Im using Apivar, still warm here, up to 28 this week, stormy now for a few days but still warm forcast
I am feeding also
SORRY THIS THREAD IS A BIT CONFUSING AS THERE ARE TWO SEPARATE BUT SIMILAR QUERIES GOING ON FROM TWO POSTERS.
This is a response to ail901 ...
Apivar is recommended as a 6 week treatment so you are about a third of the way through. It's intended to be used after your supers come off late summer whilst it is still reasonably warm and the bees are active. There is no problem with feeding at the same time .. indeed, feeding encourages the bees to move around the hive and will increase the effectiveness of the strips as the active ingredient is spread by the bees walking over it and spreading it around the hive. It works by paralysing the mites and they then drop off the bees onto your sticky board where they starve to death or are eaten by earwigs etc. Assuming of course you have an OMF. So, you are a little late in treating but with your climate it may be possible to continue for a while ... The critical thing you need to consider is the point when your bees will naturally cluster for the winter ... by then you need to have the majority of your winter bees hatched and enough food in the hive for them to survive the winter. There will be local climate and forage conditions that you need to consider.
At present, it all depends upon the state of your colony:
1. Did they have a measured Varroa problem ... if so, you should continue to treat until the drop reduces to an insignificant level or it stops. Apivar is a slow acting contact treatment and there is some known mite resistance to it so you should check in your locality if Apivar is still usable and effective ..
2. Have you got brood and eggs and is the queen laying ? It's important that you build up your winter bees so if the treatment has slowed or stopped your queen laying then that's not good and Apivar CAN stop the queen laying ... although Apivar is not an aromatic treatment so there's less likelihood of it affecting other normal colony functions.
So you have a bit of a balancing act on your hands ... Varroa treatment vs. Winter build up. It may not be very helpful but it's your call .. get it wrong and you could lose your colony from either ...
For my money, and I'm no expert, unless you are seeing a significant mite drop I would stop treatment, take the strips out and let them sort themselves out for winter. You can always return in the spring with another Apivar treatment (or something else) before the brood starts to build up if you have got a varroa problem then. But be cautious with Apivar .. as I said, it's got form for mites building resistance to it in some areas and this is one of the reasons it's not used as much these days.
