Api Life Var vs Apiguard vs (insert favourite non Pyrethoid Varroa Treatment)

[The Drone Ranger]

Nellie

I have a spreadsheet of all the treatments I used for comparison and I would say in most cases its more effective than the api var , apiguard or exomite
I will try to figure out how to display the chart here but as it's on my laptop not the web so I haven't been able to do that at the moment.
If I had only a couple of hives I would go with api var because it's the simplest.

try this link to google docs https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...thkey=CN6ehKwM

Te hive numbers are along the top (there is no numbers 1, 17, 18)
The sample date on the left hand side
The varroa count forms the body of the sheet
treatments are colour coded
all hives made it through winter 0 losses

[Neils]

Very interesting. I don't mind knocking up a chart to put up. You can display that sheet as an image from the link you provided, but I didn't want to edit your post.

Agree that with a few hives it's easier to slap a tray etc of your treatment of choice on than go to extra trouble. I guess in some respects I've spent too much time on a different forum where they cook up all sorts of gubbins and lob that into hives as "treatment" because everything else is buying into the global Bayer conspiracy or something.

As my colonies increase I'm also starting to cast one eye on that big bucket of Apiguard you can get and wondering if there are alternatives generally, hence the original post, it's very easy to do stuff because that's what you've always done and it seems to work without ever wondering if there's a better/more efficient way to do something.

[Jon]

Hi neil
I buy that big bucket every year - 3k
It costs about £85 and will treat about 40 colonies.
the old man and myself generally have 35 + colonies between us in September so we split it between us.

[Neils]

I'm in that in between stage at the moment where buying trays is getting expensive but the bucket doesn't quite make sense yet.

[The Drone Ranger]

Might not be too clear its a screenshot

[The Drone Ranger]

Nellie
here's a stacked bar graph of the varroa drop the treatments achieved the legend is a separate jpg the files are very small might not work

[The Drone Ranger]

Screenshot.jpg

hopefully you will be able to make out the effects of 2 cycles of oxalic using the evaporator sold by Thornes

Problem for me is I use Open Office not Microsoft exel , word etc and the permitted file size for attachments is so tight could email them to you Nellie if you want a readable copy--otherwise get the magnifying glass out.

Its fairly clear that Oxalic in winter is the way to go but its best to do some treatment elsewhere in the year to make sur the winter bees are tip top in the first instance.

[Neils]

Cheers for those DR, much appreciated. On a phone at the moment so I'll have another look at them when I get home.

[The Drone Ranger]

Nellie
Just to give the costings of the thymol solution 500g thymol £16-85, Surgical spirit 500ml costs £2-75 x2 = £5.50
total £23-35
That makes up about 1.6ltr
Each hive needs 2 treatments @ 40ml per treatment = 80ml per season
So you have enough to treat 20 hives for £23.35
That's about half the price of the apiguard
The solution will keep indefinitely in the surgical spirit bottles

[Neils]

Well, we're going to give the DIY thymol recipe a go and see how we get on with it.