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<blockquote data-quote="Gerrit" data-source="post: 11837" data-attributes="member: 61"><p>Not exactly in the 300 plus category, but part of the year we are. Hope it adds to the discussion, but please take into account that this works for me here where I operate, but not necessarily everywhere, but have to emphasize that I do my beekeeping in a very crowded (hive density) area of the country.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I have been using OA/GL strips for a few years now and stick with it. I am not using only these strips, but do one Apivar treatment in autumn/winter time. In the active season I use the OA/GL strips. We use the Apivar in that time of the year because we have to, due to severe reinvasion pressure. In my view the OA/GL strips will not cope with that well in that time of year. For the OA/GL strips to work well, in my view, there needs to be activity in the hive, which is lacking in autumn/winter time, at least where I am. The Apivar comes out in June and after that no treatment till 2nd half of October. Normally put the OA/GL strips in end of October and again early January. I have learnt that that takes me to end of March to put Apivar in. This has worked for me quite well, that is not to say that I never see any damage due to varroa, but not more than working with synthetics only. Also our honey crop hasn’t suffered, which is very similar now to what it used to be when I treated only with synthetics (Bayvarol & Apivar).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>What I use:</p><p></p><p>solid cardboard strips: 45cm long, 3 cm wide and 2mm thick and weigh about 18 grams before soaking. I admit, they are quite bulky and as I use only 8 FD frames (tight together), they are covering temporarily quite a bit of comb space (about 5% max at the time of inserting). Of course I don’t like that, but in the end what matters, is how the hive copes with that and my experience so far is that the performance of the hive is not affected noticeably. The strips being bulky means that it takes some time for the bees to “chew” them away. It takes at least 2 to 3 weeks and most colonies take longer.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I soak the strips in a solution of 65 Gl and 35 OA by weight. I let the strips drip out after soaking and then lay them out between cardboard (folded out boxes) for a day or so to take excess OA/GL off the strips and after that they weigh 50-55 grams, which means they contain approx 11 grams of OA.</p><p></p><p>When I put the strips in full size colonies, I do not see damage other than the physically covered brood cells, which, as I said before, I don’t like, but doesn’t seem much to the detriment of the hive performance. I have been able to time the treatments in such a way, that I don’t see varroa related damage to the colony before April, which means I can cover with the Apivar treatment most of the reinvasion period in Autumn. I did some monitoring two years ago, but discontinued as it seems to work anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gerrit, post: 11837, member: 61"] Not exactly in the 300 plus category, but part of the year we are. Hope it adds to the discussion, but please take into account that this works for me here where I operate, but not necessarily everywhere, but have to emphasize that I do my beekeeping in a very crowded (hive density) area of the country. I have been using OA/GL strips for a few years now and stick with it. I am not using only these strips, but do one Apivar treatment in autumn/winter time. In the active season I use the OA/GL strips. We use the Apivar in that time of the year because we have to, due to severe reinvasion pressure. In my view the OA/GL strips will not cope with that well in that time of year. For the OA/GL strips to work well, in my view, there needs to be activity in the hive, which is lacking in autumn/winter time, at least where I am. The Apivar comes out in June and after that no treatment till 2nd half of October. Normally put the OA/GL strips in end of October and again early January. I have learnt that that takes me to end of March to put Apivar in. This has worked for me quite well, that is not to say that I never see any damage due to varroa, but not more than working with synthetics only. Also our honey crop hasn’t suffered, which is very similar now to what it used to be when I treated only with synthetics (Bayvarol & Apivar). What I use: solid cardboard strips: 45cm long, 3 cm wide and 2mm thick and weigh about 18 grams before soaking. I admit, they are quite bulky and as I use only 8 FD frames (tight together), they are covering temporarily quite a bit of comb space (about 5% max at the time of inserting). Of course I don’t like that, but in the end what matters, is how the hive copes with that and my experience so far is that the performance of the hive is not affected noticeably. The strips being bulky means that it takes some time for the bees to “chew” them away. It takes at least 2 to 3 weeks and most colonies take longer. I soak the strips in a solution of 65 Gl and 35 OA by weight. I let the strips drip out after soaking and then lay them out between cardboard (folded out boxes) for a day or so to take excess OA/GL off the strips and after that they weigh 50-55 grams, which means they contain approx 11 grams of OA. When I put the strips in full size colonies, I do not see damage other than the physically covered brood cells, which, as I said before, I don’t like, but doesn’t seem much to the detriment of the hive performance. I have been able to time the treatments in such a way, that I don’t see varroa related damage to the colony before April, which means I can cover with the Apivar treatment most of the reinvasion period in Autumn. I did some monitoring two years ago, but discontinued as it seems to work anyway. [/QUOTE]
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