Healthy hive....

[sloydall]

Hi all, I've got a fairly simple question I think about keeping my beehive healthy.
If you have 3% oxalic acid do you need to treat with 'honeybee healthy' and/varroa sticks as well or do they all do the same and you only need one of these treatments?
Thanks.

 

[Heather]

During the year, about once a month, put the inspection tray under your open mesh floor. Leave for 2 days then remove. Count the varroa drop- if any.

Most bee keepers treat with Apiguard or similar as soon a honey harvested. Some also treat with Oxalic Acid in December when brood free ( all depends on the weather). This is bought as useable syrup.

If a heavy varroa drop before the honey harvesting time then dusting with icing sugar may encourage bees to groom the mites off. Or more drastic action needed.

I have never used other applications and find the above give excellent results.

As with all beekeeping opinions vary and you will find what suits you.

 

[sharonh]

During the year, about once a month, put the inspection tray under your open mesh floor. Leave for 2 days then remove. Count the varroa drop- if any.

Most bee keepers treat with Apiguard or similar as soon a honey harvested. Some also treat with Oxalic Acid in December when brood free ( all depends on the weather). This is bought as useable syrup.

If a heavy varroa drop before the honey harvesting time then dusting with icing sugar may encourage bees to groom the mites off. Or more drastic action needed.

I have never used other applications and find the above give excellent results.

As with all beekeeping opinions vary and you will find what suits you.

Agree,
I have not tried anything other than what Heather has suggested, but works well for me also.
Maqs is a new product which can be used if varroa count high during the honey flow, but i cant speak for it, as i have never used it.
regards
Sharon

 

[Arfermo]

Dusting with icing sugar is almost completely a waste of time as it removes so few of the beasties. The usual treatments are thymol (mostly Apiguard) late August and oxalic (liquid or sublimation) soon after Xmas. Oxalic treatment for collected swarms or any other swarm technique is also very useful depending on circs.

MAQS are a newish product but has had some adverse comment and is not as tried and tested as Apiguard for instance. The instructions about how and when to treat with MAQS were somewhat vague but are improving according to recent comment on this forum. Some other treatment products are also not recommended these days due to increasing resistance to them - it varies according to where one is by all accounts.

The FERA booklet on "Managing Varroa" is available as a pdf file on line and, if you are lucky enough, can also be obtained from a speaker on the subject at your BKA who brings along hard copies for distribution.

 

[jd101k2000]

The jury is still out on icing sugar. Randy Oliver http://scientificbeekeeping.com/pow...weet-and-safe-but-does-it-really-work-part-1/ seems to have developed a regime, combined with drone culling, that is quite effective. Certainly interesting reading.

 

[sloydall]

Thanks

Many thanks for the useful replies. I'm pleased to think I don't need to buy anything else at this stage. Im going to go with icing sugar and see what happens.

 

[Walrus]

Hi all, I've got a fairly simple question I think about keeping my beehive healthy.
If you have 3% oxalic acid do you need to treat with 'honeybee healthy' and/varroa sticks as well or do they all do the same and you only need one of these treatments?
Thanks.

Oxalic is used to kill varroa mites but it only kills the ones on the bees; most of them are hiding in sealed brood (especially drone brood). So use Oxalic when there is little or no brood otherwise no point. For example, mid winter or with new swarm/shook swarm.

Honeybee healthy is basically sugar syrup with some lemongrass & mint oils in it. It does not kill varroa. May help with bee health but may not. I use it in sugar syrup sometimes as it makes the syrup easy to find (plain sugar syrup has no odour).

Don't know what varroa sticks are.

Good luck with icing sugar but I'm not convinced. IMO if varroa is a problem you need to use thymol or Oxalic or formic, depending on circumstances.

You can also pop some thymol in autumn syrup which I believe helps with preventing nosema. It needs to be emulsified first, or use hive alive.


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