MAQ strip dosage

At our apiary meeting yesterday we discussed hive treatments and a few people said that the dosage for MAQ strips has been reduced to one strip per hive. Has anyone else heard this? I've googled that question and could not find any reference to this. When one of us questioned why this was the case a reply was that hives in Canada (home of the strips) were much bigger and required a higher dosage. I've since discovered Canadian hives are mainly Langstroths so not really the reason. Any thoughts?

The pack I used a couple of weeks ago clearly still had 2 as the dose.




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There seems to be all sorts of rumours going round. I stick to two strips as per instructions, varroa floor open and reduced entrance. Works for me
E

I do as per enrico but can I just add that MAQS is better used earlier in the year so that the bees have time to remedy queen problems should they occur. I did mine in July. I put the strips on in September last year and had two queens superseded.

2 strips.

Full colony in std national with a super or 2, 2 strips.
Ditto 14x12, with or without supers.

Small colony would consider 1, cut in half and placed either side of brood nest.

Dont use it on my Nucs.

The point of MAQS is to use it earlier - at which point there should be supers on the hive. Which is just fine, with two strips.
This time of year is fine for Apiguard, but needlessly late for MAQS.

Single brood box only … I'd give it just one MAQS strip, and definitely if it was (warmer) poly.
But that isn't in the instructions.

This time of year is absolutely fine for MAQS especially as it is effective at lower temperatures than Apiguard and the queen is only out of lay for 3 or 4 days at most. Single strips will work OK but a lower % of the total mte population will be killed compared with two strips. Treated 28 colonies last year and so far 23 this year (6 on the heather not yet treated) and not a single queen loss and only one bearded on the first day

masterBK said:

This time of year is absolutely fine for MAQS especially as it is effective at lower temperatures than Apiguard and the queen is only out of lay for 3 or 4 days at most. Single strips will work OK but a lower % of the total mte population will be killed compared with two strips. Treated 28 colonies last year and so far 23 this year (6 on the heather not yet treated) and not a single queen loss and only one bearded on the first day

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What is the latest you would use MAQs?
I am running Dadants and Bees are working late Sunflowers.

masterBK said:

This time of year is absolutely fine for MAQS especially as it is effective at lower temperatures than Apiguard …

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It is partly because the remote chance of late-season queen loss is SO awkward for the few-hive hobby beekeeper that MAQS is better used early.

It doesn't *NEED* to wait until the harvest has been taken (Apiguard, and other thymol products do require waiting).
And the extra hive volume of treating with supers on, serves to moderate the blast from the MAQS.


By waiting until after the crop has been taken, one loses some of the advantage of choosing MAQS, and increases the consequences of the small risk involved.


It ain't just about temperature …

I've just used MAQS. 2 strips per hive, 2 supers on each hive and significant bee loss! I didn't open entrance to full width though which may have been an issue. Am desperately hoping HM was not one of the corpses!

Pips said:

I've just used MAQS. 2 strips per hive, 2 supers on each hive and significant bee loss! I didn't open entrance to full width though which may have been an issue. Am desperately hoping HM was not one of the corpses!

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OMF open?

If those colonies were treated in August both this and last year, there would have been a huge difference in temperature between the two seasons. I always try to achieve some initial bearding when applying thymol - that is the main secret to success, I believe - without overdoing it. Needs more consideration than simply blindly following a set of universal instructions but has worked for me. Might not be a good idea to suggest it to certain beginners and some slow learners, mind. Just for thinking beeks!

Yes OMF

If you are using a national hive you've to use 1 strip. Yes it does say 2 in the instructions but when maqs was doing its own research on how much to use, they did this in a dandant hive which is quite larger than a national

irishguy said:

If you are using a national hive you've to use 1 strip. Yes it does say 2 in the instructions but when maqs was doing its own research on how much to use, they did this in a dandant hive which is quite larger than a national

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Another rumour!

I treated one hive that didn't seem to be doing well and had a lot of DWV in June with 2 strips. A lot of dead bees and brood out front. Another beek said he was halving the dose after similar experience last year. I then treated two other hive with a single strip in each and split in two in the hive. They seem to react a lot better. Both hives weren't bursting with bees which is one reason I didn't want to use two strips per hive.

enrico said:

Another rumour!

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That can from the guys from maqs at the Irish beekeeping convention in gormonstown just recently

I tried MAQ's on half of our loads and for 150 hives with OMF had no issues at 2 strip dosage (entrance block in). The only ones that experienced bee loss were 6 with solid floors (entrance block removed).

irishguy said:

That can from the guys from maqs at the Irish beekeeping convention in gormonstown just recently

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Then someone should tell them to change the instructions! You can't put instructions on a box and then say 'oh but they are different for you!'
E