swarms and mite control

[bluejag]

Hi this is likely a stupid question but.

One of my hives swarmed yesterday alas i lost them as they settled too high in the tree for me to collect.

Anyway I was going to to treat the hives for varroa using Maqs as I was unable to do it early in the year due to bad weather and work.

Is it ok still to do this or should i wait a bit?

I have 2 hives but do not know yet which one swarmed

A second question. I was going to do my first exact of honey as well. My question is how much honey should I leave in the hive with the need to provide additional feed at this time of year?

 

[Eyeman]

I have 2 hives but do not know yet which one swarmed

Priority number one is to do an inspection. You will likely find queen cells, some sealed others open in the hive that swarmed.
Select one open QC with a healthy larvae to keep and remove all other QC's. When looking for QC's shake enough bees off each frame so that you can be doubly sure you haven't missed one. Don't shake the frame with the QC your going to keep. Close up and wait 3 weeks before checking for signs she has mated.
Also go through your other hive and if charged queen cells are present then do an artificial swarm.

 

[bluejag]

thanks will do that

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I wouldn't put MAQS anywhere near a colony which had a virgin or newly mated queen in.

 

[beeno]

And I would harvest the spring honey before treating with Maqs despite manufacturers reassurance that this is not needed as it greatly increases the amount of formic acid in the honey.

 

[pargyle]

I would not use MAQS full stop ... invest in OA sublimation kit ... cheap ones as little as £35 .. much safer and kinder on the bees than MAQS which has mixed reviews and there are possible detrimental effects on queens.

But firstly .. consider whether you actually NEED to treat for varroa ?

As for leaving honey behind at this time of the year - if it's in the supers it's fairly safe to take it - there's a fair bit of summer left and as long as they have an arc of stored honey in the brood box they will be fine. You will put the extracted supers back on the hives and there will be honey still in them for the bees to clean up. Should not be any need to feed unless we have an arctic summer or monsoons for 3 months. If it was autumn - very different answer to that second question.

 

[Erichalfbee]

When you inspect and reduce to one queen cell don't go away for three weeks. They will likely build more while they can so mark the frame your chosen cell is on, return in 6 days and remove any others.
Then go away for three weeks.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I would not use MAQS full stop ... has mixed reviews and there are possible detrimental effects on queens.
.

Funnily enough heard a very interesting snippet in the convention - the two strip direction is worked out on the basis of using a Lang or Dadant hive. The producers of MAQS have now realised this and have worked out we need half the dose for Nationals, unfortunately they can't tell us, the customer this as the instructions have to be approved at the licensing stage therefore to change the directions they would have to go through the process again at the cost of tens of thousands of pounds.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

When you inspect and reduce to one queen cell don't go away for three weeks. They will likely build more while they can so mark the frame your chosen cell is on, return in 6 days and remove any others.

Hmmm, yes, six days!! just opened up a hive this morning to check whether queen has emerged to find another five QC's two open (might explain the swarm which left the apiary yesterday morning whilst my next door neighbour was on the roof of his new extension/porch (in his words I nearly sh!t meself) I pulled the rest and addreesed the chosen cell to find it was a dud with a dead queen inside (so lucky really)