Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: woodchopper on March 10, 2010, 10:03:19 am
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Of you beekeepers who use powdered sugar for mite control I have a question for you. Have you ever hear this practice can dry out the brood cells and cause brood loss ? I bought one of these http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Powdered-Sugar-Blower/productinfo/599/ (http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Powdered-Sugar-Blower/productinfo/599/) to use when I don't have the time or the weather prevents me from spreading PS on top of the brood boxes. I was told if I used this blower I'd cause problem within the hive as far as brood goes. Anyone here know if this is true ? Thanks.
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I was thinking of the same purchase...( baited breath ) I am looking forward to responses. CVB
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I got one this winter from brushy mountain to try this summer.... It could not hurt the brood, only provide a sugar source for them to feed on in the royal jelly....
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That's a pretty neat little device...
I just take the top off the hive, put an insect screen right on top of the frames, put a cup or two of powdered sugar and brush it around the screen with a bee brush. very little stays on the top of the bars, it all falls through the frames and get all the girls coated...
ususally once in late June, once more ten days after that, then once the season has ended and the queen has stopped laying.
So a total of 3 times in a year. Of course I have screened bottoms to let the mites fall out.
Right now, mite count is zero.
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Could you do it now at the begining of the year?
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I heard this also, but have no way to verify the truth. I did powdered sugar treatments for several years, and now I stopped all together.
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I guess you could do it now...
The most important is the one at the end of the year, that one gets a good two cups of sugar.
but do it now, it won't hurt the bees, it knocks off the mites that are not in the brood...that why I do it again ten days apart, the ones in the brood will be out then, this does not achieve zero count during the year, but when the queen is no longer laying, all the mites are out...you get real close to zero. At least it keeps your bees from sharing the hive with the mites over the winter.
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I heard this also, but have no way to verify the truth. I did powdered sugar treatments for several years, and now I stopped all together.
Were you unsatisfied with the results ?
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Powdered Sugar Study (http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1184&context=entomologyfacpub)
This is an actual study to see what the effects powdered sugar has on eggs and brood. It definitely had a negative effect, but they were pouring powdered sugar directly into the cells, not dusting the bees vertically.
I plan on dusting mine in late summer.
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Powdered Sugar Study (http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1184&context=entomologyfacpub)
This is an actual study to see what the effects powdered sugar has on eggs and brood. It definitely had a negative effect, but they were pouring powdered sugar directly into the cells, not dusting the bees vertically.
I plan on dusting mine in late summer.
Thank you for posting this. I'll be trying mine out as well but plan on doing it a few times over the course of the summer if the mite counts indicate that I should.
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I heard this also, but have no way to verify the truth. I did powdered sugar treatments for several years, and now I stopped all together.
Were you unsatisfied with the results ?
I was very satisfied with the results for 3 years, but end of last year I dusted one hive in the fall and had a bad experience with them.
After the dusting, lots of bees came out and hung in a tight ball for several hours. I had a feeling they were balling the queen. Who knows why they did that, but I ended up losing that hive over the winter.
Last year I checked the mite count on all my hives and they were very low, so never dusted any of them. After that, I had heard from other beeks that it affects the larvae (kills them) so I never planned on dusting them again.
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I dust my hives every 3 weeks when I remove their respective capped drone frames. I have a screened box the fits right over the deep. I pour on a couple of cups of powdered sugar and sweep it around with my bee brush until it's all gone through the screen. Once through the screen I remove the box and quickly sweep the powdered sugar that's on top of the frames between the frames and close the hive up. It takes no more than 2 minutes and you'll see "ghosts" everywhere. Ironically, I invariably see ghosts in hives that I haven't "dusted" yet.
I do this before the flow and once the flow is over until the queen stops laying for winter. During flow I let the bees focus on honey production.