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essential oils vs varroa: does it work? syrup recipe?

35K views 45 replies 30 participants last post by  davidsbees 
#1 ·
I've heard about feeding hives with syrup with essential oils added to it -- does anyone have a recipe for this? It sounds like it might be really helpful vs. varroa -- would anyone talk about their experience with using the stuff?

I'm interested in keeping my hives healthy without using poisons. I noticed this past September that my hives had contracted varroa, and so I panicked and put formic acid pads on them. This seems to have helped, but in future I'd much rather use a natural cure like essential oils than a harsh acid.
I found some recipes for grease patties that contain essential oils, but not the proportions for the feeder syrup with essential oils added.
 
#34 ·
I accidently bought Peppermint oil instead of Spearment oil as need in the H-B-H recipe...lol
But they don't seem to care and go nuts over it anyway.

My recipe is

for 800 mls of H2o
2 drops of lemon grass oil
2 drops of peppermint oil (suppost to be spearmint oil....oh well)
1/2 tsp of apple cider vinegar (I use my keylime juice from the tree) for acidity.
I don't use the imusifier as it never seems to work so just use my hand beater for a couple of minutes and it stays mixed.

The bees go nuts over it. We will see.
 
#36 ·
Bees have been exposed to EO'S for millions of years. Propolis contains many EO'S and is made up to aprox 15% EO'S. Propolis is one of the front line defenses in keeping the hive healthy. I use then in my syrup not having any problem with supercedures, I see the opposite.
 
#37 · (Edited)
Bees have been exposed to EO'S for millions of years.
Rather an extreme idea, don't you think?

An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils oraetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. An oil is "essential" in the sense that it carries a distinctive scent, or essence, of the plant. Essential oils do not form a distinctive category for any medical, pharmacological, or culinary purpose.
Essential oils are generally extracted by distillation. Steam distillation is often used. Other processes include expression orsolvent extraction.

.....
The techniques and methods first used to produce essential oils were first mentioned by Ibn al-Baitar(1188–1248), an Andalusian physician, pharmacist and chemist.[SUP][5][/SUP]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_oil
.
Just who do you you think was extracting essential oils from plants to expose the bees to for the past millions of years you refer to?

Certainly the plants themselves have been available to the bees for millions of years, but that does not mean that essential oils were available to the bees.

Consider that a form of alcohol has been occurring for millions of years "naturally" from fermented corn and water, but it wasn't until humans started distilling that fermented corn and water product that whiskey was available.



 
#38 · (Edited)
No, unless you think the earth is only 5000 years old. Most scientists believe that bee like creatures evolved around 146-76 million years ago with honey bees 30-22 million years ago. If you're talking about propolis if you want 100% essential oils then you have to distill it from the plant. EO'S occur naturally in plant resins or sap. resins are a component of propolis. EO's are composed of many compounds.
Mankind has been enjoying the benefits of undistilled beer and wine for thousands of years!!
 
#39 ·
I've been using Alpha 6 method for over 5 yrs. now, and for the past two years my bees produced more honey than any member of my bee club of 180 members.My hives showed little to no mite or disease problems this spring, so i never treated them (74 hives). I now have 68 hives, i combined some weak hives that i didn't think would make it through the winter. I'll probably treat again this coming spring .I credit the thyme EO in the drench spray and syrup feed for healthy hives. JMHO.
PS. yes, some have as many or more hives than i do.
 
#43 · (Edited)
I've spent a lot of time over on Randy Oliver's site scientificbeekeeping.com reading about varroa and CCD. If I am understanding him correctly, CCD is caused by viruses that the bee normally has. These viruses are exploding and overwhelming colonies because of the stresses placed on the colony. One big stress is varroa.

What occurs to me is that if mite wounds are infected with bacteria, then the bees will need to maintain a metabolically-expensive immune response for the rest of their lives in order to keep the bacteria in check (Hain 2008).

This bacterial infection has other consequences. Yang (2005) suggests that: “The increased replication of DWV in honey bees needs two components, varroa mite parasitization and exposure to a bacterial factor. This microbial challenge may naturally exist, because bacterial colonies are found on the varroa feeding sites in some bee pupae.” The suppression of bacterial infection by antibiotics may help mite-infested colonies to survive. Note that “antibiotics” may include the essential oils and propolis, rather than manmade antibiotics, the overuse of which leads to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Which reinforces my intention to use essential oils in my new colonies this spring. His notion that we should be looking at virus control instead of just mite control is new for me. I do intend to follow some of his other suggestions, including using resistant stock.

If anyone is interested, the entire article can be found here:

http://http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-8-time-for-a-paradigm-shift/

The entire series is also available on Dr. Oliver's site along with a lot of thought-provoking information. I'm still working my way through the links.

HTH

Rusty
 
#44 ·
I have been sending bee samples to David Wick for 6 months. compared to the first non treated, the viruses have dropped greatly and DWV is non-existant. Have been using only EO'S going on 4 years no treatment for AFB or nosema for 2.
 
#46 · (Edited)
I start with a 275 gal tote add 25 gal water. I have a mix of equeal parts
Tyme oil
Lavender
Tea tree
Lemongrass
Nat wintergreen
Peppermint
Eucalyptus 80/85
I don't have the mix in front of me but think those are the ones I use. I take 9 oz of eo's 3 oz surficant (coco wet). Mix with 2 qt water. I blend with a hand held blender and blend till it looks like milk that is the key! I then add it to the 25 gal water then mix in 225 gal syrup with a tank mixer blending as you fill the tote. I use mixture every time I feed.
This not a recommendation to treat any pest or disease!
this is just what I do!
 
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