worried after inspection :(

[Finman]

I was at a talk recently where the speaker said that Oxalic Acid reduces the life of all bees by a third.

Randy Oliver says much the same http://scientificbeekeeping.com/oxalic-acid-questions-answers-and-more-questions-part-1-of-2-parts/

“You can treat your colonies with a liquid mixture of OA and sugar but be careful. The liquid acid shortens the life of the bees. There is no problem during summer because the bee’s life not longer than approximately 6 weeks. The problem starts with winter bees–do not treat your winter bees more than one time with liquid OA. When using liquid OA bees get wet and have to clean each other. The result is, the acid ends up in their stomach and during winter without a cleaning flight it shortens the life of the bees. Two treatments on winter bees might kill the colony. Liquid OA is a slow killer and bees will probably die after a few weeks or month instead reaching the next season.”​

pure nonsence!

Randy oliver says that he is "scientic" but he only says.
He is not a researcher and he have not made real researches.

In Finland it is now routine that professionals tricckle hives twice a year. That bases on the researches of Seppo Korpela, our mite expert. He had studied this with 150 hives during 4 years.

Bee life span....with mite 0 days with oxalic acid hive is alive.

 

[Finman]

I was at a talk recently where the speaker said that Oxalic Acid reduces the life of all bees by a third.

up in their stomach and during winter without a cleaning flight it shortens the life of the bees. Two treatments on winter bees might kill the colony. Liquid OA is a slow killer and bees will probably die after a few weeks or month instead reaching the next season.”[/COLOR][/INDENT][/I][/QUOTE


pure timagination and old advices. The is no evidence about that but tere are are thousans of evidenciesthat it does not kill

 

[robsbees]

while we are waiting for oxalic acid to come how often should be put hive clean in? any ideas from anyone please?

thanks

 

[robsbees]

its ok found the info on another site.

 

[robsbees]

been up to check inspection board today a few hundred mites on board after hiveclean treatment, happy with that.

Will be happier when can get inside to check whats going on in there too, weather forecast looks reasonable for the weekend so hopefully can get in and reassess

 

[VEG]

how are you putting the hiveclean on if you are not opening them up?

 

[robsbees]

we were able to get into hive 2 days ago when the weather was reasonable but not since

 

[VEG]

so you didnt look into the hive then?

 

[itma]

In the hive, its the brood that's most vulnerable to cold.
Without brood in there, you can be a bit bolder.

One reason that you can get away with opening up in midwinter for a quick Oxalic treatment is that there's no brood to be chilled.

 

[robsbees]

if it was just cold we'd have gone in but its been raining the proverbial cats and dogs for 2 days here

 

[robsbees]

so you didnt look into the hive then?

not today, just took the inspection board out for a look

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Hiveclean is doing something and the mite drop indicates a serious problem. A few hunderd mites on the floor is a few hundred mites that are not on the bees
It's probable that the remaining brood has plenty mites too; it's acting as a mite reserve.

 

[Finman]

.
I looked what hiveclean is. it was in Research made in Poland 2009.

In 3-week treatment with 10 hives they got 91% efficacy.

Hiveclean contains oxalic acid, citric acid and essential oils.
.

 

[robsbees]

went in the hive today, removed all brood, there was new larvae and sealed cells but got rid of it all, put the oxalic acid in, had put the crown board above the brood box to bring the bees down from the super, will go up today to put some syrup on and check the inspection board.

Feeling confident that we may have averted a disaster thanks to all the advice from you all

 

[robsbees]

so we've been back to the hive today to put some syrup feed on and do a quick check as it was quite warm and dry.
this is the pics of whats inside,

[/IMG]

we sacrificed another few drone cells we found and one or two still had varroa in but we didn't see any on bees like we did at first,

too many mites still on inspection board to count but less than yesterday.

Queeny is laying and there seems to be some worker brood sealed, we left that with the intention of keeping up with the hiveclean treatment as a matter of course to keep the situation manageable,

hopefully we've managed to nip the problem in the bud but a huge learning curve!

 

[robsbees]

8 frames like this in brood box

 

[Finman]

.
Seems good.

I suggest that you put another box under the brood box. They take a space what they need.
There are bees too dense per frame.

When weathers become better they really need room for nectar too.

It will be a good hive.

 

[robsbees]

do you mean make it a brood and a half?

 

[Finman]

do you mean make it a brood and a half?

no. Do it brood brood (2). It is very practical. They will store pollen in lower combs.

In these weathers super + excluder is not good idea.

When the hive starts like a swarm, it takes 4 weeks that it begins to get new bees and to enlarge.
When you are in that point, evaluate again what to do.

If you put in there half, it will be filled with pollen. You get rid off pollen only by using comb for brood rearing. But do as you will. Main thing is to give enough space.

In tight hive they will swarm.

 

[Swarm]

Have to agree with Finman, looks like they would benefit from it.