[Brandon O]

When is the best time to treat with OAV ?
My honey supers are off. I have decided to winter them in doubles this year. Was going to try doing it in singles. But chickened out. Seems like the queen is slowing down laying. Last time I checked there was lots of capped brood. But very little eggs. Should I wait till all brood has hatched out? Or is it ok to start doing OAV now? Was thinking of doing 3 treatments a week apart before winter.
I have hive top feeders on the hives right now.

 

[little_john]

When to start ? Well, several weeks ago would have been favourite - but starting now would certainly be better than waiting any longer.

The regime I've adopted is to apply 4 treatments, 5 days apart during mid to late August. There have been several discussions regarding the best time-table to adopt in order to cover the mite's breeding cycle, and that's what I've settled on during the period in which winter bees are being produced.

Then, 1 treatment during December, when hopefully the bees will be broodless - delivered on a warm day when colonies will be loosely clustered, if at all.

We have different locations of course, with very different weather patterns. Right now our day-time temperatures are the same as in mid-summer - the bees are making the most of this, with pollen coming in like crazy. Hopefully someone more local to you will chip in ...
LJ

 

[crofter]

I started a couple of weeks ago. I would strongly suggest you go to shorter periods between treatments and expand the number of them. LJ addresses this but I think 4 days max is more effective. I have noticed good drops on day one and two and the third day starting to taper off. After the next treatment drops go up again. Definitley fall off in effectiveness.

Dont wait till brood is all hatched. If you maintain continuous OA presence any new brood since start of treatments should be living virtually mite free. You need all of these last rounds of brood which will make up your wintering bees which will not have foraged. The bees you see now will be history by end of October. Virus titre takes several rounds of brood to subside AFTER the last of the vectoring mites have been removed. I would say that this fact is behind LJ. advice that weeks ago would have been better.

I see on another forum that some high status researchers that were, at the most luke warm on OA vapor treatments, are in discussions about how to achieve loosening of recommendations re. treatment regulations.

 

[Bear Creek Steve]

I started a couple of weeks ago. I would strongly suggest you go to shorter periods between treatments and expand the number of them. LJ addresses this but I think 4 days max is more effective. I have noticed good drops on day one and two and the third day starting to taper off. After the next treatment drops go up again. Definitley fall off in effectiveness.

Dont wait till brood is all hatched. If you maintain continuous OA presence any new brood since start of treatments should be living virtually mite free. You need all of these last rounds of brood which will make up your wintering bees which will not have foraged. The bees you see now will be history by end of October. Virus titre takes several rounds of brood to subside AFTER the last of the vectoring mites have been removed. I would say that this fact is behind LJ. advice that weeks ago would have been better.

I see on another forum that some high status researchers that were, at the most luke warm on OA vapor treatments, are in discussions about how to achieve loosening of recommendations re. treatment regulations.

Crofter; If I read your comment correctly, you are suggesting: A period of 4 days between treatments and a total of five treatments. Am I understanding you correctly? Thanks

Cheers,
Steve
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[crofter]

Crofter; If I read your comment correctly, you are suggesting: A period of 4 days between treatments and a total of five treatments. Am I understanding you correctly? Thanks

Yes; though I would not quit at 5 treatments if I was still getting mite drop. If you are surrounded by lots of other bees and their mites are not being controlled, you might have a lot of indrift. In such a situation one of the other treatments might be better.

There are some threads here where people relate having had to continue for much, much longer than 5 treatments. I dont have personal experience with the eventual outcome of that scenario. I think Johno may have some recollections of such posts. I think snl has related tests going on for months to see if queen mortality ensued with extended series of OA vaporizations.

 

[Brandon O]

I will start treatments tomorrow.
Is it ok to do the treatments at dusk when they are all in the hive. ?

 

[crofter]

It is best when the bees are all at home. You get less disturbance when foragers are not coming home to blocked off entrances. Early morning works best for me. Close to freezing these recent nights so zero activity.