oxalic acid treatment for new swarms and AS

[beesleybees]

Hi guys,

I know that the oxalic acid treatment is usually reserved for use around christmas time but would it be a god idea to treat swarms and AS as they have no brood present and no honey to taint - more of a preventative measure

or is there a better treatment

opinions appreciated

 

[protheroe]

oxalic works well on swarms but be careful,i have had swarms abscond after treatment

 

[beesleybees]

oxalic works well on swarms but be careful,i have had swarms abscond after treatment

well I have a couple of swarms that Ive had for 3 weeks, I was lwaiting for the queen to start laying as I wasnt sure if she was a virgin queen or not. inspected yesterday and she has only just begun laying, none capped as of yet.

do you think this will make the swarm more inclind to stay? and do you think it could upset a newly laying queen?

 

[Black Comb]

Oxalic kills the brood as well as varroa.
The time to oxalic swarms is 3 days after hiving, begin feed at same time.

Correction. Itis not effective in brood periods because the mites in the brood are not killed. Broodless periods are when it is most efficacious.
3 days after hiving is still the best time.

 

[beesleybees]

Oxalic kills the brood as well as varroa.
The time to oxalic swarms is 3 days after hiving, begin feed at same time.

now I didnt know that!!!

it htought the reason we did it a christmas time was the fact the thats when there should be the least amount of capped brood so therefore the treatment is more effective.

Ill have to have a re-read.

Thank goodness we have ths forum to gain advice. Ive maid a mental note regarding this now. thanx

 

[Finman]

Oxalic kills the brood as well as varroa.
The time to oxalic swarms is 3 days after hiving, begin feed at same time.

The loss of eggs and young larvae is meaningless compared to what mites do to brood and bees.

3. day is very good to treament when the swarm has settles down. Hive has only eggs and loss is not big. If the queen is virgin, it takes a week that it begins to lay.

 

[Poggle]

So, are we saying that we can use OA on the hive NOW?

 

[Arfermo]

Oxalic for newly collected swarm, AS or shook swarm highly desirable as there is no brood - all the varroa are wandering about on the bees. Don't delay.

 

[WI-USA-BEEK]

Here is the information you want on this subject.

It is also a great time to use oxalic if you make splits with swarm cells right after the queen is mated.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1186&context=entomologyfacpub

 

[Finman]

.
That recipe above is the same what Switcherland uses. But amount is to professionals to 1000 package hives.



Lets look first the size of swarm. It may be 1 kg or 5 kg.

2 kg of bees fill one langstroth box. 4 kg fill 2 boxes.
But the cluster is not so tight as in winter cluster.

So we use 3 ml per seam to winter bees. For swarm 2 ml per seam is surely enough.

so when we do a recipe for 5 one box swarm, that will do

7,5 g OA + 100 g water + 100 g sugar.

If you have half box swarm, use 2 ml per bee filled seem.


Keep the rest of syrup in freezener. You may can use it in Autumn.


Too much oxalic syrup does not kill bees but it makes them wet and they have difficulties to move. Don't give too much. Bees become flegmatic.
.

 

[Polyanwood]

Treating Swarms with Oxalic Acid

This is a really helpful post. Can we make it into a sticky please? I have been treating swarms with thymol and 2/14 have absconded. (one of my apiaries is acting as host for association swarms at the moment) This sounds a much better bet.