hivemaster varroa device

[tristan]

an article on a new device

Bee Happy: New Device Protects Hives From Colony-Killing Mites

ToBe has developed an autonomous solution to combat the deadly Varroa mite, which has been damaging bee colonies for decades.

nocamels.com

looks like manufactures site Home | ToBe | Varroa-free beekeeping

the article is poor to say the least, with some dubious claims and no reference to the trail which i can't find.
the web site gives no information.
imho this looks like a fishing lure.

will have to wait until they release some real information.

 

[Dansar]

an article on a new device

Bee Happy: New Device Protects Hives From Colony-Killing Mites

ToBe has developed an autonomous solution to combat the deadly Varroa mite, which has been damaging bee colonies for decades.

nocamels.com

looks like manufactures site Home | ToBe | Varroa-free beekeeping

the article is poor to say the least, with some dubious claims and no reference to the trail which i can't find.
the web site gives no information.
imho this looks like a fishing lure.

will have to wait until they release some real information.

Bit more detail here.

 

[Alastair]

These guys have been playing with this for a while, I read some unofficial trials they conducted maybe 6 or 9 months ago, the results were good, in terms of killing mites.

What I see as a problem with it is it is designed to work with amitraz. This steady flow of amitraz into the hive could result in higher residues than acceptable in NZ.

What I would like to see is something similar, but designed to give a shot of oxalic vapor every 3 days, for 7 or 10 cycles or be programmable to what the beekeeper wants. This, because I got good results trialing oxalic vapor, but what killed it from a commercial perspective was having to visit each site every 3 days for 21 days. This effectively tied me up for most of a month doing that and little else, so although the oxalic is cheap, the labor and mileage was not and killed it. But an auto dispenser device would render it doable. Especially if you could power a whole yard of them from a solar powered unit.

 

[tristan]

Bit more detail here.

thanks for that.

it highlights what i mean. no controls shown. they are comparing it to the strips and the strips are put in 8-10 weeks later. of course its better, treating earlier is always better. its comparing apples to grapefruit.

whats also really interesting is its short 2 week treatment is shown as good/better as 8 week. the whole point of 8 weeks is brood cycles (for eg bayvarol is 95% effective in 24hrs but it still requires 8 weeks treatment). however when you keep mites down super low you don't get many mites emerging from the brood. but if mite levels are not low because of drift etc, then it becomes a problem.

even the guy in the video "wants to see a true trail here in usa". enough said.

What I would like to see is something similar, but designed to give a shot of oxalic vapor every 3 days, for 7 or 10 cycles or be programmable to what the beekeeper wants. This, because I got good results trialing oxalic vapor, but what killed it from a commercial perspective was having to visit each site every 3 days for 21 days.

yes. that is known to work but having to manually do it every 3-4 days is a major drawback. an auto system would be very good. but i suspect the heating requirement would be a problem.

 

[tristan]

some quick and dirty math going by the numbers they mention, the actual dose per day is very similar between the device and the strips. however i'm not sure if its 0.2g compared to a single strip or two strips which is hive treatment. if its per treatment, then they are using roughly half as much.

the main factor here appears to be length of treatment. short treatment which you can get away with because of the very small amount of mites in the brood. not hard to guess what might happen when there is a lot of mites in the brood.