New nuc with varroa

[jdee]

Hi folks

Question time I may, I got a nuc of bees recently (now in a national brood box) and having done the first inspection today I noticed that there is some deformed wing which I am assuming is varroa (there is also a small amount of chalk brood on one of the frames). Is it too early to treat varroa or should I wait until the hive is at full strength?

Many thanks

JD

 

[xgeordie]

Treat now with something like Hiveclean.

 

[Summerslease]

I bought a nuc badly infected with varroa last year. I used Apiguard and cleared the lot (or just about all of them). I have been monitoring this year and haven't need to treat the original colony or the swarms I collected from it. I also supplemented the treatment with Hiveclean which was well tolerated by the bees, but Apiguard did the job first time.

 

[beeatshellards]

hi Jdee. never assume any thing , deformed wings could possibly be something else not necessarily varroa, try to examine the wings even with a magnifying glass, to see if the wings are cloudy, or deformed. this will help analyse what the problem is. do a mite count too. dusting with icing sugar for varroa is okay, chalk brood is usuaaly caused by stresses, have they adequate nurse bees to care for the brood? the ratio of nurse bees to unsealed brood is a critical factor, if feeding and tending to the larvae is inadequate.

 

[mbc]

I bought a nuc badly infected with varroa last year. I used Apiguard and cleared the lot (or just about all of them). I have been monitoring this year and haven't need to treat the original colony or the swarms I collected from it. I also supplemented the treatment with Hiveclean which was well tolerated by the bees, but Apiguard did the job first time.

I agree but would add that a nuc will only need a half dose of apiguard at the most.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I agree but would add that a nuc will only need a half dose of apiguard at the most.

But I think you would need to split the half dose in two. Ie. - one half dose today, for example, and the other half dose in two weeks time. Otherwise you will not cover the complete brood cycle.

 

[Illo]

Treat now with something like Hiveclean.

We collected a swarm recently that turned out to be badly infested. Hiveclean gave us minimal varroa drop, and lead us to beleive that all was OK until on the advice of a trusted beekeeper friend, we did an oxalic acid treatment. The varroa drop was immense - many hundreds of mites. So now we are in week two of the first apiguard treatment. The varroa count has diminished significantly. The bees were a bit subdued for the first couple of days, but have rallied, and seem as happy as the proverbial. My primary aim with this lot is to get them through the winter - not to be harvesting honey, so having a healthy colony is the most important thing to me at the moment.

I don't know if the regime we took is to everyone's liking, but it seems to have worked for me! We will continue with hiveclean after the apiguard has done its work, as a maintenance treatment - our experience suggests it is good for this, but not as an acute treatment.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

My view; For a nuc-sized colony , 1/2 dose of Apiguard. Use one tray, slop out 1/2 the stuff into a small jamjar and use in 2 weeks by putting it back in the tray which has remained on the hive. Ensure the nuc has stores - you can pop a feeder on if you wish.

Yes you can do it now. Better now than later. There's no point in the bees trying to rear bees that will not fly.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

My view; For a nuc-sized colony , 1/2 dose of Apiguard. Use one tray, slop out 1/2 the stuff into a small jamjar and use in 2 weeks by putting it back in the tray which has remained on the hive. Ensure the nuc has stores - you can pop a feeder on if you wish.

Yes you can do it now. Better now than later. There's no point in the bees trying to rear bees that will not fly.

You explained it much more clearly than I did!

I'd definitely treat with apiguard now. Not much chance of getting a significant honey crop from a nuc now, so may as well treat and make sure they are strong for going into winter.

 

[jdee]

Thanks for your reply's folks - I have brought some Apiguard this morning and will get out there when it stops raining! I was going to go down the 1/2 meaure's this route but thought if I posted here I would get things confirmed -

The blackberries and heather are due to kick in soon and I would hate to miss that as well LOL\

Regards

JD

 

[Arfermo]

We collected a swarm recently that turned out to be badly infested. Hiveclean gave us minimal varroa drop, and lead us to beleive that all was OK until on the advice of a trusted beekeeper friend, we did an oxalic acid treatment. The varroa drop was immense - many hundreds of mites. So now we are in week two of the first apiguard treatment. The varroa count has diminished significantly. The bees were a bit subdued for the first couple of days, but have rallied, and seem as happy as the proverbial. My primary aim with this lot is to get them through the winter - not to be harvesting honey, so having a healthy colony is the most important thing to me at the moment.

I don't know if the regime we took is to everyone's liking, but it seems to have worked for me! We will continue with hiveclean after the apiguard has done its work, as a maintenance treatment - our experience suggests it is good for this, but not as an acute treatment.

Any swarm situation gives one the opportunity to use oxalic as there is little or no brood to worry about. Having done that at this time of the year, Apiguard is wasted - leave until late August when any foraged stores will be for the bees to eat if all the supers are taken off first. Even so, honey tainting by the thymol in Apiguard is barely worth worrying about either as there is mpore thymol in loads of other foodstuffs that nobody notices eg rhubard to name just one. Hive clean also a waste in the circs described as is icing sugar too.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Thymol in rhubarb as well,never thought of that.

 

[Illo]

Any swarm situation gives one the opportunity to use oxalic as there is little or no brood to worry about. Having done that at this time of the year, Apiguard is wasted - leave until late August when any foraged stores will be for the bees to eat if all the supers are taken off first. Even so, honey tainting by the thymol in Apiguard is barely worth worrying about either as there is mpore thymol in loads of other foodstuffs that nobody notices eg rhubard to name just one. Hive clean also a waste in the circs described as is icing sugar too.

Good advice - thanks. We were due to do the second apiguard treatment next weekend. There has been no mite drop for about a week now. Hopefully we've zapped them.


All the best!

LJ