MAQS during swarming season

[gregior]

Howdy I have quite a lot of mites in my colonies at the moment and want to treat them now so they can be in good shape for the Balsam later in the year.

I usually vape my bees but with all the brood at the moment and supers on the hive I have got some MAQS and plan to treat this week.I'm worried because 3 of the one's i'm treating have Q cells waiting to hatch,would it be a bad idea to treat now? I'm thinking it may harm the larvae or the cell may be abandoned.

If however i wait till the virgins are out will there be a chance they will kill her?

Ta

 

[Millet]

Just vape them 3 X 5 days apart Problem solved with no dead anything apart from Varroa and the honey will still be yummy .

 

[gregior]

Just vape them 3 X 5 days apart Problem solved with no dead anything apart from Varroa and the honey will still be yummy .

Is vaping with supers on not a bit of a nono? Also i'm not convinced vaping 3x will be as effective at this time of year with the large amount of brood present.

 

[Beefriendly]

Is vaping with supers on not a bit of a nono? Also i'm not convinced vaping 3x will be as effective at this time of year with the large amount of brood present.

Take the supers off when you vape. The 3 x 5 days is supposed to allow for brood emerging with new varroa. It usually works, but not always...best to do checks as you go.

 

[Millet]

Is vaping with supers on not a bit of a nono? Also i'm not convinced vaping 3x will be as effective at this time of year with the large amount of brood present.

Try it like i do and suck it and see, what have you got to loose other than Varroa..

 

[Michael Palmer]

Also i'm not convinced vaping 3x will be as effective at this time of year with the large amount of brood present.

I'm not either. I tried this once in September. With high mite loads...20-25/300 bees, using alcohol wash. Vaped 3 times a week apart. Sampled a week after last treatment. Mite counts stayed the same or went up. I suppose 7 days is too long. What is better? 5 days? 3 days? Oh boy!

 

[Millet]

I'm not either. I tried this once in September. With high mite loads...20-25/300 bees, using alcohol wash. Vaped 3 times a week apart. Sampled a week after last treatment. Mite counts stayed the same or went up. I suppose 7 days is too long. What is better? 5 days? 3 days? Oh boy!

Now you know .. and i also know , what i know is the mites on my bees are minimal, but i am in a different country/climate to you , and for the record i listen to your good advice..

 

[Beefriendly]

My limited experience of doing 4 to 5 autumn vapes 5 days apart on around 20 hives per annum suggest it works in most cases, but not all. Had a couple of real problem hives where the mite drop didn't come down, even after 5 vapes. Ended up with 10 vapes to get mite levels down...they didn't make it through the winter.
I think we are missing part of the equation.

 

[Finman]

.
You may do an artificial swarm with laying queen. You drop the mites away from that with one treatment.

Then you treat separarely the brood part once a week. Brood emerge in 3 weeks and the hive is cleaned.

Brood hive should be quite far, that mites do not drift back to the clean colony. It is better to catch drones away from mite hive with excluder. Drones move with their mites easely to neighbour hives.

It is mid May now. The hives has time to build up.

It takes 3 days when bees move from old hive to swarm hive.
.

 

[oliver90owner]

What is the point in treating several times when one can wait for all brood to emerge - and then treat? Far simpler and more sensible, IMO, to treat the lot all at the same time.

It is very doubtful that a new queen will have capped brood within three weeks of an A/S.

There may be some carry-over of mites to the old queen section, unless only open brood is taken with that part. Even then, the capped brood can be transferred back to the old parent hive as soon as there is fresh open brood in that part.

Just needs thinking about, for maximum efficacy of any treatment.

RAB

 

[Eyeman]

Is vaping with supers on not a bit of a nono? Also i'm not convinced vaping 3x will be as effective at this time of year with the large amount of brood present.

Your right on both points. Oxalic acid should not be used with supers on. They should come off first. The effectivness of your treatment will definitely be less when brood is present.
What do you mean by "quite a lot of mites" ? Have to done a sticky board count, sugar/alcohol roll/wash, seen mites in drone brood or on bees?

 

[Erichalfbee]

RAB is spot on. It’s really easy to engineer a brood free period when you artificially swarm

 

[Finman]

What do you mean by "quite a lot of mites" ? Have to done a sticky board count, sugar/alcohol roll/wash, seen mites in drone brood or on bees?

If you see with eyes that there are lot of mites, this time of year, it is too much without exact counting. The colony will be destroyed in autumn. It is better now to stop mite's multiplication than later.

.

 

[boywonder]

If you see with eyes that there are lot of mites, this time of year, it is too much without exact counting. The colony will be destroyed in autumn. It is better now to stop mite's multiplication than later.

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I would agree that this needs nipping in the bud ASAP. We all have our own ways and experiences, but I would wholeheartedly endorse the use of MAQS. I have used MAQS many times and find the efficacy amazing, and, of course it is a one week treatment, which deals with the mites in the brood too - not just the phoretoc mites. In my opinion and limited experience, it is the closest thing to a 'silver bullet' which we have in our armoury. Others report queen deaths, but - touch wood - after using it over 10 times, this is thankfully something I have not had. The queen will probably go off-lay for about 2 days ... Which seems a small price to pay.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[gregior]

Your right on both points. Oxalic acid should not be used with supers on. They should come off first. The effectivness of your treatment will definitely be less when brood is present.
What do you mean by "quite a lot of mites" ? Have to done a sticky board count, sugar/alcohol roll/wash, seen mites in drone brood or on bees?

I did 5 vapes 5 days apart last Autumn but still had mites and bees with dwv in a couple of the colonies this spring.I use solid floors so count is harder but i would say mite levels are too high in mostof my colonies.

RAB is spot on. It’s really easy to engineer a brood free period when you artificially swarm

Yes it's easy to engineer in one colony i agree but I have 10 in my apiary now and having them all broodless at the same time would be nigh on impossible so i'm going to use MAQS to blast the whole lot at the same time.I will wait until the Q calls have hatched then treat-wish me luck!

 

[Millet]

All i can say is the vaping has worked for me every time.. good luck..

 

[Erichalfbee]

I did 5 vapes 5 days apart last Autumn but still had mites and bees with dwv in a couple of the colonies this spring.I use solid floors so count is harder but i would say mite levels are too high in mostof my colonies.



Yes it's easy to engineer in one colony i agree but I have 10 in my apiary now and having them all broodless at the same time would be nigh on impossible so i'm going to use MAQS to blast the whole lot at the same time.I will wait until the Q calls have hatched then treat-wish me luck!

Keep an eye on the temperature though

 

[Brigsy]

Those that have successfully used maqs, how many strips did you use?

 

[Finman]

Those that have successfully used maqs, how many strips did you use?

You see advices in package and it works according the air volume of hive.

Stuff is formic acid.