Coconut Oil for varroa mite control

[PanchoBee]

Hello Everyone,

I hope your all in a good start for the season and are up in almonds this season (I heard prices are up and the bloom is late???).

Has anyone here been trying the coconut oil in the use of varroa Control?? has anyone done or heard of any efficancy rates in using the oil, proper dosage of oil, residual/how often to apply/ and when to apply?? I done so once in a 1 x 1 inch paper towel, and I had mite drop in some hives but not all, even with varroa present in most hives, one thing I did notice is that hives with fewer bees 4 to 6 frames had a good mite drop because the oil/towel was in place, but as for my stronger hives +9 frames, the bees simply removed the towel/oil out to the entrance thus resulting in low to no mite drop, but are doing quite well. Most of my hives that gotten PMS(Parasitic Mite Syndrome) in Fall/Early winter are recovering slowly/lagging to build up.

These were based on visual observations, but will continue to try the oil using screened bottom boards/sticky cards to get accurate number of mite drop. Treated(Coconut Oil)/Control hives

I've also tried the menthol for Tracheal mite in 2011 and that forced my bees out of the boxes to the point that they left the brood/bearded in front of the hive, anyone else observed this as well??? I got a box of 10 to 15 packets/pouches if you want them(FREE).

Thank you for your time and any knowledge you can share on this topic.

-Pancho

[beesohappy]

I'm interested also.

[camero7]

I believe Dave Miksa uses a concoction of coconut oil and garlic which he claims works well. You might check with him.

[mathesonequip]

the amish man i ordered some nucs from recently told me that in the last something like 10 years that all he does for varona control is partialy wet a rag with coconut oil and place the rag over the brood box for a couple of weeks. he does it in the fall after brood laying has stopped.he runs all medium boxes and on the strongest hives he runs a rag over each box.i think he said to use something like an old dish rag so the bees can chew thru it and get the oil on themselves.despite owning a sawmill he uses all plastic hives...this seemed a bit strange to me but he had italians to start with and has not bought any bees or queens in something like 12 years, we are near the canada border in ny.pretty harsh climate

[bhfury]

There's was an article in either Bee Culture or ABJ a while back that disproved the effectiveness of the coconut oil.

[PanchoBee]

Amish beekeeping, I saw that not too long ago in wooven Skeps pretty cool to look at, I saw this in/around the area of Wooster, Ohio. we kept bees in ceramic/adobe bowls and sometimes hollowed out trunks in Zacatecas, Mexico when I was young, but mean bees since AHB overwhelmed the European stock there via invading calm hives, but good Mesquite Honey. Im out here in Southern california, perfect winter for bees and varroa, we dont get cold enought to stop brood production, so theirs always brood here and that keeps the varroa going as well. even in absence of nectar or Pollen they'll still produce Brood, Thanks for the response.

-Pancho's Bees

[PanchoBee]

bhfury

- That would be an interesting article to read on, I thinks its on Bee Culture, Im subscribed to ABJ since Feburary 2012, dont recall seeing it there.
I will try and find it, do you remember the name of the article or writer???

- Pancho's bees

Left out the "Will" part

[bhfury]

I try and find it, do you remember the name of the article or writer???

I will look for that

[signalten]

There was an article in the October 2011 in ABJ about coconut oil. I found it listed on the ABJ website here: http://www.americanbeejournal.com/si...132573_828.htm > scroll down to October 2011. I did find a follow up question on the ABJ website which raises some questions about the article:

"Q Coconut Oil for Varroa Control?

Jerry, I just read your article on coconut oil and varroa in the Oct. ABJ. You based your skepticism on the lack of controlled study and then went to prove your point without using a controlled study. What happened in the untreated hives?

Kurt Johnsen

A
Good Morning Kurt. Was this a study suitable for the Journal of Apicultural Research (JAR)? Absolutely not! I think I said in the article that I simply wanted to see if it lowered the number of varroa mites in X number of colonies. It was advertised as a great way to do this. And it didn't. It was only controlled as to my basic preliminary question, did it lower varroa mite levels? If it had been amazing, we could have expanded the study and double-blinded it and expanded the number of colonies with the same number of controls etc.,etc. But it was so poor I thought I would share the caveat emptor with beekeepers.
Anecdotally, of all the colonies in the yard another 35 that were not treated with anything at all, two died of whatever."

[PanchoBee]

There was an article in the October 2011 in ABJ about coconut oil. I found it listed on the ABJ website here: http://www.americanbeejournal.com/si...132573_828.htm > scroll down to October 2011. I did find a follow up question on the ABJ website which raises some questions about the article:

"Q Coconut Oil for Varroa Control?

Jerry, I just read your article on coconut oil and varroa in the Oct. ABJ. You based your skepticism on the lack of controlled study and then went to prove your point without using a controlled study. What happened in the untreated hives?

Kurt Johnsen

A
Good Morning Kurt. Was this a study suitable for the Journal of Apicultural Research (JAR)? Absolutely not! I think I said in the article that I simply wanted to see if it lowered the number of varroa mites in X number of colonies. It was advertised as a great way to do this. And it didn't. It was only controlled as to my basic preliminary question, did it lower varroa mite levels? If it had been amazing, we could have expanded the study and double-blinded it and expanded the number of colonies with the same number of controls etc.,etc. But it was so poor I thought I would share the caveat emptor with beekeepers.
Anecdotally, of all the colonies in the yard another 35 that were not treated with anything at all, two died of whatever."

Thanks for posting the link,

But I think he only sampled 4 out of the 35 other colonies in the yard? couldn't their be a possibility of constant drift amongst the hive foragers into a colony not of their own that may have varroa on them? that would also bring in Varroa on those sampled hives? Im going to try it this fall since thats when varroa nails most of my bees, especially last year due to drought and poor nutrition, I could feed and feed but its not as good as the natural stuff......currently the bees are booming in population now and varroa seems to backing off this time of the year for me. but I'll see what happens its gonna be a dry year again, and poor forage sources is available in the hills this year.

Thanks again for posting this up

-Pancho

[Goldshef]

I have heard about it for the first time i guess LoL,Well the only thing i would like to add is coconut oil is undoubtedly full of benefits.So using it for the specific purposes can be the right thing which should be done.