MAQ's, the new varroa treatment.

[herefordshirehoney]

I'm tempted to try MAQs out as my new queens arrive around 9th August and currently still have supers on and not started treatment yet. I could get some delivered this week and start it Friday and postpone putting the new queens in, if I do loose a queen so be it as the two colonies no longer have the best traits out of three. But it does seem a whim really if i do this I was planning on the home made thymol treatment as I did last year, but I dont want to upset the new queens.

Think is I want the queen's laying quickly as two hives are low on brood due to being clogged on nectar.

What would you do in my situation.....

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

What would you do in my situation.....

I haven't a clue.

But in my situation, I'm sitting back hoping others will do lots of field trials on MAQs, to find out what effect it has in the real world.

So, what I say is, "Go to it, young fella! Fortune favours the brave!"


Dusty

 

[herefordshirehoney]

Already made my mind up not long after posting - ordered from big T's.

So just need to switch my queen excluders to plastic ones on the two hives as one is already and not do an inspection. The one hive though I did add a test frame to Sunday so i'll need to check that before adding MAQS as otherwise I wont know whats going on even if the risk is slightly higher.

So leave it on 1 week takeoff regardless following Friday and make 2 out of the three colonies queenless, leave 24 hours then introduce 2 new queens.

Should be interesting, would prefer to do them as NUCS but i dont have enough brood for that.

From reading queens are due Friday 9th, i'll need to give them a few drops of water and store in dark warmish place (kitchen cupboard i think) as out of the way from the wife compared to airing cupboard. Not sure if this is the best thing todo but i can only try.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Some chat about MAQ's on Bee-L.

Hi All,

A member asked me off list for the results of my treatment of 1000 hives
with two MAQS this summer in mid to late August, temps in the 90's, low
humidity.

First, re adverse effects on queens, we noticed about one colony queenless
per yard of 24-30 hives, most often in hives that we had already marked as
having some sort of "issue." My interpretation is that the full MAQS
treatment knocks out iffy queens (the same interpretation as that of David
Vanderdussen). A number of those colonies successfully requeened
themselves.

As far as efficacy, I did not sample completely nor methodically, so these
data are only informational, not conclusive by any means. Nor did I make
any effort to sample the same hives over time.

Random (arbitrary) mite counts (alcohol wash of ~320 bees) from various
yards approx 6 weeks after treatment were
0,3,3,22,0,4,29,0,1,0,3,0,28
Some other local beekeepers noticed the same trend--good knockdown in the
majority of hives, but lack of efficacy in some.

Because of the scattered unacceptably high counts, we followed with a 25g
dose of Apiguard in the broodnest after the above sampling. Results in
October (a week or two after thymol treatment) were:
3,1,1,1,1,1,3,2,0,2,0,1

I feel that the lack of efficacy with the double MAQS in some of the hives
was due to their being 3-4 deeps high (hadn't pulled honey), and us
possibly not placing the strips immediately above the brood. In previous
trials, I got more consistent efficacy when all colonies were doubles
only.

Overall, we found that a one-two punch of MAQS (formic) followed by
Apiguard (thymol) got mites to acceptable levels. We will follow up this
month with a final oxalic dribble.

--
Randy Oliver http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=ind1311&L=BEE-L&F=&S=&P=29476
.................................................................................................

My results had consistent low efficacy in late July / early Aug. See MAQS results archive if interested. I have been to a couple of state meetings recently and talked with a number of large beekeepers about my and their results. Over all I would say that those that had "good" results were in smaller colonies, 1 1/2 and doubles. Some used only 1 strip. Nobody I talked with tested as carefully as I did so reports could only be classified as anecdotal. All noted the heavy toll on brood and on many queens. Temperature seemed less critical than colony size, large colonies had poorer results. More than a few said they would never use them again and a few said they were happy. Everybody noted the difficulty of separating the pads.

I followed up with 2 Apivar strips once suppers were off. Colonies still very large, 15-18 frames.The strips were moved after 3 weeks to keep them in the brood nest as the colonies plugged out and remover at 6 to 6 1/2 weeks. After a very heavy initial drop (well over 1K) I had a gradually reducing drop until the last tests in mid Oct. read 2 to 5 mites on a 72 hour sticky board. I'll do the usual oxalic in early Dec.

I feel like I dodged a bullet this year. My plan going forward is to follow Medhat's advice and do a spring Apivar followed by fall formic (perhaps) and winter oxalic drip.

Paul Hosticka http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=ind1311&L=BEE-L&F=&S=&P=42192


My own view is that we have another commercially available mite treatment, with the added benefit of being good if you happen to be in the business of selling queens.

 

[Finman]

.
We had an story in Internet, how an experienced beekeeper lost all his 128 hives even if he used formic acid and oxalic acid.

http://www.slideshare.net/hunajanet/torkkel-varroa-romahduttaa-pest-yllttvn-nopeasti

YOu may see in the slide show that kuoli=dead 75% or 95%.


In page 12 you see winter loss percents on right hand.
Treatment code: Kuhnurikehä + muurahaishappo + oksaali = droneframe+formic acid + oxalic acid

Sometimes winter losses were under control and then suddenly they jumped up.




I phoned to our expert who inspected the case. He told:

- When mite load grows too big, it does not help any more if capped brood are violated and you give to the hive formic acid.

- Later oxalic acid does not save bees, because bees are dead or badly violated. Oxalic hits mites down for next late summer that load does not rise too big.


What ever the stuff is, it does not affect enough on mites under brood cappings.

.-

 

[rook66]

Is this a bargain,or is it being dumped already

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAQS-varr..._Bee_Keeping&hash=item19e88a2d3c#ht_82wt_1190

 

[Pete D]

Its a bargain if you are close enough to pick it up, you win it at a cheap price and you will use it before its best before date, although I would think it would still be OK for August. Thornes are selling the same dated stuff or were for £50.
I used it and had no issues on std and 14x12, open mesh floor and entrance block out despite the wasps, if they cant defend against the wasps they were probably too weak anyway.

 

[drstitson]

Looking at my schedule for spring looks like i'll be with the bees the weekend of 10th-11th May.

Shame as looks a bargain!

 

[victor meldrew]

I wonder if anyone has done the maths on these things or is the use by date plucked from thin air ? Also , should the product be used after this date , would it be less effective, or the components degraded /reacted into more toxic compounds ?bearing in mind storage conditions temp etc.?
VM


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[psafloyd]

I wonder if anyone has done the maths on these things or is the use by date plucked from thin air ? Also , should the product be used after this date , would it be less effective, or the components degraded /reacted into more toxic compounds ?bearing in mind storage conditions temp etc.?
VM


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Apparently, VM, the active ingredients do not remain effective beyond the date given, but when i suggested this was because they would sell more, apparently, they are trying to stabilise the ingredients to provide a longer shelf life.

I STILL haven't treated mine, and I've had the acid for weeks, now, so may end up having to use the MAQS in Spring in any case.