OA and honey

[pgg]

Does anyone know if there is a certain amount of time that you need to finish OA treatments before a honeyflow begins?

Thanks for any help.
Patrick

[carbide]

From what I've read and been told, you can super your hives right after treating with OA. The longest waiting period that I've heard mentioned is 24 hours.

[ January 30, 2006, 12:54 PM: Message edited by: carbide ]

[Liz Corbett]

Hi!

According to research done by Alison Skinner in Ontario and Marion Ellis, University of Nebraska,(and others I am sure), there is no sense treating with Oxalic Acid when brood is present in the hive. You will do a lot of work for nothing if treating with brood present.
Varroa is a brood disease and oxalic kills varroa present only on the adult bees. Marion Ellis, at the ABF meeting in Louisville, showed through his trials that oxalic treatment with brood present was ineffective.
Treatment is recommended in the late fall when the hive is broodless.
A good regimen is a formic acid treatment after supers come off in the fall and oxalic in the late fall. This will reduce adult varroa levels going into winter and hopefully result in low varroa levels in the spring.

Liz Corbett
NOD Apiary Products Ltd.
www.miteaway.com (http://www.miteaway.com)

[pgg]

Thanks for the information!

Patrick

[ScadsOBees]

Treating without brood is easiest, but if you do have a problem in the spring and want to knock them back, you would need to do multiple treatments about a week or 5 days apart. This won't be 100% effective but can help get through to fall.

[MikeGillmore]

If you have a serious mite problem brewing, right now would be the best time to do a series of OA vapor treatments over a 3 week period ... before the brood nest expansion really gets going. You might not get them all but you will reduce the numbers dramatically and give your bees a chance to get off to a better start in the spring.

Treating when broodless is most effective, but I don't agree that it's a waste of time to treat when brood is present. Not long ago my hives were terribly mite infested, showing DWV, and very high mite drop counts... even though I had done fall formic acid treatments. Last week I just finished a series of OA treatments and it looks like most of the mites are knocked down. I don't know if they would have made it through the winter without some help. We'll see how things go this spring.

I asked for OA feedback about a month ago and several people responded saying it was a very effective treatment. After trying it I also agree. And it can be used right up to supering without worry of contaminating the wax or honey.

I'll be requeening this summer and starting the switch to SC, but for now OA worked well.

[Liz Corbett]

With multiple treatments of OA, you have to be careful not to overdose your bees. There was some discussion in Louisville about OA overdoses in California. A warning was given during a panel discussion not to treat more than 3 times when brood is present, or you could start losing bees. I guess it must have happened to at least one beekeeper!
Also, remember that OA is not really legal in the US. I hope you can get it registered with EPA because it is definitely a great alternative to the hard stuff.

Liz Corbett.