After last years disastrous spring, I've a box of brood foundation and will be spending the year breeding queens and expanding, dont think I'll be getting any honey.
It's 60% i'm using evaporation seems quite consistent. When you say the FA gets in the comb is it persistent or will it clear in time for later supers?
Hi Nemphlar,
in germany they say it will not clear in time. Thats why only biological control methods are recommended.
So evaporating formic acid in a brood box at the end of May/begining of June precludes later harvesting of honey from an unexposed super in August or later ? This seems extreme to me.
Hi all,
Just to add my experiences to this thread. Early in the year I saw that one of my hives hadn't responded to winter oxalic acid treatment at all and varroa numbers were still very high with DWV present.
I looked at my options and after no real results from any of the other treatments in the past I decided to ask my vet to order me some Apivar, it was by far the best thing I've done. Varroa drop rates weren't remarkable in the beginning (as you get with an OA treatment) but they were steady and numbers soon built up. After 4 weeks I removed the strips and the hive has been back to normal for a further 4 weeks now. 3 days ago I opened up a frame of drone brood and didn't see a single varroa and no DWV at all in the hive.
It may seem like a bit of a hassle to get but if you know a good vet and you want (in my opinion) an effective non intrusive varroa solution try Apivar.
Cheers
I agree with beesinthezoo you can safely use Apivar and zap the mites.According to the blurb that is available from the Apivar people,you can use in a flow without affecting the honey at all.Certainly worked for me and John Mellis tells me thats the only treatment he uses.Hardly ever see varroa in my hives these days.The other advantage of Apivar is that it can be left on for up to ten weeks-more than covering two brood cycles and pretty well zapping most if not all of the mites.
Gone with an apiguard tray for now. The mite count was much lower this week and I didn't see as much dwv as last week but I suspect that as the amount of broods going up nicely that a lot of the mites are now in the brood. Going to see what happens in term of mite knockdown over the next two weeks and take it from there.
If enough are knocked down I might then leave it until the end of the season and give them a full 4 week course of thymol then.
I believe apivar is an Amitraz based treatment? I don't know too much about it but from what little I've read at the moment it doesn't appear to linger in wax or honey. What are the chances of resistance building in mites to it?
There are already amitraz resistant mites in Pembrokeshire, mites already resistant to fluvalinates find resistance to amitraz quickly, or so I'm told.Originally Posted by Nellie
Well I checked the hive after a week of apiguard and pretty much nothing, the week I put the apiguard on there were only 5 mites on the tray. I'm a little perplexed by this to be honest, the signs that I could monitor pointed to a fairly heavy varroa load. Lots of mites dropping and DWV evident on the bees themselves. There's only just the beginnings of drone brood so I couldn't check that. Despite the weather the temperature's been high enough for a decent efficacy so I was expecting to see something at least.
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