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Johno's Easy Vap - Vaporizer

170K views 209 replies 77 participants last post by  nailbender0259 
#1 · (Edited)
For those of you who have been unable to build your own band heater vaporizer I can offer the Easy Vap, which comes with operating instructions and 3 Mocap caps. Price $150 plus $15 shipping priority mail - USA. As I am able to build +- 10 units per week the vaporizers will be sold on a first come first serve basis.
John Olivier, Lottsburg, VA 22511. Email john_olivier@msn.com. Product Technology Plastic

For those of you who are not familiar with Johno's Easy Vap click on this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ets5cCtFsb4&feature=youtu.be
 
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#93 ·
I became interested in OAV treatment for honeybees when reading about a beek's experience losing his hives 2 years in a row following the standard mite treatments outlined by his bee school. I could relate. After that he did a lot research, reading, attended meetings, conferences, talks, to understand what it takes to successfully overwinter his bees.

He adopted a "knockdown" approach to treating his bees with OAV. He would treat once a month from May through August. At the end of August he removed his honey supers and did a "strip" treatment (Apiguard, MAQS, etc.) in the Fall. After following this approach, he was able to overwinter his bees successfully.

He estimates that this “knockdown” eliminates between 30% - 35% of mites in the colony. This assumes between 35% - 50% of mites are phoretic and the single OAV kills between 85% - 95% of the phoretic mites.

So if you have 100 phoretic mites in your hive, OAV will knock down 85% – 95% of those mites. Also, those 100 phoretic mites in the hive represents 30% to 35% of total mites in the colony, which translates to approximately 50 - 200 +/- more mites under cappings or on foraging bees that the OAV application couldn’t reach at the time of treatment.

I just acquired a vaporizer and have been doing recommended weekly treatments over the last 3 weeks (3x 7). Given the high mite count I'm getting, it may be too little too late. If those above-mentioned statistics are anywhere near accurate, the 3 treatments I've done should knock the mites back if each one represents 30% of total. Will do a 4th treatment (4x 7) to see what kind of count I get after that.
 
#95 ·
Without going into everything else you mentioned that was improper, during the first several OAV treatments, your knockdown will be about 20-25% of the ORIGINAL total mite load. Week 4 is when you should expect to see a significant reduction in the mite drop.
 
#97 ·
Well if the knockdown treatments are only 20% - 25%, that means I would need to do 4 or 5 treatments every 7 days before I see a drop in the mite count. I'll keep treating until the numbers are down. As for pulling honey supers, I've got a Lang, a double-deep hive, a horizontal hive and a nuc box. Three of the hives should have enough stores to get them through the winter, it's the nuc that's light on stores and I'm trying to help it build up enough to get it through the winter. Bottom line: there were no supers (etc.) for me to pull this year as I was doing the OAV treatments. Last year we had the warmest winter on record and some beeks are recommending we leave 100 #'s of honey for the bees (just in case).

Thanks Johno, I'll continue OAV treatments until I see the counts drop significantly.
 
#98 ·
If you are treating a week apart and see continued mite drop the mites may be multiplying nearly as fast as you are killing them! If there is heavy indrift from surrounding infested bees the problem is compounded.

I have seen a couple of very experienced and observant beekeepers who claim to have needed to treat every three days throughout 3 week period.

I see very, very, few observations of any mortality from closely spaced, high reps OAV but quite a few where the numbers were not dropping or very slowly. In the fall it is easy to run out of time. In the spring, with normal low mite counts you may only have to do enough to maintain so may not have to be as aggressive.

I have little inclination to be gentlemanly towards the mites; kick em while they are down!
 
#99 ·
For those of you who have been unable to build your own band heater vaporizer I can offer the Easy Vap, which comes with operating instructions and 3 Mocap caps. Price $150 plus $15 shipping priority mail - USA. As I am able to build +- 10 units per week the vaporizers will be sold on a first come first serve basis.
John Olivier, Lottsburg, VA 22511. Email john_olivier@msn.com. View attachment 43593
For those of you who are not familiar with Johno's Easy Vap click on this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ets5cCtFsb4&feature=youtu.be

I would like to purchase a Johno's Easy Vap . What time frame for me to receive and how to facilitate purchase. My email is perrymace74@yahoo.com, my name is Perry Mace and located in United States.
 
#101 ·
Hi Guys, I am still working on the backlog of orders that I have on the books and hope to have them all completed soon before leaving on my vacation. There have been a flood of enquiries by email that are still coming in daily and I have been notifying those beekeepers that I am not taking orders until January 2020 so the story below still applies and I hope we can try to catch up when I get back.


I would like to thank the members of Beesource for the support that I have received over the past year on orders for the Easy Vap and Easy Vap Pro. Unfortunately at this stage I have to ask my fellow beekeepers to not place any further orders until I have cleared up the backlog of orders that I have at present. I hope to have done so by mid November but as I will be visiting my family in Australia and New Zealand from mid November until mid December I will probably only start taking orders again from January 2020 (if the Lord is willing and the creek dont rise). I would like to thank you all for your patience and understanding.
Johno
 
#106 · (Edited)
I drilled mine in the filler board of the bottom board opposite the entrance reducer. I don't think it matters though, because as with a pan type device as soon as the oav begins rising the bees start vigorously fanning.
The top of the bottom brood box would probably be more convenient for the beekeeper. The location would need to be precise.

Alex
 
#110 ·
if you drill your hole in the crack between two brood boxes, you go above the bottom frames and below the top frames, and especially in cold weather the vapor comes out the entrance and out the top, only ever had a problem once where the bees had put a barrier of propolis at that exact spot, not sure why they did it.
 
#108 ·
I do like Alex and have my hole in the bottom board filler strip. My hives are 18" off the ground so that position is not hard for me to work with. If your hives are on pallets, I would go through a top shim. The band heater style vaporizer does an excellent job of dispersing the OA crystals throughout the hive so location, high or low, isn't a big factor.
 
#111 ·
If you guys look at the video on the first post you will see that I have made the 1/4" hole in the top brood box in the center of the frame rest as close to the top edge as I can get with the hole sloping upwards at about 30 degrees. The vaporizer outlet comes into the hive between the two center frame top bars and the vapor goes in above the edges of the center side bars as they are set back from the edge. I also keep a short phillips screwdriver with my OAV kit and make sure that I clear the holes of propolis before treating. I have also found that by using a small brush that I purchased from Ace hardware to wipe the inside of the bowl after each treatment as I move from the treated hive to the next in line keeps my sublimation time to a minimum as just the slightest layer of oxidization on the bottom of the bowl makes a difference Tableware Dishware Ceiling
 
#112 · (Edited)
What's the general opinion here on very late, Winter - extremely cold weather OAV treatment?

In my area, temps will not be above 43F, and will be below freezing at night.

I've seen others recommend December treatments, but is there any assurance that such a late winter treatment won't kill the bees?
 
#113 ·
It is unlikely to harm the bees. It should not, but then again putting a heated wand in the Hive full of acid always carries at least some risk.

That said, sometime mid December, I will be treating mine. It has worked well so far for me.
 
#114 ·
I believe the general consensus on OAV is to not apply it below 40°F as the bees will be too tightly clustered. At worst it will simply be ineffective. On a sunny day with temps at 40 or above, I would go ahead. In fact, I think I will. My Nov. treatment is due first nice weekend day we get.
 
#115 ·
Just a message to thank John for an amazing bit of kit. The vaporizer works perfectly and treating all my hive was a stroll in the park. I live in Scotland and john couldn't be more obliging through the whole process even though we work on a different voltage this side of the pond. I will be highly recommending him to everyone. All that and for more than reasonable price.

Many thanks again

Alan
 
#117 ·
Hi Reno, not just yet as I am still struggling through the backlog of orders. There could also be another problem on the horizon, the corona viris in China is causing many factories to shut down so with the temperature controllers again increasing in price and harder to come by there could be a problem down the line.
 
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