I believe the instructions say dont feed while formic treatment is ongoing. Especially during first days, guard bees may not be protecting against robbing. Does someone have the instructions handy?
Formic pro hurting bees?
To carry on from previous thread but with a different angle now, I verified my hive appeared strong last night. Half full honey super, good brood in both boxes and queen active. My mite count has gone up noticeably in the last week and a half (I’ve been away, just back) so I decided to treat with Formic pro. I did the one strip for 10 days option, with a second following for 10 days. Closed my bottom board and opened the whole front entrance. That was last night at 6pm. This morning at 9 I took a look and very little activity in/out of hive with quite a few dead bees out front (dozen or 2). Pulled the bottom board and was shocked at the amount of mites on it. Maybe 30-40. My 24 hr drop count had gotten up to about 10-12 so I decided to treat. Over the summer I’d often not see any mites for days. Anyways it’s cooler this morning so I’ll monitor more when it warms up a bit. Gonna start feeding too. 2:1 I think. Hope the dead bees and lethargy aren’t because of the Formic pro...
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I’ve got them here, I’ll review, thanks for the heads up.
Edit: instructions say not to feed internally or with top feeder but barrel feeding is acceptable.
Edit: instructions say not to feed internally or with top feeder but barrel feeding is acceptable.
They might be mite damaged bees too weak to survive the treatment.
Possibly, was shocked at the amount.
It is good to be treating, however, 30-40 mites on the bottom board is not extreme while treating, in fact it is quite low.
Good to know, it sure seems extreme when I’m only used to seeing a few or none. They seem to be recovering a bit from the initial shock and bearding a bit and flying more now. Since I treated I must have cleaned off a few hundred mites from the board over the last 2 days.
That is "normal," not in the the good sense, but not unexpected with a mite infestation in the fall.
All sounds normal to me also. I have noticed a couple dozen dead bees in the first few days of treating dumped right outside the hive and wonder if they don't cart them away because of the treatment. The amount does not concern me as long as it stops after day 3. J
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