Maqs

[benstung]

If you put the pads on and its not hot (75 or so) they will still smell very strong 7+ days out. If you read NOD apiaries web sit they state everywhere that it is a 7+ day treatment, i wouldnt call that flash treatment.
the cooler it is the longer it lasts.

[Specialkayme]

And boy, if you ever wanted a treatment that knocks the swarm right out of them, MAQS is it.

By destroying brood and bees?

Not sure if that's what I had in mind by planning swarm prevention techniques.

[Tom G. Laury]

The directions I got at the time said that it was safe to use as long as daytime highs were below 92f. Temps were about 10o lower than that. Perhaps that is why it was so hard on the bees. But the mite kill was not as complete as I hoped either.

[Sweet to the Soul]

As far as queen loss; I need to ramp up my requeening schedule anyway. Good time of the year to do it.
Someone mentioned using MAQS in the fall. My hunch is that timing is regional.
We treat hives in my area at the time that winter bees are starting to be produced. Seems to me that a formic treatment at that time would be the kiss of death.
My target date here is right after tree fruits in the spring when they are getting ideas of swarming.
And boy, if you ever wanted a treatment that knocks the swarm right out of them, MAQS is it.

Don't know if my input will be useful or safe After bringing in 80% of my hives last winter due to poor mite treatment I needed a new plan. This year I used MAQS for my main treatment.

We have had nice some warm days in the 60s around the first of the year. Went through over 400 of my hives and only brought in 6 dead. Big improvement over last year, when I had over 300 dead by Jan 1. Ended up with loads of honey for my splits/packages because they did not eat much.

Now here is where I'm a little different on my treatment. I waited to treat right around the time the honey flow was just starting to pick up good. I looked at it this way. If I lose a queen at that time, or young brood is lost I will end up with more nurse bees who are not needed and they can go look for honey Kind of like the beekeepers who pull a queen to get max honey flow. Any eggs at this time of year will not contribute much to my honey flow, by the time they become field bees anyway.

I doubt I will use MAQS in the fall either, queen loss then dooms hive. Queen loss with my earlier summer treatment (June) just means I get my hive requeened (assuming they raise one). I also have nucs in each yard standing by for those who don't. My boys also started raising queens last year and will have those if needed.

So to sum up where I'm at now. Instead of buying over 400 packages this spring, like last spring. I've upped my queen order already and plan on selling nucs (Lord willing). I will be using MAQS again!

I'm sure I'll adjust how I use MAQS and deal with mites continually and appreciate any input.

[Ian]

>>And boy, if you ever wanted a treatment that knocks the swarm right out of them, MAQS is it.

Ihear what your saying Harry but knocking the swarm out of them isnot really what I had in mind

[Ian]

>> If you read NOD apiaries web sit they state everywhere that it is a 7+ day treatment, i wouldnt call that flash treatment

No thats not what I read. Im finding them talk about 3 day treatment period. Definitely a flash treatment
If it were a 7 day plus treatment then I think I would trust their claims a bit more.
I have used formic in the past and I am one of the many who quit using it becasue of its finicky nature. You can dress an elephant as many ways as you please, its still an elephant! They started alot of hype a couple of years ago claiming bee safe, honey safe and mite removal plus stating they had solved the problems from their previous treatments, brood loss and queen. From what I am hearing here is this treatment still causes brood and queen loss

[camero7]

I ordered some Mitegone pads recently and am going to try them in the spring. They are slow release and might lower queen/brood loss and still be effective with mites because they release formic over a longer period.

[benstung]

here is the link to NOD's brochure. READ IT. clearly states 7 day treatment. If you looked at their web page about a year ago it stated 20 day treatment

http://www.miteaway.com/MAQS_Brochure_2.pdf

Jeez Ian, cant you read Canadian?

[Nick Noyes]

Anyone planning on using this treatment should do thier own testing on a SMALL number of hives before treating thier whole outfit.
We used it on 600 hives last spring (highs 70's) The big (12+frames bees) hives came through it o.k. but still had high mite levels 45 days later. The small(less than 12 frames of bees) hives suffered very high queen losses and took a tremendous amount of work to get back in shape for the honey flow.
I don't see how it can be used on commercial level succesfully. However we are going try it again on 20 hives at lower temps and see what happens.
Not my idea of a Silver Bullet.

[Ian]

>>here is the link to NOD's brochure. READ IT. clearly states 7 day treatment. If you looked at their web page about a year ago it stated 20 day treatment
http://www.miteaway.com/MAQS_Brochure_2.pdf
Jeez Ian, cant you read Canadian?<<



benstung,...if that is your real name,...
no need to get snippy

look deeper into their trials. They expect the formic to be evaporated by the 3rd day, all this is found on their web page.
As I understand it, their "7 day treatment period" is the amount of time they suggest you leave the colony untouched after treatment, also found within their web page.

So all things considered, I still call this a flash treatment


>>The MAQS strips are considered spent after the first 3 days of treatment<< http://www.miteaway.com/MAQSTM/Resea...ather_Data.pdf

>>The obs e r ved brood
damaged was minimal.
About 2/3 of the colonies
removed a few uncapped
larvae from the cells
d u r i n g t h e 3 d a y
treatment. Bees under
c a p p e d c e l l s w e r e
apparently unharmed by
the application.<<
http://www.miteaway.com/MAQSTM/Resea...ght-varroa.pdf

>>Do not disturb the hive for 7 days after treatment.<<
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/wrightm/...s_(online).pdf

I can read and understand Canadian, British, Aulstralian, Irish, Scotish, NewZeland, American ..... very well. Im just wondering about you?

[Ian]

I was thinking about this treatment last night. Now understanding is as more of a flash treatment and accepting the fact that this treatment "MAY" damage brood and kill off old queens. If its efficacy is as efficient as they suggest in their trials, then perhaps I should look at this treatment from a different angle. Perhaps I should look at all the suggested disadvantages as being positives,

3day flash treatment
kill off of old queens

I have always said to myself if I could just go into a hive and have it tell me "I'm a bum queen" my work would go much quicker while I decide which hive to requeen or not. This 3 day flash treatment could be dropped into the hive at anytime only having to plan around a 7 day treatment period. On the 7th day, open the hives, and requeen anything that has cells.
The hive would basically tell you which queen is expiring.

Include the advantages of efficient mite kill, no wax and honey residues, cost comparable to most other chemical treatments and ease of use and treatment at anytime during the year.

Hmmmmmmm
Let me think about this one a different way,

Any thoughts?

[HarryVanderpool]

I have the same attitude for future use that you do.
Some years are heavier mite years than others. A quick in and out, queen check and there you are.

Nick Noyes said that he observed a heiver mite load than expected after the treatment. A couple of other friends have said the same.
I'm really curious about this.
One benifit that I had hoped for was better uniformity than the liquid flash treatments; but is that so?
Also, why did Randy oliver loose zero queens and most every one else did?
Much more to learn about MAQS.

[swarm_trapper]

I just went and treated 600 hives with the strip and lost maybe 1-2% of my queens. Not bad considering i can lose that many at this time the the year any way. BUT i only did a one strip treatment on singles and story and a halfs; and on all i did do a 1/4 inch set back.

It seemed to clean up the mites nicely but it is only been three weeks yet. The temps were in the mid 70's. I used this treatment after using a differant treatment in November. The Mite rolls (alcohol wash) were at about 4% after the first treatment in the 1st of Dec, after the MAQS they are ranging from 0%-1%, most at 0%. It did shut the queens down for a day or two but they are laying great now. I know my experience is much different than most i'm not sure why.
Nick

[wildbranch2007]

Also, why did Randy oliver loose zero queens and most every one else did?
Much more to learn about MAQS.

the first trial(I'm not 100% sure on the second) he applied the pads at lower temp. range so he did the trial at the coolest temps available, that was my first reaction.

went and looked at his temp graph. it looks like he put the maqs on in the afternoon, low temps for the first three days were in the upper 40's with highs copied for article
below.

The daily high temperatures for the first few days of heavy outgassing from the strips were in the mid to high 70’s. The hives were dark colored and in full sun.

Heavy nectar shake. Some hives starting to plug, so ended trial. Weather hot—about 90F.

Sealed brood looked very good in MAQS-treated hives, but also looked great in the controls

[wildbranch2007]

the biggest problem I see with trying to figure out how to use them without the queen killling(I didn't use and gave the product to a friend that was short), is everyone that I know that tried them had heard about the problems, so some went with one pad, some with two pads, screened bottom boards wide open, extra supers on and supers pushed back, and put the pads above the second brood chamber instead of between, so they wouldn't kill there queens. I'm not sure of the mite controls that were acheived yet?

[hpm08161947]

I followed the procedure pretty closely, except I gave some singles with less than 6 frames of bees a full dose. Those with less than 6 frames got whacked.... All others looked good after a coupla weeks....

[snl]

I too followed the procedure very closely. Applied in September in the mid 80's. This is the first year I've not lost a single hive over the winter (altho I have lost one queen.) I have found I need to go in and remove the residue from the MAQS as the bees do not............

I will use it again alternating usage with Ox treatments.

Larry

[Mbeck]

Swarmy,
I assume those treated hives where in Florida.
Why did you decide to alternate treatment and use MAQS?
Why not just give them another round of your other treatment?
Did you roll bees before you treated with MAQS and what was your % then?

[swarm_trapper]

yea the hives were treated in Fl. Why would i not alternate treatments? I do not have 100% confidence in any mite treatment on the market.
I want to go in to spring with a 0-1% infestation. That is what i have now, before the MAQS i think i had a 3-4% infestation. Also the thing i notice with non-synthetic miteicides (formic, thymol) is they are beneficial for more that just mites.

[Mbeck]

I ask the questions trying to better understand. You are very close to me and seem to have 600 hives right where they need to be in regards to mite control.
I want to have this type of success.
What benifit do the non- synthetic treatments have other than mite control?