This is a good question. Seems like the more challenging a question, the fewer the responses.
Ask about the best way to introduce a queen or any other basic questions and you'll have lots of answers.
With VOA - pick your moment. As soon as one batch of q/cells are capped - off with the C/Board and whack some in.
If you're doing a sequence of treatments (recommended) then I'd be tempted to suspend C/Board operations for that period in order to give priority to the host hive - although to be honest, I'd bet it would be safe to dose the bottom box(es) while operating the C/Board above. Experiment ?
LJ
OAV can be used most anytime....best results when no brood and all bees are home. I have an an access from the back so I can treat at night when it's a little cooler.
Dr. Eric Mussen and I were in the audience in 2011 when Elizabeth Dahlgren [54] presented her research on the comparative effects of miticides upon virgin queens and workers. We immediately turned to each other when she said that unlike with other tested synthetic miticides, to which workers are more susceptible than queens, that queens appeared to be more susceptible to amitraz than were workers. Consider the implications—the subtle effects of amitraz on queens might go unnoticed if all one is looking for is whether there is worker mortality.
And when I checked the literature, I came across a mention that Lubinevski [55] in Israel observed that fumigation with amitraz for varroa often led to the supersedure of queens. All I hear about these days is how queens in some operations have such poor survivability (Fig. 6). Could amitraz be involved?
Delaplane and Berry [56], in addition to apparent behavioral effects on workers, noted a fourfold increase in supersedure cells in colonies treated with Taktic.
Of perhaps greatest concern, Pettis [57] has reported at recent conferences that treatment with amitraz at any of three tested doses may cause up to half of a queen’s stored sperm to become non viable. Again, I do not wish to be alarmist, but in recent months, the above findings have really gotten me questioning whether colonies suffer more of a hangover from off-label amitraz treatments than we have been aware of.
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