Trickle treatment in late January good or bad practice?

[Curly green finger's]

Hi wondering what your thoughts are on the title
Thanks in advance.

 

[Millet]

The first word in the topic title is the shits really..i have never undertaken that barbaric pass time and i never will..

 

[Curly green finger's]

The first word in the topic title is the shits really..i have never undertaken that barbaric pass time and i never will..

Well I've a date to possible attend a demostration I don't want to say to much .
But I agree, can u give me your reasons pls?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

'Knowledge' borne of ignorance I think that was called.Nothing barbaric about it, you just crack the crownboard, squirt some syrup in and close up.
Of course if you want to join in the disciples of ratsneck, open up every week to see if there's brood, get bored then decide bugger it, just rip apart the broodnest and scoop out any brood, fair enough - moronic rather than barbaric.
It's just that things have moved on since the early days of varroa control when trickling was an alternative to the chemical treatments that varroa had got immune to and unfortunately the only time it was effective was midwinter when the colonies were broodles or near so.
There are plenty of effective and less intrusive treatments around nowadays.
Unfortunately many beekeepers lack imagination, see it now as a 'tradition' to slather cold syrup over the bees as a 'christmas treat' before slapping on half a hundredweight of fondant as a stocking filler, and don't see now that, if you get your treatments right in the autumn you don't have to trickle or use any other vehicle to deliver OA midwinter. In fact, this Winter is the first time I've winter OA'd (vaped) my bees for a while because a)I was bored, b)Illness and work meant the autumn rounds of treatment weren't to my satisfaction and c) leavitalone beekeepers in the vicinity of one of my apiaries are causing a problem.
I don't see that winter trickling is harmful to the bees though, I did it every year at the association apiary to teach the beginners and never lost a colony.

 

[Ian123]

As above..... the only thing I would add it’s about the simplest easiest/cheapest method to ensure you have a clean start to the season what ever the vagaries of the autumn has brought. As to your demo go maybe getting late and I would think a limited amount of brood but it’s a demo!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

It doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree but don’t start effing in posts please
I happen to think there is no point in trickling now this late when there is brood. In the absence of brood for some time previously is it quite possible that ALL the varroa will be safely under caps?
It certainly isn’t worth arguing about.
I was enjoying a nice alcohol induced haze for my birthday!

 

[Ian123]

Happy fing birthday

 

[Hans wilson]

Wishing you a very very happy birthday, all the very best

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi wondering what your thoughts are on the title

Pretty pointless trickling in late January though - bees will be brooding again, OA doesn't work on sealed brood and damages open brood.
The time to do it would be mid to late December

 

[Curly green finger's]

Pretty pointless trickling in late January though - bees will be brooding again, OA doesn't work on sealed brood and damages open brood.
The time to do it would be mid to late December

That's what I was thinking emyr , some of my queens haven't stopped laying at all .

These training hives at associations must get a right hammering bless them? I won't be going to the meeting.

This will be my fourth season and I helped my mentor apply trIckle treatment in December in my first winter 2016 but it was frosty and average daytime Temps that week was 3 c . She said at the time that these were good conditions to administer OA as a trickle treatment.

Thanks all for your thoughts.

 

[drex]

In Ben Harden's talk " winter bees" ( national honey show videos) he says some research showed some bees were broodless in November/December. Only some though as others had no brood break at all. As a result I do my winter treatment in early December now. I like to think I am giving my bees the best start to the year. However I continue with IPM throughout the year.

 

[Poly Hive]

Every season is different and it's different again in every location.

I was tempted to treat in November when we had some sharp frosts but decided it might be too early and have waited. It may be there is now brood but if there is there is.

I have trickled for over 12 years now if not more and I check drone brood in the season and as I have mentioned more than a few times there are no varroa to be seen. That to me says the treatment is very effective and I do not see other signs. damaged wings and so on.

Being a lot further north than many here I put on the fondant, actually it's going on today, and if its a waste so be it, it gives me confidence that isolation starvation is not going to bite me.

What I do works for me and if you do the direct opposite and it works for you, well, we are both happy no?

PH

 

[Beefriendly]

I have trickled for over 12 years now if not more and I check drone brood in the season and as I have mentioned more than a few times there are no varroa to be seen. That to me says the treatment is very effective and I do not see other signs. damaged wings and so on.

I've given up looking through drone brood as a means of estimating varroa numbers. Like yourself I can rarely find any varroa in them, yet when I vape a few weeks later I can have drops of over a 1000 varroa in some hives. To me it's a poor way of calculating varroa numbers present.....as is counting a natural varroa drop through an open mesh floor onto an inspection board.

Best way (and easiest for me at least) I have found is to give a quick vape at any point in the season and then see what drops onto the inspection tray. With a sublimox this very quick and I can assess every hive under 1 minute each.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Best way (and easiest for me at least) I have found is to give a quick vape at any point in the season and then see what drops onto the inspection tray. With a sublimox this very quick and I can assess every hive under 1 minute each.

That’s just how I do my accelerated drops.
Very useful to be able to vape any time.
In an emergency you can even vape with supers on if you take them off.
Move the hive over. New floor, put supers on. Vape the brood box then reassemble.

 

[Monbees]

It doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree but don’t start effing in posts please
I happen to think there is no point in trickling now this late when there is brood. In the absence of brood for some time previously is it quite possible that ALL the varroa will be safely under caps?
It certainly isn’t worth arguing about.
I was enjoying a nice alcohol induced haze for my birthday!

Thank you moderators for jumping quickly on inappropriate posts. Unlike some, this forum is well 'policed 'with a light touch - much appreciated.

 

[Tim.S]

Every season is different and it's different again in every location.

I was tempted to treat in November when we had some sharp frosts but decided it might be too early and have waited. It may be there is now brood but if there is there is.

I have trickled for over 12 years now if not more and I check drone brood in the season and as I have mentioned more than a few times there are no varroa to be seen. That to me says the treatment is very effective and I do not see other signs. damaged wings and so on.

Being a lot further north than many here I put on the fondant, actually it's going on today, and if its a waste so be it, it gives me confidence that isolation starvation is not going to bite me.

What I do works for me and if you do the direct opposite and it works for you, well, we are both happy no?

PH

Down here on the balmy (barmy?) south coast I have been monitoring my hives and as far as I can reasonably tell without pulling the hives apart there has been virtually no brood break this year. With temps rarely below 5c at night and often a lot higher they just keep on brooding but I vaped last month hoping to get rid of as many mites as possible. What's left will have to be dealt with at the appropriate time.
There seems to be a train of thought out there that winter oxalic is like some sort of 'magic bullet' but the reality is that it is but one small but useful weapon in an ongoing war.
I must admit that I put fondant on more readily than others but any spare frames of feed in the spring are wonderful for use in the nucs.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Thank you moderators for jumping quickly on inappropriate posts. Unlike some, this forum is well 'policed 'with a light touch - much appreciated.

I've read through the posts no one's really effin and gefin??

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Do you think the mods would leave any such posts in the thread?

 

[Curly green finger's]

Do you think the mods would leave any such posts in the thread?

It got deleted before I saw it then.
Fair enough!

 

[Pete D]

Each year is different in terms of when and if there is a broodless period.
As an example I had reason to pull a brood box apart on the 8th December 2018 in Yorkshire, there were 3 frames with brood on in all stages, therefore the Queen was laying in late November and brood would of still been emerging in late December if she had stopped laying the minute I closed up.
It was about 7 degrees and light rain.
I think that if there is only a small amount of capped brood that not all the Varroa would be in it, there would still be plenty on the bees so trickling would get rid of some.
Last few years I have resorted to Autumn treatment, winter trickle and spring treatment, the spring treatment to catch those that I missed as there was no evident broodless period.