Requeening after MAQS

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Stedic

House Bee
Joined
Mar 3, 2011
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Location
Leicester, UK
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Was horrified on Monday when I cleared the grass outside one of my hives and found a massive pile of dead bees. This hive have been great all year in terms of behaviour but have never really gathered too much honey or filled the second brood box. I’d seen a bit of DWV about 5 weeks ago but never since, so figured I’d gotten away with it. An error of course. I suspect the pile of bees are the deformed ones. Bad times. I then opened another hive who are currently requeening and saw DWV. Very bad times.

So, today I have added MAQS to all hives because clearly I have an issue. Hopefully this will help them before the winter bees are needed and with plenty of time to requeen if the MAQS causes problems.

I had intended to requeen one evil hive - how long after finishing MAQS would you wait before introducing? They had an unsealed cell on Monday so I can check after the MAQS and it probably won’t have emerged. I thought maybe add a queen (caged) on the following Tuesday (so end of MAQS + 3 days).
 
I think it’s varroa. There are none of the classic CBPV signs anywhere in the hive. The pile isn’t an overnight thing. The stand is probably 6” off the ground, and it looks like many have been there for some time.

The queen has always laid like a machine but having found a few bees who appear to have tried to emerge but died, I think they have a monster mite infestation. I gave them a blast of OAV on Monday and they certainly dropped a fair few mites.

Obviously after the MAQS I will clear away the pile, reassess the colony etc. I’m hoping that this sorts the issue though.

I’m consulting my treatment records to see why my OAV treatments haven’t been effective. I suspect that I may have messed up the 7 day bit or that the floors on these hives meant it wasn’t effective - they don’t have a slot for boards so I guess a lot of vapour could have dropped down (or been fanned out by the bees).
 
I had a colony earlier this year that appeared to be on the verge of collapse. They really picked up after 4 vapes and have 5 supers on so persevere. I gave up sublimating under the omf. I've deepened the floor a little so that I can introduce the sublimox nozzle at the back of the hive. I reckon I’ve got better sublimate penetration that way
 
I’m consulting my treatment records to see why my OAV treatments haven’t been effective. I suspect that I may have messed up the 7 day bit or that the floors on these hives meant it wasn’t effective - they don’t have a slot for boards so I guess a lot of vapour could have dropped down (or been fanned out by the bees).

I have Vaped a good few times now with good effect from below but like you i had the odd colony last year that took seven vapes before the mite drop calmed down....my reason much the same as yours may have been caused by seven day intervals instead of five day intervals..(six colonies where ok two where not) so not sure about the 7/5 day vape window..just to be on the safe side i have loaded the fridge with Apitraz..and my next vaping sessions in Sep/Oct will be done from above using my modified eke's..
 
Yeah, I’m not convinced vaping under the floor works well. Perhaps more of an issue somehow with GASVAP type devices rather than the Varrox type?

Think about your 7 vape comment - I was really bad at checking counts after the treatments. It’s an out apiary and I’d developed my allergy, so multiple visits were an issue. I’ve been impressed by the ease of MAQS, can see it being a useful reserve treatment. I’ll still vape all colonies (3x5) later in the year.
 

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