Novice - Varroa Treatment during honey flow ?

[Jimy Dee]

Folks

A novice beekeeper contacted me this weekend and to make a long story short he has had 2 hives of bees for over 12 months and never did any varroa treatment at all.

Is there anything he can do at this time of the year to treat his varroa keeping in mind that we are in the honey season and he has one super on each hive.

What about taking off the supers and vapourising the broods on their own, and a day later putting the supers back on? This is flawed because it will not get the bees in this supers.

I do not want to see his honey tainted with any treatment chemical and I am a bit stuck as to what to advise him right now.

All guidance welcome.

 

[Hivemaker.]

A novice beekeeper contacted me this weekend and to make a long story short he has had 2 hives of bees for over 12 months and never did any varroa treatment at all.

What is the current percentage of varroa infestation?

 

[Jimy Dee]

Cannot give you a percentage, but we briefly went through them and there was a good number of bees with deformed wings so I am presuming the hives are well infested. The hives are poor.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

I think I'm right in saying that MAQS can be used at any time and will not taint the honey.

Dusty

 

[Erichalfbee]

With my tin hat on I might suggest that if you have a vapouriser I would do it with supers on.
MAQS will work but there are reports of it killing queens. ONE strip ony

 

[Finman]

MAQS will work but there are reports of it killing queens. ONE strip ony

Queen losses will appear when out temps are over 25C.

Use trips according the recipe. And depends number of hive boxes.

And stuff needs 17C day temps.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Folks

A novice beekeeper contacted me this weekend and to make a long story short he has had 2 hives of bees for over 12 months and never did any varroa treatment at all.

Is there anything he can do at this time of the year to treat his varroa keeping in mind that we are in the honey season and he has one super on each hive.

What about taking off the supers and vapourising the broods on their own, and a day later putting the supers back on? This is flawed because it will not get the bees in this supers.

I do not want to see his honey tainted with any treatment chemical and I am a bit stuck as to what to advise him right now.

All guidance welcome.

It's not the vapour during the sublimation process but the deposited crystalline coating of oxalic acid that kills varroa. Hence as the bees move around inside the hive after the treatment they and any phoretic mites are exposed to the compound.
If you're really concerned not to apply the treatment to the super take it off for the brief period the applicator is in use then restore it.
The coating of crystals will remain effective for a few days but mites in sealed cells will emerge as the bee emerges. To kill these repeated applications over a mite lifecycle are required - normally three applications five days apart but some err on the side of safety and work on four applications five days apart.

 

[Jimy Dee]

Thanks folks. We might aim at removing supers and vapourising

 

[For want of a better word]

The Polish beekeepers are using rhubarb leaves to good effect apparently!

Yeghes da

 

[chrismcd]

Amitraz should work

You could consider using a specific acaricide.

Amitraz has a zero withdrawal period, so should be relatively "safe" to humans and IMHO is probably safer to the queen than formic acid.

It has various EU licenses, so should be obtainable through a veterinarian.

 

[For want of a better word]

You could consider using a specific acaricide.

Amitraz has a zero withdrawal period, so should be relatively "safe" to humans and IMHO is probably safer to the queen than formic acid.

It has various EU licenses, so should be obtainable through a veterinarian.

I think that is why the Poles are using rhubarb leaves... as they are not allowed to use any compounds during honey supering?

Yeghes da