Apivar Winter Treatment/Insertion of Apivar Strips

[DonkeyDonz]

Yes that’s fine. No problem with Apivar. I was just telling curly that there was no point in advising you to use Oxalic instead

Thank you! Two additional frames of partially filled stores placed in the brood box, monitoring Neopoll on crown board above feeder hole until finished then will replace with QE, Neopoll unwrapped over that, shallow eke, crown board, roof..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

forget about the Neopoll, just give them baker's fondant when they need it.

 

[DonkeyDonz]

forget about the Neopoll, just give them baker's fondant when they need it.

Why?

 

[DonkeyDonz]

Why?

I have excess Neopoll with a use by date by 2022. Why would I want to buy fondant unless there's a wise & beneficial reason to & bin the Neopoll?

 

[ericbeaumont]

Why?

Of course, if you have it, give it, but it's mostly expensive fondant with a teensy bit of pollen.

Unless there's an immediate shortage in the hive, a pollen boost is only useful if you need strong colonies early - for the OSR, or almonds in the US - and if your bees can't gather enough naturally (and I'll bet they can) then best find another apiary.

Murray McGregor (he of 3 or 4,000 colonies) told the story of sending half a ton of pollen substitute to the dump. That must tell us something about its value to bees.

 

[mbc]

Yes, the Apivar instructions state that honey for extraction should be off during treatment.

However, this was Etton's question on 5 August: I plan to use apivar strips later this month, placing 2 in each BB. As I’m not taking more honey off is it ok to leave the supers on

This was Thorn's reply on the same day: I went through this last year and emailed the manufacturers. They told me there was no problem doing as you intend.

Conflicting advice, but wait, there's more: research showed that after all, it's not an issue that should trouble beekeepers (unless you're determined to worry).

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.

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

This is true, but it's also manufacturers spin, what it fails to address is that amitraz breaks down into other chemicals:
"Degradation processes of amitraz have been studied and the main degradation products are 2,4-dimethylaniline; N-(2,4-dimethylphenyl)-N′methylformamidine and 2,4-dimethylphenylformamide (Korta et al. , 2001)"

 

[Erichalfbee]

This is true, but it's also manufacturers spin, what it fails to address is that amitraz breaks down into other chemicals:
"Degradation processes of amitraz have been studied and the main degradation products are 2,4-dimethylaniline; N-(2,4-dimethylphenyl)-N′methylformamidine and 2,4-dimethylphenylformamide (Korta et al. , 2001)"

Yes
Folks should read this
https://www.theapiarist.org/apivar-apitraz-amitraz/

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have excess Neopoll with a use by date by 2022. Why would I want to buy fondant unless there's a wise & beneficial reason to & bin the Neopoll?

maybe you should have said so in the first place, or just said 'fondant' without elaborating, by mentioning neopilli more than once I assumed you thought it had some essential property needed at this time.

 

[ericbeaumont]

2,4-dimethylaniline; N-(2,4-dimethylphenyl)-N′methylformamidine and 2,4-dimethylphenylformamide (Korta et al. , 2001)"

I've had a trip down an internet rabbit-hole and although I found plenty of complex descriptions of these metabolites, I couldn't find what toxicity risk they present in the real world.

 

[DonkeyDonz]

Yrs

Of course, if you have it, give it, but it's mostly expensive fondant with a teensy bit of pollen.

Unless there's an immediate shortage in the hive, a pollen boost is only useful if you need strong colonies early - for the OSR, or almonds in the US - and if your bees can't gather enough naturally (and I'll bet they can) then best find another apiary.

Murray McGregor (he of 3 or 4,000 colonies) told the story of sending half a ton of pollen substitute to the dump. That must tell us something about its value to bees.

Yes, plenty of pollen, they're bringing in yellow pollen presently (ivy?). Ironically, we are surrounded by OSR & because of this, I'm thinking of putting their super back on ahead of this flowering then taking off & replacing with a super of new foundation once in flower. I'll harvest the OSR super along with some brood stores when the OSR is harvested then put their original super back on..