[SCFarms]

Has anyone ever used formic acid in the spring, more specifically the Mite away II pads and how early in the year can you but them on?

 

[FishmanMike]

I used it last year in april on three hives and wound up with three qweenless hives.:no:

 

[KQ6AR]

It depends on temperature, read the directions for the acid.

 

[Axtmann]

Go for Thymol, it’s more efficient and you’re not loosing your queens.

 

[jdpro5010]

I wouldn't recommend either formic or thymol for a spring treatment. They are both way too hard on the brood. Using it during a critical build up time such as spring and you can forget about a honey crop.

 

[honeyshack]

And my experienced are totally different. Out of the 100 hives i did last spring, i think i lost 3 queens, and 2 of them were due to formic to soon after requeening. My honey yields did not suffer.
However i followed the directions, and i made sure there were atleast 5 frames of bees per box. This meant that some hives needed to get combined, and some hives were combined with a queen excluder, and ready to split at the end of the treatment.
All hives treated were bursting at the seams - except for those three colonies - and ready to be split at the end of the treatment.

There was one yard that did not get done, and that yard performed poorly the whole year.

I have used formic (MA2) more than once and it is a product i choose to use to control mites.