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oxalic acid dribble

21K views 59 replies 21 participants last post by  Rolande 
#1 ·
Being the straight shooter I am, I would never consider using an unapproved compound in one of my hives. On the other hand, I have a friend who isn’t so proper. My friend applied an oxalic acid dribble to about 15 of his hives yesterday. Afterward he put clean corrugated sheets underneath those with screened bottoms. We stopped by that yard today and pulled sheets from beneath the hives that had screened bottoms. A half a dozen mites here…a few there and I….er… we were beginning to think the whole exercise was a waste until we got to this hive.

Some of the hives had solid bottoms, so we weren’t able to look at those but nine had sbb and this was the only one with a big fallout but my-oh-my did they fall out.
 
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#48 ·
I am not sure that cyclone is the proper name. It has a propane torch that heats up a metal bowl from underneath.Then a 12 volt car blower motor moves air across this bowl as you put the liquid in. It was sold by a supply company for a year or two. I cant find out much about it online.
 
#54 ·
Tony: I wouldn't feel like you need to actually spray each bee. Think of it more as treating a cluster of bees as if the cluster itself is a living thing and do so at the recommended dosages. The bees readily distribute the oxalic through grooming behavior.
 
#55 ·
Jim, you make a great point. I hadn't thought of that. This year was my first bad experiance with mites. I had looked for them, but had not test for them and sadly when my hives were at their strongest, the mite population was as well. When the nectar flow stopped, and the queens stopped laying as many eggs in September, my hives went from strong to near devistation. The only way I saved the 22 out of 34 I had was by breaking them down into 4 frame nucs, and blancing hives. Perhaps it was overkill to spray the bees. I was in emergency mode :) Thankfully the 22 I have remaining seem to be doing well. I am keeping them between 35-45 degrees with a thermocube and I saved all the comb from the big hives so I think they will take off well. Last year will be the last year that I will go without treating for mites and checking on a regular basis.
 
#60 ·
I was just thinking that someone reading your post who's not used the method previously could assume that there was a standard dose of 50ml per colony irrespective of how many seams of bees they had rather than a maximum recommended dose of 50ml. But I assume that you're applying across the box irrespective of where the cluster is centred. Always interesting to learn how other people are working.
 
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