must be ironed out. I'm fairly sure your computer can't affect how the forum is displayed, because it's in a browser. Do you have this problem of not being able to go to Page 1 on all long threads? Do you see the page buttons on long threads (top left and bottom left)? And they don't work? I hope you can fix it!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes, you can Beeno. It's a fairly quiet forum, with activity on the low side - but usually a well-informed site. There are non-Scots on there - England, Ireland ...

But I think your problem here must be ironed out. I'm fairly sure your computer can't affect how the forum is displayed, because it's in a browser. Do you have this problem of not being able to go to Page 1 on all long threads? Do you see the page buttons on long threads (top left and bottom left)? And they don't work? I hope you can fix it!

Nobody else seems to be having a problem. Perhaps Beeno can screenshot what she sees.

 

[Swarm]

No problem with forum pages but user profile doesn't want to work. I can go and alter details, press save and get confirmation they have been saved.
I find my changes ignored so go back to check and find my settings as I saved them so it would appear the forum is over riding my selection.

 

[Erichalfbee]

No problem with forum pages but user profile doesn't want to work. I can go and alter details, press save and get confirmation they have been saved.
I find my changes ignored so go back to check and find my settings as I saved them so it would appear the forum is over riding my selection.

Try rebooting whatever you are using for access?

 

[Swarm]

Done a restart, also logged off and back on. The box is still empty but the function has not been removed.
There are other issues, all profile related but the meaningless bits still seem to work fine.