Best time to vape bees in the UK

[john1]

I am planning to use oxalic vaporiser to vape the bees.

I left 2 strips of Apivar from the last week of August for 10 weeks.

I don't know whether there are varroa in the hive. I removed the vorroa board a few weeks ago.

I am planning to buy a vaporiser and do a vape.
When is the best best time to do the vape in the UK? If it was in December then I missed it.

I don't know whether the hive is broodless or not.
Thanks

 

[madasafish]

December. If missed, NOW.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I don't know whether there are varroa in the hive.

There will be, definitely

 

[Boston Bees]

I am planning to use oxalic vaporiser to vape the bees.

I left 2 strips of Apivar from the last week of August for 10 weeks.

I don't know whether there are varroa in the hive. I removed the vorroa board a few weeks ago.

I am planning to buy a vaporiser and do a vape.
When is the best best time to do the vape in the UK? If it was in December then I missed it.

I don't know whether the hive is broodless or not.
Thanks

I too put Apivar in for the same time period you did. I am not intending to vape over the winter, as Apivar is powerful stuff and I don't believe further treatment will be needed at this point.

I will assess in spring and if necessary could do an emergency course of vaping then, but I have rarely found this necessary in previous years.

So you could just leave them be, if you want.

If you had used Apiguard (variable effectiveness), or those funny OA strips, or had started Apivar too late to be effective, it would be different, but your treatment period was bang-on I think.

 

[Erichalfbee]

 

[oliver90owner]

When they need it! What is the point of treating unnecessarily?

 

[Martimart]

I did mine 10 days before the shortest day, one hive dropped loads and the other hardly any. Now starting to see tiny bits of wax on the floor board, so either they are munching loads of stores or starting to lay brood.

 

[oliver90owner]

I did mine 10 days before the shortest day, one hive dropped loads and the other hardly any. Now starting to see tiny bits of wax on the floor board, so either they are munching loads of stores or starting to lay brood.

Cappings from stores is a different colour and size/shape than from brood cappings.

 

[Martimart]

Cappings from stores is a different colour and size/shape than from brood cappings.

In what way do they differ Oliver? It’s my first winter!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

In what way do they differ Oliver? It’s my first winter!!

Post 31

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/board-reading.52042/page-2#post-804194

 

[blackcloud]

When they need it! What is the point of treating unnecessarily?

Unless you're on a desert island or deluded you will have a mite population.Treatment is always necessary.Control them before they get the upper hand.
Imagine the news if alien creatures the size of dinner plates were latching onto humans backs gnawing away ,transmitting Aids, leprosy, ebola,whatever and infesting unborn children.
Does that not sound vaugely familiar.....
Would we be counting drops and consulting bee base or plotting on Excel?
(Or pouring bags of icing sugar on them )

I rarely see a single mite but I'm not naive enough to think they're not there.Each to their own but in my apiary one mite is one too many!

 

[pargyle]

Unless you're on a desert island or deluded you will have a mite population.Treatment is always necessary.Control them before they get the upper hand.
Imagine the news if alien creatures the size of dinner plates were latching onto humans backs gnawing away ,transmitting Aids, leprosy, ebola,whatever and infesting unborn children.
Does that not sound vaugely familiar.....
Would we be counting drops and consulting bee base or plotting on Excel?
(Or pouring bags of icing sugar on them )

I rarely see a single mite but I'm not naive enough to think they're not there.Each to their own but in my apiary one mite is one too many!

I think analogies of this sort are a bit of a double edged sword ... you could say that the continual treatment we have seen with powerful antibiotics on humans that often didn't need it has led to them being less effective when they are needed... more so when, without treatment, many people would recover and develop a natural immunity.

By all means treat your bees for varroa if they need it. ... but learn a bit about testing properly for the levels of mite infestation and do tests on a regular basis and you may be surprised at what you find.

Not all bees, in all locations and circumstances need treatments for varroa. I know a lot of people following a treatment free regime successfully, without losing colonies or having them diseased. We can't all be delusional.

 

[blackcloud]

Can you be 100 percent certain that you have absolute zero?
Without scientific,consistent and ongoing proof, you have deluded yourself.
Id love to go treatment free really I would but unless everyone else does and we sacrifice 3/4 of the species to get a resistant strain then Im wasting my time

 

[elainemary]

I’m now convinced that the amount of treatment needed is related to the location of the bees. My bees in apiaries in town / edge of town need summer and winter treatment and I have to be very diligent monitoring July & August, as I can get caught out with a ‘varroa bomb’. I’ve been shocked this year by the drop of mites after Oxalic this winter (they had a summer Apivar treatment end of aug for the recommended time).

My bees at home have far fewer drops in late summer, and after Oxalic sublimation last few winters have had no mite drop straight afterwards so I will probably skip this winter treatment step next year.

The colonies held in my locations are from 3 queen lines so genetics isn’t at play here. The difference is my colonies at home are in the sticks, where there are few other beekeepers and not near any ‘treatment free’ bees / beekeepers

 

[Erichalfbee]

My worst colonies are the last two in a line that follows the prevailing wind. I’ve always put that down to drifting. They are the most populous colonies too.

 

[JamezF]

I’m now convinced that the amount of treatment needed is related to the location of the bees.

There seems to be a body of opinion suggesting that mites can arrive from other colonies in the area surprisingly quickly, to the point where some people suggest that neighbouring beekeepers should ideally all treat at the same time. If that's true it might perhaps go some way to explaining what you see.

James

 

[pargyle]

Can you be 100 percent certain that you have absolute zero?
Without scientific,consistent and ongoing proof, you have deluded yourself.
Id love to go treatment free really I would but unless everyone else does and we sacrifice 3/4 of the species to get a resistant strain then Im wasting my time

Whoa ... I've never suggested that any colonies have no varroa ... unless you have hives in a totally varroa free zone the odds are that there will be some varroa in the colony. But ... testing properly and regularly tells you what levels of varroa are there on a consistent basis and I have consistently low levels of mites in my colonies. It's not all about resistant strains .... there are many factors that affect the ability of colonies to live with and manage some levels of varroa without treatment ...whether that is only 25% of the present honey bee population is pure conjecture.

I've never advocated that everyone should suddenly start being treatment free ... if I had a colony that was showing signs of a heavy infestation I would treat them - my path is not the easy one - your treat and treat in order to annihilate every single mite is the easy route ... but - do you really KNOW what the mite levels are before you treat them ? Are you doing a disservice to colonies that are coping with varroa by hammering them with treatments ?

Who is the deluded one ?

 

[pargyle]

I’m now convinced that the amount of treatment needed is related to the location of the bees. My bees in apiaries in town / edge of town need summer and winter treatment and I have to be very diligent monitoring July & August, as I can get caught out with a ‘varroa bomb’. I’ve been shocked this year by the drop of mites after Oxalic this winter (they had a summer Apivar treatment end of aug for the recommended time).

My bees at home have far fewer drops in late summer, and after Oxalic sublimation last few winters have had no mite drop straight afterwards so I will probably skip this winter treatment step next year.

The colonies held in my locations are from 3 queen lines so genetics isn’t at play here. The difference is my colonies at home are in the sticks, where there are few other beekeepers and not near any ‘treatment free’ bees / beekeepers

I agree ... location, foraging distance, the proximity of lazy or misguided beekeepers (Those who take being TF seriously are not as bad as those who just don't bother doing much at all or those whi don't understand what/how/when/which treatments should be applied ), the type of hive, the bees themselves, many other factors can all combine.

I'm in an urban location but within less than half a mile my bees have allotments.parks, tree lined roads, railway bankings, fields and hedgerows, domestic gardens. There are good levels forage from February to November - no reallym big flows - just steady, readily available forage within a short flying distance. I think honey bees are smart ... they won't fly further than they have to if there are easy pickings in the vicinity. If they are not interracting with other bees there is less chance of them picking up varroa unless they find a colony to rob and if you test regularly you know when something has changed.

In these circumstances and providing bees with living conditions that discourage varroa reproduction and with the natural ability that some colonies appear to have in dealing with mites ... it is not surprising that some apiares, in some locations, fare better than others.

 

[pargyle]

There seems to be a body of opinion suggesting that mites can arrive from other colonies in the area surprisingly quickly, to the point where some people suggest that neighbouring beekeepers should ideally all treat at the same time. If that's true it might perhaps go some way to explaining what you see.

James

If our national association had any sense then they would be organising National Varroa Week - say 2nd week in September when a coordinated effort was made to treat every single managed colony in the country for varroa, at the same time. Reduce the total mite populatiion at a stroke. If this was introduced I would forego being TF and join in with an OA Vape but ... we can't even organise it at local level or countywide so there's no hope.

I'm aware that there would always be feral bees and those feral beekeepers entirely off the radar but ... consistently killing all the mites at the same time rather than the piecemeal way we go about it at present would have an impact.

 

[blackcloud]

But my point is why allow yourself and those around you for that matter to be constantly on the precipice of a serious infestation.
At what point do you consider the situation not to warrant attention -given the pests exponential abilities.
To say treatment (and I have been meaning OA by vaping-) is unnecessary is admitting the antivax/covid denial lobby are justified.
As said before before by multiple contributors they wont get immune from physical harm- thats a job for evolution and its not going to happen in our great grandchildrens lifetimes.
The dinner plate analogy was perhaps over animated (and given my experience of humans ,I rate them just behind varroa in desirability myself so I wouldnt be too alarmed in that scenario)so bring it a bit closer to home
Many of us reading the thread will have dearly loved dogs and ponies-what level of infestation would you allow your companion to suffer from these things whilst they pass on Phf or parva.
Treatment free and hope they develop immunity by teatime?
Not on my watch!