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Started fogging today.

93K views 204 replies 59 participants last post by  AHudd 
#1 ·
Well i started fogging today never did it before i did all 10 hives in no time[15 min. tops} .
I did a mite count with sticky boards before and after the before was real low in all hives{no more then 5 in 48 hours}but it is only the start of the year here.
The after {3 hours} even lower then before I'm going to do a count in 48 hours and see what they look like then.
I'll bee fogging every 7 to 10 days till fall and i'll let besource know how it goes . I'll give it a year with these 10 hives then we'll know if fogging with FGMO is good for varroa or not .
I did not kill any bees with fogging{and i did them real well } they where calm with in 5 mins. after theywhere fogged.
I'm going to do a alcohol wash with nurse bees as soon things start booming here.
I will update everytime i fog . Hope it works;)
 
#4 ·
Re: Started fooging today.

Did you add anything to the FGMO like thyme oil and do you remove the honey supers before you fog the hive?
NO its straight FGMO i want to see how that works before i add any thing and yes i do have honey supers on some of my hives.
Again i have low mite counts right now. things are heating up we will see how it goes this year.
 
#5 ·
Re: Started fooging today.

Well this is my second time fogging and all went well the bees don't really seem to mind plus the whole bee yard is calm with in 5 min. after i'm done and no stings as I stood 3 foot away watching them so they where not that upset or they would of let me know.
I have 5 hives that are crazy big right now and growing if I can keep them from swarming I should get a good honey crop.
My mite count was around 5 mites in 24 hours on sticky boards and some even lower now i'll do a mite count in 24 hours and see.
I don't have any crawlers any where and have not seen many mites in the drone brood so I think my mite count is low every hive seems happy and growing some faster then others but growing.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Re: Started fooging today.

Hope you stick with it, this will be interesting to follow.

If you want to really add some depth to your trial, having a couple of control hives that are not fogged at all would give you a nice baseline comparison so you could measure the effectiveness of the fogging.

To further explain ... if the colonies happen to be doing well at the end of the year you won't "really" know if the fogging had anything to do with it. There could always be the possibility that they would be in the same shape if you had fogged or not. You would need some untreated colonies in the same area to be able to determine any impact the fogging may have had. If all you are concerned about is survival rates then a control group is not necessary, they will either live or die. But if you want an accurate answer on fogging I think some untreated colonies to measure against would be very valuable information.
 
#11 ·
Re: Started fooging today.

Hope you stick with it, this will be interesting to follow.

If you want to really add some depth to your trial, having a couple of control hives that are not fogged at all would give you a nice baseline comparison so you could measure the effectiveness of the fogging.

To further explain ... if the colonies happen to be doing well at the end of the year you won't "really" know if the fogging had anything to do with it. There could always be the possibility that they would be in the same shape if you had fogged or not. You would need some untreated colonies in the same area to be able to determine any impact the fogging may have had. If all you are concerned about is survival rates then a control group is not necessary, they will either live or die. But if you want an accurate answer on fogging I think some untreated colonies to measure against would be very valuable information.
Last year I had 5 strong hives just crumble in july it was very sad to watch being a hobbyist {I hate to see crawlers} I wanted to be treatment free but as I researched varroa mite I know ya have to try and to let the bees get strong and fight back and with brood breaks /drone frames/ and FGMO fogging/ and most of my hives are on 4.9 cell in the brood cambers might help let them get strong and be able to fight back we will see.
I'm going to do some splits here real soon and I think i'll make a starter cell hive today to make some new queens.
I love my bees and apiary and I know i'll beat the mite one day {hopefully this year} this past winter was a bad one here and I have 10 good hives this spring so I must be doing something right.
Most of my hives are on 4.9 cell in the brood cambers so i'll see how that works out.
Next year i'll do the control hives thing but for this year I want to get the mite in control .
One of many bee keeping goals is to never by bees to make my own and this is the first year I didn't buy bees in 4 years of beekeeping.:thumbsup:
 
#12 · (Edited)
Re: Started fooging today.

I don't have experience with this. Why would you fog if mite counts are low?

Sondra
To stay on top the mites fogging don't seem to bother the bees and mite keep hatching.
I have not seen one dead bee from fogging yet so I don't think it's hurting them.
Did a mite count today after fogging yesterday no difference then before fogging 3 to 5 mites on sticky board.
Not seeing any sign of DWV OR many mites in the brood or crawlers so far the year is going good seen eggs in all hives today and no QCs :thumbsup:
 
#13 ·
Re: Started fooging today.

Well here it is mid JUNE and things are moving along and doing well.
I have now fogged 4 times{once a week} And 6 of the ten hives I have are now coming out of a brood break . I had took the queens out of 4 of my production hives right as the flow started to happen and I must say it was a good idea I had no swarms this year and I have honey every ware it was just nuts . I am not seeing many mites I am using SBB with sticky boards and a count before I fogged today was low on all hive no more then 5 mites out of any hives in a 24 hour test. Now after the fogging I had one that dropped 30 now that was 4 hours after the fogging that was a hive that was superseduring and I took the queen out and that was 18 days ago so the brood in that hive is about to be all hatched out and the new virgin queen go out and do her thing and get back to laying some winter bee. The rest of my hive even the ones I have not given a brood break have low mite counts nothing over 5 after a fogging but again the mite season about to heat up plus all brood boxes on most anyway are 4.9. And just to let everyone know breathing FGMO won't kill ya or i'd be dead:D. My bees are strong this year and I seem to be able to/ keep them in the hive this year /made honey 30qt so far this year/made 6 new nucs/and 10 new queens/ and I have not even started to do splits to get my nuc numbers up so I can sell a few next year. Great year so far and well is fogging working i'm not sure but I have no virus and every hive seems happy we will see how JULY goes .
This is been my best year by far I sold almost 100.00 worth honey half pints are really liked and I get 5.00 a pop.
I do love my bees.
 
#14 ·
Re: Started fooging today.

I have fogged twice, three weeks apart - as fatbeeman suggested. But I think that I will fog again tomorrow which will put me on a two week schedule. As Glock said, it is so fast and easy that I would be happier fogging every two weeks. I did add 15 drops of spearmint oil to 16 oz. of FGMO.
Charlie

13 hives - zone 5
 
#16 ·
Re: Started fooging today.

If you ever let the fog back up until it hits the flame on the fogger, it makes a very "exciting" explosion, blowing the lid off the hive etc....
I had a flame up once with a fogger. Got it too hot and it turned into a flame thrower. Thankfully no 'splosions.

I'm planning on FGMO tests here as well. Thanks for this thread.
 
#17 ·
Re: Started fooging today.

Well here we are almost mid JULY and I have very low mite counts I have been fogging weekly and all the hives I over wintered in to spring are doing well all strong. all but one I took the queens out and put in a nuc so all but one had a brood break most last month some this month but the one I didn't take the queen out of is 4 deeps high and crazy strong and no mites on the sticky board.
I am seeing less and less mites since I started fogging on 5/19 I have no DFWV or any virus at all things are going great I have 2 hives I am waiting to see eggs or a new queen but all hives are doing great I made 12 nucs and all have laying queens plus I have 4 queens in a queen castle. I know i'm happy with the fogging with FGMO .
I hade a drone frame that was filled with 2/3ds of capped drone brood and out of both sides I seen only 1 mite that's right just one and I checked bottom of cells and top sides no mites. Well see how things go going in to fall. So far fogging is working for me.
Not having mites is so nice make things a lot easier and the bees are a lot more manageable.
Started with 10 and all are still growing and doing great.:thumbsup:
 
#18 ·
I would like to see someone cut open some drone cell or, if possible, get some bees with mites on them, put them in a container or mason jar and fog it to see the affects on the mites. I will try this after I save my last hive. Just found my queen stumbling around bare plastic foundation.
Thanks again for keeping this thread going. I always got the impression people are quick to jump on the anti-fogging band wagon without giving it a valid chance. People like yourself who continue to test it may find more efficient ways of utilizing it or additions to the oil to make it more effective.
 
#20 ·
I let them re queen and out of 9 that I pulled the queens out of 7 have stated laying again with new queens and the other 2 i'm guessing still have virgin queens .
It takes around 35 days till I seen real eggs production fogging seems to let my bees get strong all my hives are doing well and i'm not getting many mites at all this last fogging I got less then 10 for 10 hives and that is just great.
 
#21 ·
fogging seems to let my bees get strong all my hives are doing well and i'm not getting many mites at all this last fogging I got less then 10 for 10 hives and that is just great.
From your original post:

I did a mite count with sticky boards before and after the before was real low in all hives{no more then 5 in 48 hours}but it is only the start of the year here.
So, your total mite count went from 5 per hive to 1 per hive. This even though brood rearing increased. I'm impressed so far. Thanks for this thread!
 
#24 ·
Just to let everyone know fogging with FGMO is working great for me all the hives I started with this past spring all have new queens and are laying great I have no mite virus and all hives are strong it sure is nice not having to worry about varroa mite or any pest for that matter .
I have a nuc yard that I have 14 nucs I have been making this year and I have not been fogging them and they have more mites the the big hives I have been fogging so I started fogging the nucs today.
I would never say some thing was working if it was not and again I am having great success with fogging with FGMO and for all you small timers that might be having a varroa mite problem give fogging a shoot it works for me. No more mites ya.
 
#26 ·
Boy I don't know that's a high drop I started fogging as soon as spring hit i'd fog it weekly for sure or maybe try every 3 days and see. what do ya have to lose? When you fog fog them well I give them around 20 sec per hive good luck.
 
#28 ·
Hi Glock,

Thank you for posting your results with fogging.

A couple of questions - I'm not trying to start arguments - but I am trying to understand where foggers are coming from.

You mentioned earlier that you have some honey supers on. What (if any) are your qualms about fogging with supers on? Are you relying on the "Food Grade" part of the substance name to make it ok to apply with supers on? Do you advertise your honey as "Pure?"

In rereading my questions I think my core concern is over using a petroleum product in a bee hive and how food purity regulations might apply.

I sincerely thank you for posting your experiences with FGMO - I'd welcome any thoughts you might have as to the above questions and as to why past experiments with FGMO as a mite treatment have been inconsistent. Do you think regular fogging is more work than many hobbyists are prepared to do?
 
#30 ·
Do you think regular fogging is more work than many hobbyists are prepared to do?
I think some people {new hobbyist} don't really know how much work and time ya need to put in to your bee's. If ya care about your bees and work hard you will learn how to keep your bees alive.
I list my honey raw organic and I sell to my customer at my restaurant and I tell them I fog with FGMO and my hives never seen a miticide or and pesticide if code would ever come in and ***** I would just give it away i'm not in it for the money . Fogging has made my bee's stronger then they ever been and I see no mites in my hives and the one I didn't do a brood brake or any form of mite control other then fogging and it's just a monster hive . I have had bees for 4 years now and this year has been the funniest with no mite things go a lot smoother . Like I said I fog once a week and I do it well and I have no mites in my year plus hives and no sign of virus that makes it OK by me.
 
#33 ·
Miticides chemically kill mites.

Things that mechanically kill mites, for example by crushing (bee jaws, beekeeper's hive tool) or asphyxiation (drowning in water, FGMO).

FGMO presents no chemical hazard to life -- in fact it is often used in direct contact with cultured living cells in the process of in vitro fertilization, and is a popular preservative used on wooden cutting boards, butcher blocks, and salad bowls.

So long as one is not fraudulently claiming compliance with a certification that prohibits its use,
ethical objections to its use as a mite control are actually entirely semantic.

Certainly the use of fgmo would not prevent an honest man for promising that no harmful chemicals are used in producing raw honey in hives managed in that way.
 
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