Oxalic Treatment done!

[AndyJThompson]

I decided that today would be the day, so at 8 a.m I got my self all set up with OA and syringes and down to the 2 hives I have at home. Colony No.1 there was 5 seams of bees which I was slightly disappointed at but still pleased that the colony was still alive OA dribbled on and closed back up. Colony No.2 I was very surprised to see 9 seams of bees OA dribbled on and closed back up. All in all took me 5 mins from setting up to all being closed up and monitor trays in to see what sort of drop i get.

I then nipped of to my Mum's where I have another colony. I had been struggling with 2 wild collected colonies which had a big problem with Chalk Brood that I united into 1 colony so was pleasently surprised to see 6 seams no monitor tray fitted as its a home made OMF floor and I didn't include it in my design.

I have just been back to the 2 colonies at home and inspected the trays so 12 hours of treatment and here is the results:

Colony 1: 5 Seams of bee's 3 Mites in 12 hours
Colony 2: 9 Seams of bee's 20 Mites in 12 hours

 

[Finman]

.
It goes something like that
Finnish beekeeping specialist Ari Seppälä calculated from Finnish
varroa trickling research following lag time :

After
cure ---- rate of all falled
1 week ---- 54 %
2 week ---- 20 %
3 week -----13 %
4 week ------8 %
5 week ------5 %

A finnish researcher Seppo Korpela has calculated during many years mites' drop

year 2000 altogether 34 468 fallen mites

1-2 weeks 96%
3-4. weeks 2,4 %

v. 2004 ... 10 730 mites:

1-2 weeks 98 %
3-4 weeks 2 %

Y 2005.... 12 270 mites

1-2 weeks 96 %
3-4 weeks 4 %

 

[For want of a better word]

Any comparison to Oxallic via vaporiser...... or sugar solution alone?

 

[Pete D]

Got all mine done yesterday too Andy, stuck some fondant on and tucked them away for winter !
Off round Michaels in a few minutes to help him do his 4, got enough solution to do another dozen but will dispose of it sensibly..........

Pete D

 

[susbees]

Zero chance here....torrential rain all day. And not much better for today and tomorrow.

 

[Jeff Buzz]

Just done mine too had from 5 to 7 voids of bees all looking ok so far will drop some fondant on later over the crown board hole.
I am just wrapping chunks in clingfilm and cutting some slits in it over the hole..
Its within a hole I have cut in the Kingspan with a full 25mm sheet over the top.

Is that OK ????

 

[RoofTops]

Colony 1: 5 Seams of bee's 3 Mites in 12 hours
Colony 2: 9 Seams of bee's 20 Mites in 12 hours

Not much usually happens for the first 24 hours. I would expect the fall to much higher if you check again after say 48 hours.

 

[MandF]

Also did mine this morning. First hive a bit feisty on lifting the crown board, but it did crack on all corners (this lot love to propolise). I would say 9 full seams and half the other.

Second hive a lot calmer (CB didnt crack), 10 full seams! This hive is lighter when hefting so I squidged 2 CB hole sized chunks of fondant into the CB holes as I was reassembling.

I am using kingspan and noticed how nice and warm the top of the CB was.

Other hive has a bit of dampness around the top edge of the CB, due to water getting into the gaps of cb/brood/eke edge... is it good practice to seal the edges up? I am inclined to leave it, the bees will seal their side.

 

[Queens59]

I'm just waiting for it to be cold enough to do the OA! We haven't had a minus figure here yet and bees are back to daily activity...how long do I wait? Is there a cut off date?

 

[RoofTops]

I'm just waiting for it to be cold enough to do the OA! We haven't had a minus figure here yet and bees are back to daily activity...how long do I wait? Is there a cut off date?

Generally agreed end of January is too late so anytime around now is good but like you it is too wet and windy here at the moment so likely to be next week I think, but I won't wait for a cold spell.

 

[Hivemaker.]

You could take the advice of Dr Bee,and treat them on a warm and sunny day,when the bees have broken cluster and are moving freely,this helps the acid to get distributed through the nest,and onto all the bees.

 

[Chris58]

MJBee came over this morning to show us how it works - thanks Mike. That bottle you used like the one from Th**nes with the simple application bit made us think we understand how it works now. Was a damp, cool, slightly squally morning. As we opened the roof a few came to examine us, then when crownboard came off, they really took an interest! Still feisty, so going to try the scarecrow with an old white T-shirt. again, Thank you Mike.

 

[Bodger]

Did mine an hour ago and very feisty, not happy to see me at all. At least they are all O.K.

 

[dpearce4]

Done my home ones today, got out apiary to do on monday, or sooner if weather ok.

Done with the help of yeogi75 who helped out with the Premix issue. Your help will be returned 10 fold over time i promise. O not forgetting susbees for her advice to, a big thank you to her to.

 

[AndyJThompson]

Day 2 mite drop

Just a quick mite drop update.

After 12 hours

colony 1 = 3
colony 2 = 20

After another 24 hours

colony 1 = 280
colony 2 = 485

 

[Finman]

Just a quick mite drop update.

After 12 hours

colony 1 = 3
colony 2 = 20

After another 24 hours

colony 1 = 280
colony 2 = 485

wau, that is bad!,..........ooooor good, how you look at it.


.

 

[AndyJThompson]

Only way to look at it must be in a good way I didn't treat at the end of the summer so the mite drop will be higher than if i had used a thymol based product in August/September

 

[Suzi Q]

I think Finman means, depending on how you look at it, bad that there's lots of mites, and good that they are all dead! Joke!

 

[Finman]

How I look at it?

rethink it 120 hours later when one half has fallen.

 

[AndyJThompson]

Was being a bit slow

Just edited my post thought i would catch it before any one noticed I was being a bit dim!