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Apivar

11K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  Ian 
#1 ·
I used Apivar in my hives this fall, and it worked very well. Knocked the mites quick and hard, and easy on the bees, as far as I can tell to this point.
I went into one of my beeyards a couple of weeks after the treatment and the hives were dusting the mites out the enterence of the hive. I was running between 2-5% fall infestation, with a few yards around 10%.
 
#6 ·
We were very clear in all our communications to the powers that be that we needed thi

Some Apivar background.

http://www.albertabeekeepers.org/alberta_bee_news.html

From The President's Desk - October 2008
As you know from last months’ issue of Alberta Bee News, we were finally able to get Apivar registered for use under the ‘Emergency Use Registration’ umbrella. Our appreciation and a big ‘thank you’ goes out to Dr. Medhat Nasr for his extremely hard work on getting this registration for our industry realized. He spent numerous hours and probably sacrificed holiday time to ensure that this process would be realized. Thanks also to the volunteers on the Alternative Treatment Committee for doing whatever you could to try and keep things on track. Additionally, the Canadian Honey Council was also pushing for this registration along with the industry. It seems the bureaucracy was slow once again. The product was not here in time for this fall’s treatment, so many of you will be trying to use the product next spring. We were very clear in all our communications to the powers that be that we needed this product by August 15 for use this fall. Unfortunately that deadline came and went and the response was delayed. At the end of it all, we got permission to use the product and need to thank Hon. Minister Groeneveld and Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, the PMRA for supporting the registration and giving the industry an alternative treatment for our bees. Thank you to all and thank you Medhat for your persistence and dedication on this project.

Apivar will only be available to the industry until the end of April 2009. This is truly a ‘band-aid solution’, and a pile of work still needs to be done very quickly to start screening for new products, for both mite control and for Nosema Ceranae. Why wait to be reactive? We must be proactive. There are many valuable projects going on, but these must be prioritized and dollars put where they will be most effective.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to the upcoming Annual General Meeting and Convention. We have some great speakers lined up. This is Alberta Beekeepers 75th Anniversary – come and celebrate it with us. Check out the preliminary announcement in this issue.

I think it is fair to say we all have our ups and downs in life and in business. This year many of us had heavy bee and/or production losses, however, it is also very important to remember the crop we did receive, what we do have and that we are still very fortunate. With that, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and encourage you to take a moment to reflect on your many blessings.
Ernie
 
#8 ·
% varroa

I think Ian means that when samples were taken from adult bees near the brood nest (supposed to be the newly hatched ones) he was findin between 2 to 5 varroa per 100 bees. I think the economic threshold on the canadian praire is is 4% in thew fall. I also believe that those at 4% will in all likelyhood need to be treated in the spring. Those at 10% will likely not need to be treated come spring because they no longer will be alive.


Jean-Marc

P.S. - If you think the bureaucracy was slow in Alberta and in fact it was, ours in BC was even slower. We got approval 3-4 weeks later, just as the last round of brood was hatrching.
 
#10 ·
>>So Ian , what are the post treatment levels? Did you check?


ya, no mites in the subsequent sampling, if there is no mites that are found during the sampling, then we would have to say it had great effectivness.

>>Ian,
Are the % the % of investation?
Like 2% to 10% of the hives?
Or, Is it the % of the hives population?
Ernie


The % is the number of mites found per sample of bees taken within a yard or an operation. This is the way I measure my mite severity within my operation. Threshold is 5% in fall, 1% in spring.
 
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