varroa treatment for top bars

[Greggorio]

I have two top bar hives till next year when I swap over to Dadants. What are my options for varroa treatment so I can order something in now

Thanks

 

[Fritillary]

From my short/limited experience: I tried Apiguard and found it didn't work v well/wasn't easy to use, as you haven't a warmed space above the colony for it in a horizontal top bar. Used Apivar, in a springtime emergency, and it was easy in the top bar and worked well. Wouldn't want to repeat that though. Sprayed from underneath with (unheated) oxalic acid last winter and that seemed successful. You could vaporise it of course - ?

 

[Greggorio]

that doesn't sound easy....

 

[madasafish]

I use small lengths/widths of J Cloth - approx 60mm x 10mm - one end soaked in Apiguard,# and placed between topbars..

It's a messy process..open gap between bars, place so 10mm is above bar and the rest below, close bar, repeat..

# not huge lumps on cloth, just enough to coat cloth. You can overdose. (Been there:-(

You can replace J cloth with string - less risk of overdose.

 

[mjt68]

You have to be careful with thymol or any treatments that can contaminate honey as a TBH doesn't have different comb for brood or honey and anything in the hive now could potentially hold next year's crop. Whenever hopguard gets approved it might be good, otherwise MAQS but you might need to adjust the dosage so as not to overwhelm the bees.

 

[dexter's shed]

that doesn't sound easy....

an easy option is, do nothing, have your bees got a bad infestation of varroa then ?

I was always under the assumption that top bar keepers were more hands off type keepers, well I was anyway, and still am even now on normal hives

 

[Greggorio]

an easy option is, do nothing, have your bees got a bad infestation of varroa then ?

I was always under the assumption that top bar keepers were more hands off type keepers, well I was anyway, and still am even now on normal hives

I have no idea if they do or don't. Top bars don't allow for much inspecting. I do like the whole natural approach but I'm too much of a control freak so I'm swapping to Dadants next year. I just don't want to lose my two colonies to varroa when I can't check (control freak aspect again)

 

[dexter's shed]

I have no idea if they do or don't. Top bars don't allow for much inspecting. I do like the whole natural approach but I'm too much of a control freak so I'm swapping to Dadants next year. I just don't want to lose my two colonies to varroa when I can't check (control freak aspect again)

sometimes with beekeeping, doing nothing is better than doing something, just for the sake of it, if your bees look healthy, are bringing in pollen and the top bars are filled evenly, then I'd still say do nothing, healthy bees will control varroa themselves, it's weak colonies that you need to worry about, as they cant keep the mites at bay,

 

[SixFooter]

Take a sample of bees, freeze and count varroa that fall off. Then you can dissect and check for other diseases.

Why not use OA vaporisation for treatment

 

[ugcheleuce]

I have two top bar hives till next year when I swap over to Dadants. What are my options for varroa treatment so I can order something in now.

Well, from your other posts, I get the impression that you're not hoping to harvest honey from the TBH, but simply want to preserve the colony as best you can. If so, then you can use any treatment, even treatments that are not recommended for when honey is present in hive.

I don't have a TBH, but if I had, and I wanted to achieve what you're doing, I'd go for Apilife Var. Normally, the strips would be placed across the top-bars of a hive, but I believe that that is simply due to ease of use and because it is assumed that the hive has a bottom entrance. The strips should be distributed evenly throughout the hive and should not be too close to the entrance -- that's that, I think. The chemical distributes itself throughout the hive wherever you place the strips, so you can just as well place the strips below the combs (which would seem logical in a TBH).

I would think that you could even do a winter treatment with Apilife Var, if you don't break the cluster, and if we assume that bees will rotate throughout the cluster and if we assume that varroa mites will not keep migrating towards the centre of the cluster, from bee to bee.

 

[psafloyd]

an easy option is, do nothing, have your bees got a bad infestation of varroa then ?

I was always under the assumption that top bar keepers were more hands off type keepers, well I was anyway, and still am even now on normal hives

There's hands-off, Dexter, and there's reckless caution. If you have a varroa problem, the best thing is surely to treat to reduce it?

How about feeding with a thymol syrup?

 

[BeeJayBee]

How about feeding with a thymol syrup?

There isn't really enough thymol in the usual syrup recipe to evaporate and kill mites, but thymolised syrup is reputed to deal with N.apis.

There may be something in this thread that will help
Thymol Varroa Treatment

 

[drstitson]

DIY thymol mix on jeycloths or kitchen roll slipped between the top bars.

 

[oxnatbees]

I have two top bar hives till next year when I swap over to Dadants. What are my options for varroa treatment so I can order something in now

Thanks

I used to use Apilife Var in TBH's and I wondered how to position it too. The solution I came up with was to put the tablets in a pocket made of mesh (a nylon stocking would probably do) and pinned that to a top bar, hanging down into the brood area. Then, replace the Apilife Var tablet once a week until the treatment is finished. It made the bees very irritable.

However, I eventually went treatment free. My current conclusions from my experiments here are: if you start with feral bees or ones from another treatment-free beekeeper, it works for varroa and the bees survive for the first year, then thrive in subsequent years. If you go sudden cold turkey on a commercial strain of bees which have been used to chemical treatment, they die.