Suagr shaking method

[Cindi]

Well, something has come up and I do not know the answer to, I have never done the sugar shake with the bees.  There has been a great question asked:  it follows:

Is the sugar shooken over the top of the frames and allowed to drift down?

It was queried that the frames may be held horizontally (flat) and then shaken on, need a response to this.  I know many of you apply the sugar shake method, and it is effective.  Please elaborate when responding.

I do know that one of my bee instructors said that when the sugar shake is performed that the icing sugar can be mixed 90 parts icing sugar to 10 parts garlic powder.

Any ideas on what role the garlic powder would play?  He said that it does not impact any flavour into the honey and the bees actually like the garlic included.  Anyone use garlic powder along with sugar powder?  Have a wonderful day, great life, and the best of health wishes to us all.  Cindi

[Michael Bush]

>Is the sugar shooken over the top of the frames and allowed to drift down?

That's what I'd do.

>It was queried that the frames may be held horizontally (flat) and then shaken on, need a response to this.

I think this will kill more open brood.

>Any ideas on what role the garlic powder would play?

If it makes any difference I'd guess it's because it stinks and the bees want to get it off and groom more vigorously.

Anything that induces grooming helps with Varroa mites.

[DayValleyDahlias]

Excellent information~*~

[annette]

Hi Cindi

I will put my 2 cents in, even though there are many more experienced beekeepers here.

I  have been doing the powdered sugar treatments all year. I simply place about 2  cups sugar into a flour sifter. I start with the bottom brood box and sprinkle the sugar all over the top of the frames until all the frames are covered with a light film and then take the bee brush and gently sweep the sugar down into the frames. The bees freak out and get confused. I then place each box back on top and do the same with each. (The amount of 2 cups is for all the boxes meaning 2 cups total for the entire hive) Of course you have to make sure that you have some sort of sticky board underneath your open screened bottom board to catch the mites and to do the count - or simply just to catch all the powdered sugar that will fall down - and it is not a good idea to have powdered sugar all over the ground as it attracts ants. 

After applying the treatment, you have to wait about 1 hour and then clean off the sticky board (because the powdered sugar that falls down within this time frame could cover up the stickiness and the mites may be able to walk back up again). Then you insert the sticky board once again and wait for 24 hours, and do a count again. After that you can take the sticky board out. I use petroleum jelly on my sticky board but you could use oil I hear.

I am not terribly experienced with the numbers of mites to look for, but I just count them and if I find just a few, then I know that the hive is in good shape. Once I found about 100 and knew that I better do my treatments diligently for the 4 week period.

Hope this helps. You have always been so helpful to me. Have a wonderful day.

Annette

From what I am reading on this forum, it is not to be done when a flow is on because it would make the honey unpure.

I do these treatments as needed. At least once a month to check on how many mites I have and then treat once a week for at least 4 weeks if I find I have a high mite count. Once I only found about 15 mites on the sticky board and so stopped right there. 

[Kirk-o]

If you google coma apiaries and go to there site they have a picture of each step of a sugar shake.
kirko

[tillie]

Annette gave a perfect description.  There are pictures on my blog here:

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2007/03/bermuda-inspection-today.html

There are a lot of pictures of powdered sugar shakes on my blog - just search "powdered sugar" on the upper left.

Also on BeeSource, search "powdered sugar" and you'll find a description of how Randy Oliver does it.  He wrote an article for ABJ recently about how to do this.

Good luck with it, Cindi,

Linda T in Atlanta

[Cindi]

What a wonderful forum we all live in.  Thanks all for your time to respond to this post.  The informations are all invaluable and will help many people out. 

When I insert the sticky boards, I use pam spray, it is so quick to apply.  Petroleum jelly does work too, but I think that it would be a little more time consuming, just something to think about.  Have a wonderful day, great life and health to all.  Cindi

[annette]

You know what?? I think I will start to use the Pam Spray also. Yes, the petroleum jelly is quite messy. So the mites do stick quite well with the Pam spray???

Annette

[Mici]

You know what?? I think I will start to use the Pam Spray also. Yes, the petroleum jelly is quite messy. So the mites do stick quite well with the Pam spray???

Annette

petroleum jelly? sounds like napalm to me :-D

[Cindi]

Annette, pam works wonderfully.  That is what we were taught to use in our bee lessons.  Vaseline is too mucky for sure.  You don't even have to spray it on that thick either, just a light spray, enough that you can see it will catch any dirty old mite.  Eeeks, can't stand those critters.  Have a wonderful day, great life.  Cindi