Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: MEdmonson on July 19, 2006, 10:40:33 am
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Last night at the bee meeting, there was talk of using cedar chips in the smoker to cause varroa to fall off of bees. Does anyone have any experience with this or know where the research came from?
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There is no need disturb bees all the time for varroa. When you handle mites in autumn or winter, other time mites may be in peace.
There is no smoke which help against varroa. Mites are under brood cappings now. If you get some it helps nothing.
You have winter and good brake in brood. It is easy to destroy mites with oxalic acid when bees have emerged.
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While smokes may not help for controll of varroa mites. If you have a screened bottom board with the sticky board, it may help determine the number of mites out of brood cells. One ounce of tobacco smoke supposedly has the same effect but, I can't buy tobacco as a minor.
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I give oxalic acid without counting. I can see level of mites from drone cells. Honey gets quite an aroma when you give all kind of smokes to hive.
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If you try it, please let us know how it works. If nothing else, it should smell better!
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9 times out of 10 I don't even use smoke, but in my experience, a combination of small cell and SBBs drastically reduces the amount of mites. :shock:
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I do not use smoke either. I don't even get fliers from my italian hive, they don't care about me at all. My buckies can get pretty indignant if I slip up at all...
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ctsoth, how big are your hives?
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when using cedar, pine, or fir be aware that they are high in pitch (tar) content and over use will turn your smoker into something that resembles a roofers hot mop tar pot. Woods with high pitch contents can build up tar on the inside of the smoker and then one day it explodes into a blow torch.
Tobacco is also high in tars with the same result to your smoker.
As Finsky states there is no known ingrediant that will cure Varroa mites applied through a smoker.
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When you use smoker, tar attaches on the surface of combs. The taste of smoke is easy to distinguish in the honey of cappings.
When I dimished my smoker using the aroma of honey become much more better.
In old days bees (german black) bees were furious and you must smoke them for your life. Modern bee does not need much smoke. Smoker is not a toy which you use for fun. Smoke disturbs hive's working very badly.
Smoker is self defence tool for beekeeper. It is not "healthy apparatus" for bees.
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Italian [the hive with little to no fliers during inspection] is three medium hive bodies with currently 1 super, going to be 2 supers tomorrow.
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Wow! Those bees must be down right lazy. I open a nuc and I get fliers. There are usually 2 or 3 headbutting me while I'm working a hive and a couple hundred hovering in the air.
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I wonder if you used cedar wood to make your hive bodies, etc.. would that help repel wax moths?
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I wonder if you used cedar wood to make your hive bodies, etc.. would that help repel wax moths?
Nice question. I hope this gets a response. My bet is "no".
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My answer is probably. Cedar is an excellent insect repellent. It's poisonous (http://groups.google.com/group/rec.woodworking/browse_frm/thread/b5cd14ca71ff6c5e/a21957e2565edad0?lnk=st&q=&rnum=5#a21957e2565edad0) and the poison is volatile, so it probably should not be used in a hive. It's also a genuine bear to work, so keep that in mind. Also spanish cedar is different from pencil cedar which is different yet agian from white cedar. Then there's also cedar of lebanon if we want to get biblically hived.
Short answer: It will repel the moths but probably the bees as well.
Of course, I could be wrong.
:)
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>>kensfarm wrote: I wonder if you used cedar wood to make your hive bodies, etc.. would that help repel wax moths?
The answer, from my experience, is definately. I use cedar when ever I can find a few pieces large enough--I had my stairs rebuild and every step was 5/4 cedar. Enough to make one complete hive.
One of my old mentors, Clayton Turnipseed (1890-1969), who manufactered bee equipment in his later years always stated that Cedar was the only wood worthy of the little critters. He even made his frames from Cedar. I never had wax moths moths in any of the equipment I bought from him.
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I'm glad to hear that bees don't have ill effects from cedar. :)
It's still a true bear to tool though.
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Excellent!
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What about human when he eats cedar contaminated honey? Lets hope that it saves good people and affects in bad people.
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The italian hive was started from a package in mid may, I live in central minnesota. They are doing excellent in my opinion.
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Finsky,
What makes you think the honey would be contaminated by the Cedar? I've used Cedar for hives since 1959 and I'm still alive. Properly dried Cedar is not a problem. Cypress is a type of Cedar and is and has been used in Hives in the Southern US for longer than I've been around. No complaints of Cedar Poisoning.
Amercian Hemlock on the other hand is a totally different story.
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Finsky,
What makes you think .
It was just a bad joke.
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Someone mentioned spanish cedar a few posts back; spanish cedar is most commonly found in higher quality cigar boxes and humidor funrnishings. It's pest repellant properties are the strongest of all the cedar woods as it's ability to endure the elements. It has also become a favored wood for exterior woodwork (far superior to cypress, at least as good as redwood and far denser).
I have a large quantity on hand and have been pondering it's feasability for hive boxes, curious as to whether it's powerful aromatic properties could prove distasteful/beneficial to the bees. Anyone tried it?
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Honey takes easy aromas from out world. Honey aroma goes through thick plastic cover.
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after reading an artical on the net about using fgmo with a fogger we thought we would give it a go a couple of my 100 hives had a bad varroa infestation using the fgmo and the fogger has reduced mite numbers and has helped the bees recover and produce a good surplus of honey . regards simon