Varroa – feasibility of clearing?
Calum
In my experience Apiguard treatment often results in colonies being brood free for a significant period in the autumn. I've always assumed that the resulting mite loss more than compensated for the loss of bees going into the winter. Perhaps another way to achieve this more quickly would be, immediately after the honey harvest, to do a shook swarm onto drawn comb and then treat with OA or lactic acid. It's obviously too late for foundation alone. It would take some organisation and you might have to also transfer frames of stores ... however, assuming you take the honey off relatively early (not heather then!) there should be ample time to generate new brood, and almost no interruption to the laying queen.
Has anyone tried this?