Hi, can any one please offer some sound advice. I have Apistan in four of my hives. They have approximately 3 weeks to go before they need removing. Two hives are not in a good state, and the Apistan does not seem to be effective enough. Does any one know if I can use another set of strips once the first set comes out. I do not want to harm the hives. I use Bayvarol normally in spring, all hives have enough stores, pollen etc. I hope some one can help.
Varroa issues with my hives...
- Thread starter Viv
- Start date
Hi. It's difficult to give advice without good information. Hence Grants response. Saying that the hives are in poor shape is not enough to go on.
Best is photos of each hive. What the bees,brood look like.
Yes, you can add other treatment after, though a waste of time/money if the interigty of the hive is stuffed.
Probably lots of deformed wing virus.
You may need to add healthy brood from the best hive to the weak ones.
Reduce entrances. High risk of robbing. Don't take long doing any checks.
An oxalic dribble could help.
Maybe get some Apivar and use that because it’s a different chemical.
Apistan and Bayvarol have the same active ingredient so are essentially the same which would mean you haven’t been alternating treatments which is very important to try and delay/eliminate resistance .
Apistan and Bayvarol have the same active ingredient so are essentially the same which would mean you haven’t been alternating treatments which is very important to try and delay/eliminate resistance .
Sorry I meant Apitraz in the hives. DWV is present. Just obtained my DECA and have done the match stick test, checked for all symptoms of AFB. Nothing definitive. I am feeling sure it is all Varroa related. One hive which is the worst has been robbed out and I have added stores.
Double edged sword..
adding brood also weakens the good colony..
feeding syrup to a weak hive with known robbing going on... hmm
Could be a case of uniting them together and re split once varroa has been dealt to and they’re on the power curve next spring.
As others have said.. add some pics if you can- says a thousand words..
adding brood also weakens the good colony..
feeding syrup to a weak hive with known robbing going on... hmm
Could be a case of uniting them together and re split once varroa has been dealt to and they’re on the power curve next spring.
As others have said.. add some pics if you can- says a thousand words..
Agreed but if they are low on food they will need something. With 4 hives a frame from each of the two strong ones shouldnt be too devastating if they have bees to spare but would make a big difference to a weak hive.
If you united them would you kill the weak queen or use a QE and cohabitate?
most likely the better way to fix this.
however i suspect all hives will be in a similar condition.
it really needs to have an experienced beek to have a look as i suspect the condition of them is being underplayed.