Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: DayValleyDahlias on August 29, 2007, 01:45:58 pm
-
Just ordered Apiguard from Dadant, should be here in a day...I did not wait 72 hours to check for mites, checked in 60 hours...too many mites...disgusting! We will try powdered sugar AND Apiguard...then let Darwin take over...
The formic acid thing scares me a bit, as it looks a bit daunting to apply??
Guess I could also see of Mite-Away can be sold in California?
Thanks all...
-
what were your counts?
-
i have used the apiguard and been happy with it. the bees don't even seem to notice it except to track through it. i did have 3 or 4 dead in the tin, but i think they got stuck. from what i hear, it has fewer problems than formic acid and some other treatments.
let us know how it works for you. i found tons of dead mites the day after i put the apiguard in the hive. that was last year. i have not treated this year, but my mite counts seem low so far. maybe because two of my hives went queenless for a bit?? i wondered if no brood helped break the mite cycle.
-
My count was TNTC ( too numerous to count )...I would estimate 150+/- probably +... made my stomach turn, very discouraging...there are still many bees in the hive,and the flow is still on here...I went ahead and ordered a box if Mite-Away II as well...ugh...scarey business...there is no sign of bee illness..the have is strong ,but so are the freaken mites...
-
do you plan on using both? are you going to do PS until you can treat with other?
-
I am going to do the PS today...then apply either Apiguard or Mite-Away II...hope it is okay to do the PS and one of theother treatments...or is that too much assalt on the bees?
-
In this months ABJ is an article predominately about thymol(apiguard). Discusses some of the pros and cons. Some highlites are mite drop is delayed by about 24hrs so count after 48hrs, and some brood death/loss. I applied apiguard last week and I have noticed some brood being removed in fair numbers this week in the AM. Mites are seemingly gone and this is day 6. I am a little conscerned by the numbers of dead brood I see, and therefore is probably much greater.May have been increased by temps approaching the high end of the application range however. I always enjoy Randy Olivers articles in ABJ. Becoming my favorite writer in the publication. Sometimes writes for BC as well.
-
I am going to do the PS today...then apply either Apiguard or Mite-Away II
i don't think the PS is particularly disruptive. just make sure you have taken all your honey before you treat with the one of the others. any reason you ordered both?
konasdad, i did not notice brood loss, but treated a little later last year. i did have some brood pulled later in september, but the nites had gotten cold, so i assumed it was chill brood.
-
[konasdad, i did not notice brood loss, but treated a little later last year. i did have some brood pulled later in september, but the nites had gotten cold, so i assumed it was chill brood.
[/quote]
I thought the same. After reading the article I got down on my hands and knees and looked for the signs indicated in the article on my sticky board. I noticed lots of brood bee parts on the board. Next AM, I got out and spent about an hour abserving closely and saw lots of brood being removed. As a side note, I have tweo types of bees w/ hygenic behaviour. My new Purvis bees remove dead bees hundreds of feet from the hive. Usually two bees will carry the brood beyond my sight abilities. My Minn hygenics push them off the edge of the landing board and not an inch farther. The purvis also remove dead brood after an inspection w/in minutes. Usually before I leave I see drone brood from between boxes being removed. Just cooool stuff I noticed this week observing my bees as I applied apiguard.
-
Kathy, I ordered both because I am undecided as which to use...I just rec'd the ABJ and the bit on Apiguard scared me...criminy sakes...
I think I am going to stick with PS for now...see how the counts go, and rethink the Apiguard & MiteAway...I just don't want the bees to croak from mites OR my treatment!
-
I am going powdered sugar all the way and some drone removal here and there. I will keep you all posted on if this method works out.
I have gotten my counts way down dusting with the PS. Also have been changing out my plastic frames for starter strips and will let the bees make whatever size comb they need for now on. Hopefully regress them to small cell sometime.
This problem has made beekeeping so hard for everyone not knowing which way to go with all this.
Good Luck to you all.
Annette
-
I suppose I will go along with "Primum non nocere" First do no harm...PS first...I will have an arsenal of Apigard and MiteAway II should I have to go further...this is disheartening...I guess I will spend the entire Winter reading about regression...I don't know why I feel as though it is too "hard" to do...
-
BAD thing about Apiguard its bad for the queens!!! . Theres a lady up the road and she had Apiguard and she told me to put it in the hives and I said its not good for the queens. Well I did and 2 days into it the queens was dead on all 3 hives. And there was nothing wrong with the hive. My friend is a inspecter came out to look at them the day befor.
-
Forum friends, I am hearing some really scarey stuff. So many mites, you are all recounting. Read some of Finsky's posts, please. read them. Go into his posts, and read in-depth. I think we all need to know, Is the sugar shaking method working for you? I have not gone into my hives to perform mite counts, but I am slightly on the worried side too, anticipating what I will and will not see.
Michael, and all the small cell advocates. How are your mites this year? Wonderful day, greatest of our life. Cindi
-
Forgive me...but IF I decide to use the formic acid...it goes a top the brood box...right now I have one brood box and one super atop it...SO...I will put the pad atop the brood chamber frames, but may I place the super atop the brood chamber, and thusly atop the formic acid pad???
-
I will be using Apiguard this week. I had excellent results last year, mites dropped like a bomb on the first application, utilized a 2nd one, but not the 3rd. Mite count was very low on the 2nd ( less than 12 on the whole monitoring tray. :-D
-
BeeHopper,I am so worried about brood death...did you nitce an increase?
-
BeeHopper,I am so worried about brood death...did you nitce an increase?
I did not notice dead brood discarded outside the hive nor on the monitoring tray last year. I will monitor the results this year a little more closely. Last year I had Buckfast bees, this year it is the Italians. I will tolerate some brood loss to kill off the mites.
-
Here is another question for those of you who use Apiguard...were you down to just brrod boxes...I have 1 deep brood with 1 deep super above which I was going to leave on for Winter...can I put the Apigurd on top of the brood frames and add a spacer between the 2 boxes? ??
-
I also have had great results with apigaurd. one thing I did learn is to not put the full dose on a weak or small colony. just reduce the dosage and all was fine. I would do away with the spacer unless there is not enough room between the lid and the top of the frames. Most of the time I am down to just a single box, but if you have 2 then just put the apigaurd on top of that box. I think it will work the same.
-
How do you reduce the dose?
-
If you bought the foil pack version you will need to dip half of it out. If you bought the tub version then you just scoop 25g instead of the 50g. Any way that is the way i do it, not that it is the right way or only way just my version.
-
DVD, i use two deeps for winter. i put mine on the top of the two deeps. seemed to work fine.
-
Awesome Kathy!
Thanks so much,
Sharon
-
IF THE SUPPER contains honey NO if the supper contains brood put the pad above all brood you must remove honey supper if full of honey or you can place the rim and pad above all brood and cover rim with plywood top put supper on plywood and cover with your regular top when done with treatment restore order as usual still very easy and treatment only takes 21 days not long at all then you have clean bees noV mites no trac mites go to the web site or ask for the free dvd i think mannlake has the dvd RDY-B
-
rdy-b just a note to avoid confusion. the honey that you are going to eat should be off. it's ok to treat and leave the honey that is for the bees. :-)
-
Its for the bees :)
-
honey in the brood chamber ok for bees and for people to no residue WHAT you need to remember is you are turning your hive in to a vapor chamber you will also use by direction 1/2 inch shims to place the pad on inside the 1 1/2 inch rim thickness of pad is also 1/2 inch so you have 1/2 spacer + 1/2 pad +1/2 gap on-top = 1 1/2 space of rim air flow and dose as per evaporation rate have been figured out for you but you are treating bees and brood not honey understanding how vapor chamber works will make it all so clear for you :) http://www.miteaway.com/ very-easy RDY-B
-
note to aviod confusion post #24 responds to post # 14 and post#27 respondes to post # 25 :? RDY-B
-
:-D
-
note to aviod confusion post #24 responds to post # 14 and post#27 respondes to post # 25 :? RDY-B
ugh :?
Another note I believe that apriguard has a "o" day withdrawl period.
-
I used apiguard on 2 hives, and had not noticable brood disruption or queen death.
kev
-
Weel I lied, I bought Apiguard and Mite-Away II, but decided to sugar shake..got many mites after removing the sticky board after 1 hour...
-
Don't poison or contaminate your hive.Use sugar I guess if you think you have to.Talk to Charles Martin Simon he has good Ideas that could help
kirko