Can I feed and treat at the same time?

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ugcheleuce

Field Bee
Joined
Apr 15, 2013
Messages
669
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Location
Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
7-10
Hello everyone

I'm busy feeding my bees for the winter (mainly sugar water, but sometimes Apifeed, if available), but I also have to treat for varroa sooner or later (I will use Apilife Var). Do you think I can feed them and treat them at the same time? Or do you know of reasons why these two activities have to be separate?

Thanks
Samuel
 
Hello everyone

I'm busy feeding my bees for the winter (mainly sugar water, but sometimes Apifeed, if available), but I also have to treat for varroa sooner or later (I will use Apilife Var). Do you think I can feed them and treat them at the same time? Or do you know of reasons why these two activities have to be separate?

Thanks
Samuel

I don't treat and feed but our association guru told me one of the big problems with treating and feeding occurs with top feeding while using an eke. As no eke is required for Apilife Var this concern becomes irrelevant.
I suppose it's worth adding the usual caveat - do they need feeding or have they adequate stores plus late forage?
 
Our association guru told me one of the big problems with treating and feeding occurs with top feeding while using an eke.

Well, Apilife Var requires no eke but I feed with an eke. So there.

I suppose it's worth adding the usual caveat - do they need feeding or have they adequate stores plus late forage?

They do need to be fed, but there's still time.

I suppose I could try an experiment with both feed and treatment, and if it appears that they don't take the feed, then I'll just stop feeding until the treatment is over.

In other forum someone said that treatments with a smell does interfere with the bees' uptake of feed (Apilife Var has essential oils in it, but oxalic acid on its own does not, for example), and his bees ate only a pound a day as opposed to two pounds a day, but hey, a pound a day is more than enough for my purposes because I only visit the hives once a week and my feeding eke takes about 2.5 liters of sugar water.
 
Well, Apilife Var requires no eke but I feed with an eke. So there.



They do need to be fed, but there's still time.

I suppose I could try an experiment with both feed and treatment, and if it appears that they don't take the feed, then I'll just stop feeding until the treatment is over.

In other forum someone said that treatments with a smell does interfere with the bees' uptake of feed (Apilife Var has essential oils in it, but oxalic acid on its own does not, for example), and his bees ate only a pound a day as opposed to two pounds a day, but hey, a pound a day is more than enough for my purposes because I only visit the hives once a week and my feeding eke takes about 2.5 liters of sugar water.

Perhaps your definition of an eke is different to the UK? My definition of eke is simply an outer frame of differing height depending on why it is used. There is no top or bottom in an eke to hold food for example although a 20mm eke might be used to create space when laying fondant on top of the comb frames for emergency feeding in winter. About 20mm is what I would use to give space for Apiguard tray or I might use greater depth such as 90mm above a feeder hole crownboard to support a hive roof above a rapid feeder.
You asked for advice but it seems you have already made up your mind.
 
Perhaps your definition of an eke is different to the UK? My definition of eke is simply an outer frame of differing height depending on why it is used.

Yes, that is my definition as well. Two of my hives have proper feeders that don't require ekes, but the rest of my hives I put an eke (or an empty super) on top of the hive and place a bowl of sugar water + straw directly on top of the frames, and then the hive cover and roof on top of that. The bees glue the bowl to the frames a bit, but not by much.

You asked for advice but it seems you have already made up your mind.

I haven't made up my mind 100%, but even so, it's better to start an activity knowing what others have said about what will happen, than not. So far, I've been warned by most repliers that it's risky, and that is useful information.
 

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