Maqs

[beeno]

Hi all,
The advice I have received so far is that Maqs use puts the queen off lay for at least 3+ weeks and you may get a supercedure following its use. Is there anyone out there that has had a queen not affected in this way?

 

[starflex]

I used MAQS last August, on 6 stocks. There was a definite 3 or 4 day break in egg production, but things went back to normal straight after that. There were no supercedures (queens were marked and clipped and are still the same now).

 

[enrico]

Hardly a break in egg laying, one possible supercedure out of four

 

[Swarm]

Same as Starflex, used last summer, no issues. I think it's wise to use some common sense when dealing with colonies of varying strength and hive size. I don't know who advised you Beeno, from what I've seen, the bee inspectors don't appear to be very clued up about MAQS.

 

[itma]

... I think it's wise to use some common sense when dealing with colonies of varying strength and hive size. ...

Same here. One sachet still packs a punch.
Poly, being warmer also makes a difference to the strength of the fumes.
Open vent in the crownboard is more important than the entrance wide open IF you already have an open mesh floor.

Great stuff for in-season varroa problem firefighting.

I'd call it "misuse" to use it at Apiguard time. Misunderstanding the benefits and whatever minor downside risk. Use it earlier, leave your supers on longer.

 

[stephenpug]

Used it last year to good effect but I did loose a lot of bees (all dead by the entrance) but the hives came back stronger than ever

 

[gregior]

I used Maqs on all 4 of my hives on 3rd April (8 days ago) stopped them in their tracks for first 5 days no foraging whatsoever in this time.All queens now back laying .Killed a lot of young bees though (around 1 national frame per hive i'd estimate) and has left them rather grumpy. Decapped a few sealed drone cells to have a look and all the ones containing mites had dead mites inside them,no living mites seen.

 

[thebhoy]

I used it on 3 hives last year....started to panic when I seen the dead bees (mostly small / young) piling up and little external activity from very active hives.
Due to slow down of activity the wasps tried robbing the hives which added to the panic mode so had to minimise entrance and put plastic /glass in front to stop the wasps flying straight in.

A few days and they were back to normal....no queen loss and egg laying did not appear to be overly affected.

Will use again this year.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Four colonies treated last year. 2 supersedures, both in poly hives. Other two queens off lay for a few days.
I agree with itma; half dose in a poly, even 14x12, and not for use when supers come off at the end of summer.
I will treat June/July this year.

 

[tidymeup]

I have feel very much the same that it is better used earlier. And a full dosage in my polys was very harsh on the bees but they have come through it and allot stronger for it to.

 

[Norvic_chris]

I treated 3 hives at the end of last season (if I use MAQS again, I will treat earlier in the season to give them a better chance to re-queen if needed). I recorded lots of dead bees, especially in the poly-hive I'm testing, in which the queen died as well (I found her among the others). As it was late in the season I presumed it would be too late for a new queen to be mated. Checked last weekend and, to my relief, found it has 6 frames of brood, so I was wrong. Incidentally, the wooden hives have 5 frames of fuller brood each, suggesting very little difference between poly and wood this year. So, did the MAQS kill off the queen or was she going to be (or had she already been) superseded anyway? Unsure but I am still nervous about using MAQS again because of the dramatic impact on the colony.

To answer the original question, yes it definitely put all 3 queens off laying for at least 3 weeks and probably killed one - so I suppose the answer to your question is, technically, no I have not had a queen not affected like this!

 

[donaldb7340]

Just opened hive two weeks after applying MAQS. Very slow to lay, have seen a few uncapped brood but seems to have slowed the old girl down. Didn't see queen but some newly hatched eggs. The hive was on brood and a half so the size of the hive may be a bit off putting to them. I only went into top brood box, not bottom super but it has slowed them down for sure! Will leave it a week and check back and then may feed a little to hopefully kick start things if needed.

That said the mites are now away. Quick.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Swarm]

I'm just interested to know how others used this stuff because I had no worrying signs at all. They buzzed a little when I put the strips in but I had no piles of dead bees afterwards. Larger hives had two strips, smaller hives had one and all hives were configured the same ie OMF, no inspection boards.

 

[itma]

I'm just interested to know how others used this stuff because I had no worrying signs at all. They buzzed a little when I put the strips in but I had no piles of dead bees afterwards. Larger hives had two strips, smaller hives had one and all hives were configured the same ie OMF, no inspection boards.

What crownboard? Wooden hives?


My suspicion is that a nice warm poly hive (especially single brood national), two strips (as the instructions seem to indicate), AND the standard Paynes no-hole (flimsy plastic sheet) coverboard is not a good recipe, even with the standard OMF and no inspection board and regardless of the entrance size.

 

[keith pierce]

So what would you suggest for polyhives. One stip cut in half!!!!

 

[Swarm]

My largest hive was a poly and it had two strips. I should add that I also saw no difference at all between wood and poly and normal (sealed) crown boards were on all hives. In other words, the only thing different about the hives were the strips.

These treatment dosages are for Langstroth hives so I thought it was just common sense to be a bit prudent with its use, so single box Nationals got one strip.

 

[beeno]

All messages gratefully received - many thanks.