Oxalic Advice Please!!!

[Poly Hive]

Which goes to show... worth doing

Ph

 

[East Yorks New Bee]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I will treat ALL my hives with OA, I am planning to do them between Christmas and New Year (Weather dependant)Once again thanks to everyone and a Merry Christmas and a super filled New Year

 

[Polyanwood]

Me too. Although mixing up the OA might be more of a challenge this year as the bandit in the beeshop persuaded me to buy 1g pellets, that I reckon might not dissolve. Apparently they are supposed to be used in vapourisers. I am going to grind them up.

 

[MJBee]

Could those that have already treated their colonies with OA please let me know what their weather has been for the last month.
Over here only the last 3 days have been cold enough to stop the Queen laying. Methinks it is a tad early to be treating as brood will be present which means OA is not as effective as when the colony is broodless.
I will be treating early January.
Mike

 

[RoofTops]

I have traditionally done mine on 31 December, but I know some who do it earlier in the month here in Devon. I suspect it may be difficult where you are to find a broodless period. As you say, the queen may stop laying but there will still be sealed brood for a couple of weeks afterwards. You could try monitoring mite fall. I would suspect that mite fall will reduce when they are broodless, on the basis they are not breeding and will be holding tight to the bees. I may well be quite wrong of course and this method would only work if you have a measurable mite fall to begin with.

 

[Finman]

Over here only the last 3 days have been cold enough to stop the Queen

It is better to look inside. Then you know what they use to do.

Dordogne France forecast
http://dordogne.angloinfo.com/weather/

 

[jimbeekeeper]

I suspect it may be difficult where you are to find a broodless period.

For those of us that work, the Christmass holiday period is about the only time, this time of year that we can get to our hives in semi day light, so my time is then.

So just treat them , + / - a few weeks of been brood-less or not, will it make that much difference? I suspect not, but will the fact that you have treated them help? I think greatly.

 

[MJBee]

. I suspect it may be difficult where you are to find a broodless period. .

Once the maximum day temperature drops below 10C I do not inspect and rely on hive weight to guesstimate stores level so I cannot be certain that the colonies are broodless. However there is usually a cold snap in mid December which starts "clustering" and stops the queen laying. I treat 3 weeks later which - in theory - should be broodless at best or minimum brood at worst.
Zero winter losses last year so I must be doing something right
Mike

 

[Hawklord]

It is better to look inside. Then you know what they use to do.

Are you saying pull each frame out and have a look to see if there is any brood?

 

[Finman]

Are you saying pull each frame out and have a look to see if there is any brood?

Just from middle two. It is only way to know, if he want to be sure.

But it is not necessary. You give the trickling and if it is not good enough, you do something later.
It helps nothing, if you do not handle them.

Don't make this too difficult.

 

[MJBee]

As I said earlier I do not inspect - ie open and look at individual frames - once the temperature drops to below 10C.
The point I was trying to make was that to find the best time to treat when broodless or as near as possible to broodless - use the temperature
The current cold snap over here started 11th December - add 21 days = treatment date first week in January. simples
Mike

 

[Poly Hive]

The real point is to observe temperatures, as in here it is currently 4 C and has been for a few days now and I will be a bit surprised if the Queens are still laying at this time given the light levels as well.

The main thing is to treat and if when you do some V's are still under cappings well that is their good luck, the rest hopefully will succumb and the over all load will drastically decrease to give the hive the best start for next season.

It's all about averages really.

PH