Oxalic acid advise

[msillence]

Hi,

My bees had capped queen cells last weekend, I'm assuming that the queen will have hatched out about now but may not be mated.
I also have a serious mite problem, so my two questions are:

1/ when should I treat - this weekend or next? Should I leave alone for another week and check for eggs or is that too late to then treat.

2/ The hive has a super on. I gather I should remove the super, how does one do that? Do I need to use a porter bee escape method? I'd rather not deprive them of food. How long does it need to be removed for?

Thanks,
M

 

[Finman]

,

So you have soon virgin queen and it takes 10 days that it begin to lay.
So it takes about 2 weeks when the new queen lays. Then you have one week brood there still.

When the queen lays, make a false swarm. Then handle the false swarm with oxalic acid. It takes 2-3 days that bees move to the new hive.

After that take all super frames and store frames off from the brood nest. No need to give oxalic on them.

Then you wait one week that the rest of brood come out from combs. So they are ready to oxalic treatment.

After operation join the bees.

You will get quite clean hive for autumn build up.

Note that give a half dosage OA per seam. In summer bees are not clustered liken in winter.

 

[Finman]

.
Note !

When you make a false swarm, give to the brood hive eggs that hive can start queen rearing.

You would catch mites with larvae, but I do not trust on that method. Once I made it but mites were so abuldant that brood were not enough to catch mites. The hive died in autumn.

 

[msillence]

many thanks finman. I'll leave it alone this week then, let the queen settle in and treat next week if I have 10 days before she lays.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You don't want to be messing around with oxalic until you're sure the queen is mated and laying I would say

 

[Midland Beek]

You have time to buy and use lactic acid spray available from the big UK stockist of beekeeping kit. Using the trickling method in the middle of summer is worse than amateurish.

 

[Finman]

.
Lactic acid has not been recommended 15 years. It is out, simply.

AS i (almost)WROTE, WAIT FOR EGGS Queenless part of the hive needs them when you devide the hive.

 

[protheroe]

have you checked your varroa drop.If its low,wait until later in the year.You dont need to treat for the sake of it

 

[protheroe]

Sorry about the last post,i mis-read about the varroa levels

 

[Arfermo]

You don't want to be messing around with oxalic until you're sure the queen is mated and laying I would say

However, oxalic will kill any brood so is best left until the time of year when brood is not plentiful or important ie around Xmas. Best time for it is after a swarm capture or after one of the various swarm manoeuvres. Thymol at other times but make sure no honey supers are on - unless solely for personal consumption because you have a peculiar craving.