BKF Admin
Queen Bee
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2008
- Messages
- 6,344
- Reaction score
- 12
- Location
- Hampshire uk
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 6
copyright notice:"The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, New Zealand"
what is MRL's (ppm)?
Maximum Residue Level
but I do believe that every time you treat a colony, you delay the co-adaptation process a little.
Norm
Norm,
You probably don't need a coat in Spain. Unless you are in Galicia!
I agree, wholeheartedly. But I like to try to select rather than let them all take their chances. Yet another reason why I only treat with OA when necessary.
Regards, RAB
At the risk of being controversial, I would add a further approach to dealing with varroa, a do nothing policy otherwise known as 'Live and Let Die'. This one is not for the feint hearted as you have to expect severe losses if your stocks still have vulnerable genetics. My belief is that most of the very vulnerable bees have long since gone! I have adopted this approach for various reasons but the reality is I am still having some success since they were last treated in 2007. I am not going to start quoting anybody elses work, just my own experience, but there are many other beekeepers who are saying they too are having success with this approach. I was told initially that all my bees would be dead within the first season. Then, when most were still going strong in the second season, I was informed that they would soon crash with mite driven viruses etc. etc. Recently I was told that they will perhaps crash in the third season. I am in that third season now. The losses I have incurred last summer were down to comb collapse in the unusually hot summer, not varroa as far as I could establish. I am not advocating this for everybody but I do believe that every time you treat a colony, you delay the co-adaptation process a little.
OK, I have lit the blue touch paper, is it time to get my coat???
Norm
one beekeeper been in it 30 plus years lost all his hives last winter and he use to rotate treatments from year to year
It may be residues from the treatment remaining in the wax mean the mites are never really free of the chemical and therefore continued exposure to it maintains resistance.
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