The Honey Factory

[Apis mellifera]

For northern climate beekeepers now is the time to do an Oxalic Acid Dribble. Not all, but most mites are phoretic now and you can really do a number on them greatly increasing the chances of overwinter survival. Im treating all mine this week. I dont bother lifting and treating between boxes. Just remove the inner cover and drip roughly 5ml per seam. Quick and easy. Hoping everyone has booming hives this spring!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Your using a drizzle in 30 F weather? I'd think they'd be in a tight cluster making the application less effective. OA dissipates quickly on bees.

Here's a good presentation by Randy Oliver-

 

[Apis mellifera]

Your using a drizzle in 30 F weather? I'd think they'd be in a tight cluster making the application less effective. OA dissipates quickly on bees.

Here's a good presentation by Randy Oliver-

Yup! I have been treating this time of year for at least 12 years. Tight clusters make it hard for OAV to penetrate while OAD gets into it. Randy Oliver says that there is some evidence that OAD also could help purge Nosema. I do a lot of gut squashes and I have very few Nosema spores. So, the OAD may have something to do with it.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Randy is awesome. It amuses me that when he turned over the business to his sons it was with the caveat that at any given time he needed bees for research his boys must provide 100 colonies. He runs 300 colonies now in his retirement years.

Another good winter research person to watch or read is Thomas Seeley. This one is enjoyable-

 

[Apis mellifera]

Speaking of Randy, VT and NY have 2EE approval for extended release oxalic acid. If you haven't tried it yet I highly recommend it. When the Maggi paper was released, I used the chipboard method for 2 years and was pretty happy with it. But the second year the bees started carving out the comb around the board strips, so I switched to the shop towels but didnt have very good mite control. I went with the swedish sponges the last 2 years and Im really happy with it. It's not perfect but if you start out with low mite counts most hives stay that way.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I started with swedish sponge then for economics purchased a box of spilltech lightweight cellulose pads. $60 then $30-ish for shipping. At 19x17 inches that's 400 full colony applications per box. For those with a lot of hives or a beekeeping group buy to save money. I can't say how effective they are as my colonies never had a mite in any wash until August. I left a drone colony untreated until July and still didn't wash a mite. I put the OA pad on anyway. Not that I'm wishful to get mites but I can't check for effectiveness without finding them first.

https://www.criticaltool.com/style/...Rty0RxqrIL8EHba4ZeUnYF7IPHatHDzBoCmCoQAvD_BwE

 

[Apis mellifera]

It's tough, some years mites are easy to control and others not so much. Last year's mite counts where always low and this year I had a 2 hives with high counts I had to get under control. I suspect robbing. I did get on the list for UBeeO test kits. Not sure what I would do with the test results, but at least I could see if some of my colonies are hygienic.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

LMAO. I got on the list too. I was saddened they were selling as single use test. I ordered 20. Wish they'd have given some idea of shelf life.

I set up a breeding yard where I organize a beekeeping group. Last year my mite loads were high and robbing was out of control. This year I raised various Carnica lines and refused to keep yellow bees. Set up three drone colonies on local Amish farms to saturate the area. I'll be using the UBO in 2014 for pre-selection of potential breeders. Not that a potential breeder should forego a winter survival trial but a person could use the test to select for August requeening for example.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Something you probably know but I only recently learned was what to do with the queens I normally would have performed a hive tool test on. A queen tossed into vial with small amount of rubbing alcohol and mixed up makes for a swarm lure. It has a great shelf life. Swarm Commander is pricey.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Lol, no yellow bees for me either. I haven't added anything to my home yard in years, but I have a small out yard and tried a couple of Munkres queens last year and they're very good bees. MANY years ago, I had a queen that put out a few of the most lemon yellow drones I ever saw. I'll never see those again.