NZBF: Out of date Apivar

[Stephen Horsley]

Entering my second year as a bk now. An eventful time leading up to this point. Briefly: Have two hives, one left over from a swam that requeened itself. It collapsed over winter and I nursed it back to health by taking brood from the strong hive. During the AFB check we noticed the strong hive was badly effected with deformed wing. The inspector initially thought it could be sac brood but then decided it was most likely varroa. So a reversal in hive strengths. He recommended treatment asap but I'm not keen until I remove the supers for extraction.
I purchased Apivar last Feb 2022 and notice it was out of date upon receiving it. Batch date manufacture is 25/01/21 - Thanks guys! Last treatment was Bayvarol.
Have ordered a new pack.
Question is: Do I biff the out of date one $60 down the drain or save the bees. Sort of answering my own question aren't I? Four strips out of a pack of 10 is also a waste. So once opened can you reseal and use later?
Two strips for each brood box is a bit wasteful as I run single brood boxes. Will treat both boxes even though the other is looking healthy.

 

[Josh]

I would talk to the person who sold you the apivar. They maybe unaware and should refund/replace.

You can also buy 4 packs of apivar.

Bee Mite Treatment: Apivar Miticide Strips

That’s one example I found in a quick google, and I’m sure others will have it too.

 

[frazzledfozzle]

never decide if a hive needs a treatment by looking at the bees, by the time you see mites on bees or deformed wings it’s gone too long.
either treat by the calendar or do learn how to do a sugar shake or alcohol wash.

 

[Josh]

never decide if a hive needs a treatment by looking at the bees, by the time you see mites on bees or deformed wings it’s gone too long.
either treat by the calendar or do learn how to do a sugar shake or alcohol wash.

Good advice, missed that. Personally…
Do both. Calendar if no reason to go early. Go when needed if needed. Etc. don’t skimp on dose & duration. Don’t try & save money. It’s a hobby… they’re designed to relieve you of money.

And although intimidating, the shakes are great. I used to do sugar, now I do alcohol (more reliable and marginally less gear) Great tool for figuring things out.

But you must have the queen isolated and safe 😅

 

[Josh]

read your thing more closely.

Don’t wait for honey supers to fill before you treat. You’ll loose the hive. But some treatments don’t necessarily need to have honey off. Or pull the ripe honey now and let them have the rest for winter.

But if you have DWV, you already have bad varroa.

 

[Alastair]

I purchased Apivar last Feb 2022 and notice it was out of date upon receiving it. Batch date manufacture is 25/01/21

Apivar is good for 2 years after manufacture. So if your Apivar was manufactured Jan. 21, it is good till Jan 23. IE, still good (just).
Even if you use it a couple of months after that date it is not going to flip a switch and just suddenly stop working on the expiry day, it will keep working a bit longer but if worried you could use 3 strips instead of 2.

And yes agree with the other posts, if your hive had noticeable symptoms of varroa it must be treated now. It may already be too late but waiting another month or two it will definitely be too late.

 

[Alastair]

Just to explain that further, during the summer the bee population builds up, and also the mite population. Eventually the bee population stabilizes and in autumn starts to reduce, but the mite population keeps growing. So there may be older adult bees that were not affected by mites, they are the flying bees and entrance activity can look good. But more and more brood is affected and a point is reached where nearly all brood is affected, this is when you start seeing symptoms in the hive such as dead brood and sick adults, even while entrance activity by the older unaffected bees can still look good.

Now, there will be increasing amounts of brood that dies, and if it does hatch the bees will not live long. Plus the older healthy looking bees are old and die soon. The hive can go from seemingly packed with bees, to dead in a few weeks.

Do not be fooled by seeing lots of bees still in the hive. If mite symptoms are seen you gotta treat now. What I also do in these cases is give them a comb of healthy brood from another hive as well as the treatment. This means that even if all the hive bees die off before the treatment has time to kill the mites and the bees die before they can raise healthy brood, the frame of healthy brood from another hive will hatch and the hive survive long enough to get a cycle of healthy brood through.

 

[Stephen Horsley]

T

I would talk to the person who sold you the apivar. They maybe unaware and should refund/replace.

You can also buy 4 packs of apivar.

Bee Mite Treatment: Apivar Miticide Strips

That’s one example I found in a quick google, and I’m sure others will have it too.

hanks Josh. Will definitely check it out.