second time with OA

[tony350i]

Hi,
Would it be safe to trickle OA a second time, I am going to check my trays today to see what drops I am getting and if it works out more then ten a day can I safely trickle again.

The first time i trickle was the second week off december

Thanks

Tony

[size="1"][ January 28, 2007, 02:26 AM: Message edited by: tony350i ][/size]

[George Fergusson]

I wouldn't Tony. If the bees are still in winter cluster for the most part, it could be fatal to the colony. OA shortens the lives of the bees through a process of acidosis, partly from ingestion and supposedly partly through a build up of OA crystals in their spiracles (breathing tubes).

If they've begun brood rearing in earnest and winter for the most part is over, you might get away with it but it's a risk I wouldn't want to take. The bees you dribbled in December are likely the bees charged with bringing the colony through the winter. A double dose of liquid OA is the last thing you want to give them.

Vaporizing OA would be an option. So would a powdered sugar treatment. And that is about as far as my experience lets me comment.

[Mike Gillmore]

Based on the information I have read about trickling it is to be a "once per year" treatment in broodless conditions. Everyone warns that repeated trickling treatments can be very harmful to the colony.

Is there a specific reason you feel a second treatment is necessary?

[tony350i]

The drops donÂ’t seem to bad I think I will leave it for now,
The one that does concern me is the hive that went queen less and I was lucky enough to get a queen from Norton,
I robbed a frame of brood and bees to help them when I got the queen,I think it has past on some mites, I didnÂ’t trickle this hive cozÂ’s the bee numbers were a bit low,

Tony

[Ian]

>>trickle this hive cozÂ’s the bee numbers were a bit low

The standard treatment is 5 ml/frame of bees. So if you have two or three frames of bees, give them 10-15ml solution.
That is, as long as the hive has a mite load above threshold, showing more benefit to the hive treating the mites than the OA will harm the old bees in the hive

[size="1"][ January 28, 2007, 11:30 AM: Message edited by: Ian ][/size]