Treated with Oxalic Acid today

[drstitson]

brood/super frames problem

I'd have thought that there is likely to be less brood present in mid-late december than in late jan-early february when HM will have probably started laying again.

 

[Hombre]

Never tried brood and a half, but realised that SN box was not big enough where Carniolan bees were concerned. The quest is probably far from over.

Depending on wx conditions, I would have thought that the window for OA would be closing around about mid January.

 

[Skyhook]

I'd have thought that there is likely to be less brood present in mid-late december than in late jan-early february when HM will have probably started laying again.

 

[Poly Hive]

My experience further north right enough has been that Queens do not start to lay until late Feb early March.

On that basis I would consider January as a safe month to use Oxalic.

PH

 

[Skyhook]

My experience further north right enough has been that Queens do not start to lay until late Feb early March.

On that basis I would consider January as a safe month to use Oxalic.

PH

Could some fellow soft southerners add their experience of when HM starts laying in these parts?

 

[oliver90owner]

Lets relate back to two seasons ago. I inspected the hive, which was in the garden, mid February as the colony was observed flying very, very strongly (abnormally 'hot' for Feb) and no eggs even! The snow had cleared nearly a couple of weeks before(?) and I expected some brood or at least eggs. Not a trace. I checked two days later to find the queen. She was there, (so no worries of laying workers) and one month later she was brooding strongly (lots of open and some sealed).

This was the colony that was seen to be collecting pollen on Christmas Eve that 'winter'. So I would suspect that if the weather forecasts are anywhere near correct there will be little chance of capped brood by the end of next month in most areas. That could change, of course.

So I am much in agreement with PH. But there have been times when they have had a small amount of brood, seemingly throughout most of the winter. But we have to remember - the earlier years in this last decade were much less cold than this one!

So, things depend on the weather, not your location (acccepting that the further north, the more severe the winter weather might be. Not sure what happened in 1963, but I would guess the clusters were still very tight, right through to March and possibly later.

So weather dependent, not location dependent.

Regards, RAB