I recently had time to spend with a very experienced beekeeper (40 yrs. keeping bees). He uses orginaic wintergreen oil to protect his hives from mites. Has anyone had experience with the v. mites vs. wintergreen oil??????
I have not used it exclusivly. I used FGMO on the top bars (I paint it on with a paint brush in the spring) Wintergreen syrup in the spring and Apitstat in the fall. I am going to start using the FGMO or some other oil aerosolized in the spring and fall, small cells and maybe I'll continue the wintergreen syrup. I have not used it exclusivly but I have not had a mite problem since I started doing these three things.
hi scole
I have been useing the oils for more then 5 yrs. now have good luck and no mites
my hives never get to full strenth because I always shake them down to make queen boxes.
so I use no pesticides or strips.
Don
1 gallon of sugar syrup 100 drops of wintergreen essential oil is added to one quart of honey. Mix this well and let it stand for a week or more to permeate the honey. This will keep and can be mixed a year ahead of time if you want. The oil will not mix with syrup, but honey is a natural emulsifier. You can stir it again sometime if you can't wait that long. When you are ready to feed, add this quart of wintergreen honey to three more quarts of warm (hot will evaporate the oil) syrup and mix well. I assume you have your own idea what recipe to use for the sugar syrup. My opinion is you use thinner syrup in the spring to stimulate brood rearing and I use honey or thicker syrup for just feed.
or if you want to just feed honey, my faovorite bee food:
1 gallon of Honey 100 drops of wintergreen essential oil is added to one gallon of honey. Mix this well and let it stand for a week or more to permeate the honey. You can stir it again sometime if you can't wait that long. Feed it straight.
I only feed this when there are no supers on the hives, but I have extracted brood honey and never found any taste of it yet.
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