only 15-20p worth of sugar
Repeated daily for three weeks might get a result at up to 4 quids worth of sugar, so may be comparable with apiguard, or may not. Some up-sides, some down-sides.
No reason to believe queen would be likely to go off-lay, so potentially more bees after the treatment(s). So more honey or winter bees later.
Have a need to open the hive 20 times or more on consecutive days. Not so good, especially if there are supers on.
No absconding or removal of larvae (unless sugar dusting is over-done) as has apparently been the case with some apiguard treatments (we've heard suspiciously nothing on that front since the posted warnings!).
Any non-use of 'killer' chemicals is to be commended.
Colony survival and health/strength may be increased.
Less need for drone comb removal, so less drone comb needs to be encouraged, so more worker brood produced instead. Drone larvae have to be attended, kept warm and fed for over eight days, as well as being capped and requiring special larger cells to be built. All these things have their individual cost to the colony.
Can be done any time - nectar flow, or no flow, without danger of contaminating honey (apart from the few grams of non-consumed icing sugar - which would more likely be fed to larvae anyway
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My method would be to do it to swarms (in total - so called sugar rolling) before any capped brood is present, followed by removal of the first capped brood (to destroy most of the mites missed by the sugar rolling). Probably well over 90% efficacy, if done carefully. This might include shook swarms, artificial swarms and their splits, so may remove the need for other treatments in the productive season for a good proportion of the apiary and should lead to fewer infected bees emerging throughout the rest of the productive season.
Time consuming and a bit 'ad hoc' around the apiary, but easy given the time and will to do it.
OK, this was added for those who actually 'think' about possible alternatives rather than blindly following the flock (who are probably blindly following the previous flock). Not saying it is an alternative in all cases, but is certainly something to think about.
If people start to think things through, beekeeping becomes easier, more pleasant (for those with nastier bees, perhaps), reduces dependence on harder chemicals, increases awareness of the effects of one's actions and is all way around of beneficial advancement. And for other reasons, too. This would be appropriate for all other action/inspections, etc carried out on a regular, or not so regular, basis.
Perhaps I should change my screen name to 'The Thinking Beekeeper'
Comments please, and I don't mind which side of the fence you sit. Commenting means you may be thinking, which is good. So demonstrate with your reasoning, please!
Regards, RAB