To oxalic or not...

[OXFORDBEE]

I was in two minds whether to treat or not ... but did, on the 20th. A cold day with well clustered colonies. I'm just back from counting mite drops on four colonies (all of which had negligible or no mites - by counting mite drop - after Apiguard treatment in late August/September).

Results ... two colonies with ~10/day, one with ~17/day and one with ~40/day .

I think the warm late autumn has allowed brood rearing to continue later than usual, allowing mite levels to rise. If your autumn has been unusually warm I'd definitely advise treating with OA.

Happy Christmas

Thanks for sharing the info....

 

[Andy Coleman]

I have done mine before and will continue as part of efforts to keep the numbers under control. I was down at P*ynes at Hurstpierpoint today and he said on their hives this week they had found cases where there are 6 frames of brood in all stages, including eggs. I haven't opened mine up to look, but that amount sounds pretty unusual, and oxalic wouldn't be much good with so much brood around for the mites to be hiding in. I think I might wait a couple of weeks!

 

[Zoth]

Hi all. I am new to the forum and I think you may have answered my question in this thread. I did not treat my hives at all in Autumn for various reasons and was wondering if it would be OK to treat with OA now. Or I was thinking maybe on a nice day in February perhaps. Any advice appreciated, thanks.

 

[Finman]

Or I was thinking maybe on a nice day in February perhaps. Any advice appreciated, thanks.

In February hives has quite much brood and mites are allready under cappings.

Even if February is the coldest mont in Finland, -20 / .-30C frost, bees start to rear larvae.

 

[Mike a]

I don't use OA, instead I will be shock swarming all my colonies and using HM's thymol treatment method.

Starting this year.
As most of my colonies are now on plastic foundation or one piece plastic frames I will remove all the frames from two or three colonies at a time and replace them with new frames.

Each frame is then scrapped to remove all but the surface layer of wax, placed in a deep freezer for 24 hours before being used again.

 

[dpearce4]

Ok what do we do now. just looked at the forcast until mid next week. they are saying temps will be above 10c everyday. not even forcasting night frosts down here.

what on earth do i do, the bees are flying eveyday, this means no cluster and prob brood, do i give up on the idea and do an AS in the spring instead?

suggestions please?

 

[MJBee]

Zoth - What Finman is saying is that February is too late in that the queen has started to lay again. Early January is the time to trickle OA.

dp4 - be patient you are bound to get a cold snap between now and mid January, we have had 2 nights of frost but the day temperature is getting up to double figures and the bees are active. I am going to mix my solution and keep it in the fridge ready to sieze the moment.

 

[For want of a better word]

The only trickling I will be doing is putting the boats leisure battery onto trickle charge ready for the vaporiser!

Happy new year to one and all!