Icing sugar and oxalic in winter

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Skyhook

Queen Bee
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No, not stewed rhubarb.

A fellow beek is very wary about oxalic, considering it a prime suspect for colonies he lost last winter.

First question- who agrees with him?

2nd question- is it possible to use icing sugar in winter, as a diagnostic tool? If there are risks with oxalic, it seems worth checking for mites before deciding whether to treat or not.

Cheers
 
I think that queens do not last so long if they are treated more than once in their lives with Oxalic Acid (OA).

For the past 2 years I have treated with OA. This year I will not because the varroa drops during the period of treatment both with Apiguard and with Hivemaker's special thymol oasis have been so low.. ...so apart from the nuc I was baby-sitting for a friend, no colony has dropped more than a total of 50mites in the whole treatment period. Some have dropped less than 10.

[Before anyone asks... no they are just bog standard bees, not the Holy Grail of the hygeinic Black or anything fancy]

I'm thinking of using OA every other year as part of IPM (I do some drone culling, use OMFs and thymolate my Winter feed - all of which think may have helped keep varroa levels low.)

PS: No I would not use icing sugar in the middle of Winter. The bees would have to be exposed to the cold air for too long
 
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Icing sugar on a clustr? Ineffective, I would think.

I only use oxalic if I deem it a necessity.

RAB
 
Most winter losses are down to Nosema.

I agree....and nosema used to be one of the main things to check for....but now many are so obsessed with varroa that it's almost like they think nosema has gone away,when in fact we now have an even worse one.
 
A couple who have a colony on the same allotments as ours had a not so strong colony through winter last year. They were told to treat with Oxalic, which they were not too sure about doing, and lost the colony within a week. Could Oxalic be he reason? Or could it be a coincidence? They didn't do the treating btw, someone who has experience did it.
 
Most winter losses are down to Nosema.

I don't agree. Most Winter losses I have seen are down to starvation. Not all beeks are careful enough in Jan, Feb and March.

Some beeks are not honest about starvation being the cause.
 
Hello,
Yes Nosema is a BIG problem and as you are the only country in the EU to have legal acess to a treatment I would use Fumidil B as part of my winter preparations and again a couple of times in the spring. It is expensive but well worth it.
Maybe the people that used the oxalic got the mixture or dose wrong?
Best regards
Norton.
 
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