Quick question

[kittietrixie]

Hi. First year wintering bees so question may be stupid. Is it ok to feed sugar syrup while varroa treatment is in place?

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes it is

a quick answer

 

[For want of a better word]

Yes it is

a quick answer

mine get a double whack.... Thymol in with the feed!!!!!

 

[kittietrixie]

Thank you. Off I go then!!

 

[gingerbees]

interested in this becase I was under the impression that we should remove feed while using apiguard?
does this mean its ok to carry on feeding while using it ? we have ordered the packets you put on top of the frames

 

[Hebeegeebee]

You may need to remove the supers whilst feeding Apiguard as you don't want thymol in any honey you extract in the future.

Feeding at the same time as Apiguarding is fine.

 

[gingerbees]

we haven't got any supers on ours, just Ambrosia feed for the ladies. Interesting that we can feed and treat.
That said I can't think where i got the impression you couldnt treat and feed at the same time from.
Bit of a surprise for us to treat at all because up until this week we had about three mites in three days on our boards, then yesterday after 48 hours we found nearly thirty on on hives board.

 

[luckyclover]

Hi,

The advice is to start the treatment a few days before you feed to ensure they work the gel first. You may find they won't take syrup whilst the gel is in place, if that happens try fondant.

Regarding the removal of supers - I left the super I wanted them to keep last year during treatment. The wax didn't retain any (taste) detectable thymol and it didn't taint the honey..

 

[For want of a better word]

You may need to remove the supers whilst feeding Apiguard as you don't want thymol in any honey you extract in the future.

Feeding at the same time as Apiguarding is fine.

Unless of course you are keeping the super as winter feed, in which case you will be giving it back to them on the comb with the super under the BB for winter?
I have been feeding thymolated 2;1 syrup, same time as treating with apigaard, and bees are busy packing this away at same time as pulling in the ivy and packing it into the super.

Question.... will the wax in frames of drawn comb get flavoured / tainted with thymol ?

 

[luckyclover]

If I wasn't wanting to leave a super on for winter I might just use an empty super to give the bees sufficient room whilst treating.
I do keep a super under the brood box for winter, tried it last year and the bees built up quicker I thought.
I never could detect thymol either from treated syrup or Apiguard by the time summer came around again.. I wouldn't leave any of the pyrethyroid treatments (don't use them anymore anyway) on a hive with supers I wanted to use though.

 

[Bob Bee]

Hi. First year wintering bees so question may be stupid. Is it ok to feed sugar syrup while varroa treatment is in place?

see the misplaced thread:
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=13429