Concerning Developments in Canada

[Alastair]

OK back home. Re your treatment schedule of October and January, the January treatment would obviously require a lot of heavy lifting, why do you not do the second treatment at about the time the first treatment would have been chewed out, ie, say towards end of November?

Some thoughts on this are you are treating at a time the hives are very strong, where I have been treating much earlier, being August / September. Do you think that could be part of my problem?

 

[Gerrit]

OK back home. Re your treatment schedule of October and January, the January treatment would obviously require a lot of heavy lifting, why do you not do the second treatment at about the time the first treatment would have been chewed out, ie, say towards end of November?

Some thoughts on this are you are treating at a time the hives are very strong, where I have been treating much earlier, being August / September. Do you think that could be part of my problem?

Not too much heavy lifting, as we take excess honey off the hives every 2 to 3 weeks, dependent on what the season brings. Hives have only 2 3/4 honey boxes that way. Hives are very crowded in January and that seems to work for the treatment. The most advanced hives have about chewed it out about now, so in January we take out the left overs and insert new ones.

I don't really see the purpose of treating in early spring. If the hives had a good treatment in Autumn/Winter period, then there should be no need for early spring treatment. To get a good autumn/winter treatment, I put the Apivar in rather late (say end of March); that way I should end up with very low mite counts in early spring. The spring build up was good, no trouble.

 

[tristan]

3 strips per brood box (hive)
As stated end October and early January

apologies i'm a little under the weather at the mo, please excuse me if i miss read things.

so your basically doing a mid season treatment which pushes out the time needed for the autumn treatment. i see a bit of that in the far north.
its an excellent method. mite suppression during build up (when mites are also breeding the most) pays off in the long run.

thanks for the excellent info, its very helpful.

 

[James]

I’m reading all this stuff about O/A with interest.
We had a baptism of fire with the stuff a few years ago, and lost a lot of hives….
But have persevered…. And seem ti be succeding.
The recipe is synthetic in the autumn… one year Bayvarol, next year Apivar…. Then O/A right through the spring…. Keep feeding the strips in…. And then a final knockdown as we super up woth shop cloths.
Hey presto…. Strong hives ready to make honey.

 

[James]

 

[Josh]

Bare hands on the OA? Or are they pink gloves match the suit?

 

[James]

Nah … Bare hands…. Lifes too short and we like to live dangerously.

 

[Dennis Crowley]

I’m reading all this stuff about O/A with interest.
We had a baptism of fire with the stuff a few years ago, and lost a lot of hives….
But have persevered…. And seem ti be succeding.
The recipe is synthetic in the autumn… one year Bayvarol, next year Apivar…. Then O/A right through the spring…. Keep feeding the strips in…. And then a final knockdown as we super up woth shop cloths.
Hey presto…. Strong hives ready to make honey.

James whats your shop cloth recipie? pic of roll of cloths looks dry on top n wet on bottom, you soaking them in the roll?

 

[James]

James whats your shop cloth recipie? pic of roll of cloths looks dry on top n wet on bottom, you soaking them in the roll?

Yeah .... it's not very scientific ..... and you are right they look drier on the top than the bottom. They were a rush job and did'nt get long enough to drain.
We've been pulling honey today ... and doing mite shakes prior to blowing bees for SJA .... and the towels still have a sting in them. How do I know ?
Girl commented that the cut in her hand stung like crazy after pulling a towel out.
And the mite counts ..... we 've have'nt washed out one yet .