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... The lethal dose for a 65 kg man is estimated to be 25 grams which will cause death in half the individuals. Less than half this should kill a 6 year old child. ...
To make absolutely sure, administer the full 25g.


... does 2.5% mean about 25gms in a litre?
By weight, 25g in a kilo.
I think these powders are a bit more dense than water.
So, you might only have to get the six year old to eat about half a litre of the powder ...
 
"HiveClean is a low dose OA treatment."
Rooftops - Have you any idea how low a dose ? or what the concentration of oxalic acid is in Hiveclean? does 2.5% mean about 25gms in a litre?

It seems quite high! for a low dose as 3.2% is used as single winter treatment.

According to D.Cushman website:
" The treatment material is 3.2% oxalic acid in a 1:1 sugar solution. The recipe for making this is as follows:-

:Angel_anim:Make up a sugar syrup consisting of 1 kg sugar in 1 L of water. To this should be added 75 gm of oxalic acid dihydrate and well mixed. This will make 1.67 L of treatment material. Accurate weighing of the oxalic acid is essential because under-strength will give a poor mite kill and over-strength may kill bees!
 
Regarding the drinking of the stuff as a sales pitch, it sounds reminiscent of Agent Orange, where troops were sufficiently gung ho that they drank it to prove how safe it was and sprayed themselves, almost as a right of passage.

The rest is history of coruse. So if you see any vegetative rhubarb shaped kids, sons and daughters of Hive Clean sales people and afficianados, in the years to come, then perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised. More expensive than OA when it is primarily OA.

But remember you aren't buying OA, you are buying into the Hive Clean dream. Not a magic fluid for the salvation of bee keepers, but a commercial product, exploiting what the creator sees as a niche market that will buy the product and perceive that it is something special; Which it is of course. A nice little earner. :)

By the way, what's the correct definition of "a mug punter"?

Would bee farmers even think of using it, or have they got better things to do with their time and money?
 
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"HiveClean is a low dose OA treatment."
Rooftops - Have you any idea how low a dose ? or what the concentration of oxalic acid is in Hiveclean? does 2.5% mean about 25gms in a litre?

I am intrigued by the number of people with very low post counts this thread has drawn out. Oh well, I'll play the game.

To have go at the question I'm not sure but the dosage is a lot less than the solutions, e.g. 3.2% used in mid-winter. There is a report about the stuff here: http://www.jas.org.pl/jas_53_2_2009_2.pdf Make of it what you will but from my reading it does seem to be effective, when used 3 times, at knocking mites off the bees if not actually killing them (the mites).
 
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"I am intrigued by the number of people with very low post counts this thread has drawn out."

Could just be that hiveclean is something that is designed to appeal to newbies rather than experienced beeks.
 
Just because people have low post counts on this forum does not automatically mean that they are an inexperienced beekeeper.
 
not necessarily suggesting that in the same way that RT wasn't necessarily suggesting anything else.

just one possible reason.
 
I was being a bit mischievous and wondering if there were some commercial interests involved - but on reflection the phrase involving kettles etc. might well apply to me so I'll keep my trap shut!
 
I have use hive clean for the last two seasons with oxalic in late jan early feb. You can use hive clean for winter treatment too but I chose not to do this. I am now looking for alternate treatments as I intend to use different treatments every two years.
 
"I am intrigued by the number of people with very low post counts this thread has drawn out."

Could just be that hiveclean is something that is designed to appeal to newbies rather than experienced beeks.

Could be
When I was very new here the subject of hiveclean came up and I posted that I used it on every occasion I looked in the hive. It was quickly pointed out to me that i had probably done only three inspections :redface::redface:
 
I have decided to use hive clean this year.. through March & early April weather dependant 3-4 inspections, therefore with 4 hives + 2 nucs

why

It is a mild treatment that has no effect on brood or new stores (as per datasheet waffle)

it is a quick direct treatment to the bee seams in relatively low temp (regardless of the -5C on the bottle, I have only used in conditions 10C+). The treatment helping the spring build up of the colony by reducing the mite numbers as early as possible with minimum disturbance, a win, win situation for the bees.

All treatments for varroa are not 100% effective and therefore I assume rightly or wrongly regardless of monitoring resuts there are mites in the hive. Therefore it makes perfect logic to me to treat the colony as early as possible in spring prior to the build up of drones within the colony.

I will use up anything left in the hive clean bottle as I remove the supers at the end and will treat as usual in august/september.

I will monitor and see if the colonies build up quicker and the harvest is better (taking into account this summer's weather etc. to previous years). If there is an improvement in the colonies overall health, build up, honey etc. I will investigate cheaper homemade treatments for next year with the idea of conducting early treatments again from end Feb to early April weather dependant.


On a side note - I experimented with using varrogaurd last year on 2 nucs and 'dusted' them as apposed to placing a tray of dust inside the entrance as per instructions, found it very, very effective. 1 nuc bought from a supplier was heavly invested with varroa, plenty of DWS. 2 treatments, 18 days apart and no further problems and the DWS cleared up in due course.

My assumption is it worked because the active ingredients caused a near 100% knockdown of mites on any bee dusted and a very, very high knockdown rate on any bee who was subsequently 'dusted' by her sister brushing off dust from above and so on down the seams.

Obviously better than just icing sugar. But has the active dust on the floor and comb of the hive continues to expell fumes into all parts of the hive for a few days causing continuing knockdown and even in a weak form it stops the mites moving around looking for mates or lay eggs therefore the breeding cycle of the mites is disrupted significantly.

I found no evidence of any adverse effect of dusting with varrogaurd
 
before someone screams why are treating regardless is

because, 1 I am experimenting.

I have found there are lots of beeks in my area.. with varying bad attitudes to treatment and due to concentrations of forage in the town I believe mine are being re-infected particuarly in the early spring/summer
 
NN keep us posted on your findings,sorry to hear your bees are not in the best of health,lets hope your new methods will see some improvment.
 
NN keep us posted on your findings,sorry to hear your bees are not in the best of health,lets hope your new methods will see some improvment.

Not so worried about mine but there are some continual newbies in the area who buy nucs each year for show hives in there big gardens and leave them to their fate, I want so see about keeping my lot as healthy as possible and try some experiments on the way.
 
Not so worried about mine but there are some continual newbies in the area who buy nucs each year for show hives in there big gardens and leave them to their fate, I want so see about keeping my lot as healthy as possible and try some experiments on the way.

You know, this irritates me a bit :eek:

If somebody had to buy a new dog each year because the old one died they'd be pilloried, but maybe because 'it's only insects' and there's a seemingly plentiful supply of replacements, nobody seems to worry too much about bees dying because they're left to their own devices.
 
I used Hiveclean for the first time yesterday. This afternoon the varroa drop is quite impressive with significantly more than would drop without treatment. I'll use it every inspection for a few weeks to hopefully put a good dent in the varroa population during the active period, then treat as normal in the autumn/winter.
 
You know, this irritates me a bit :eek:

If somebody had to buy a new dog each year because the old one died they'd be pilloried, but maybe because 'it's only insects' and there's a seemingly plentiful supply of replacements, nobody seems to worry too much about bees dying because they're left to their own devices.

:iagree:

Hive clean also market a product for chalk brood treatment... experiences????
 
:iagree:

Hive clean also market a product for chalk brood treatment... experiences????

Universities in USA say that there is no chemical treatment agaist chalkbrood.

Many stuffs have been advertised against chalkrood and it works mostly because mostly the disease goes away when warm summer weathers arrive.

MAAREC , consortium of 6 universities
https://agdev.anr.udel.edu/maarec/h...nd-diseases/diseases-of-honey-bees/?nggpage=2


"No treatment is presently available for control. In some cases, chalkbrood can be reduced by requeening colonies with a young queen."

© Copyright 2012 — MAAREC – Mid Atlantic Apiculture & Extension Consortium. All Rights Reserved

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