Apivar Treatment

[Wandering Man]

We started Apivar treatment in all five of our hives about five weeks ago.  Now, three of the hives have no capped brood, and no larvae that I can see.  All of the queens are still alive.  There might be some eggs in the cells of the three "broodless" hives, but it is hard to tell.  The bees were thick on the frames where the brood was when we started.

Anyway, is it normal for the bees to take a brood - break during Apivar treatment?

[Bakersdozen]

The active ingredient in Apivar is Amitraz.  That is one of the harder treatments with synthetic or inorganic compounds.  I don't know of any  negative side effects.  Sometimes we hear about the bees removing dead larvae after mite treatments.  That usually happens when temperatures exceeded the recommended threshold.  I believe Apivar is useable under a wide range of temperatures, so I don't think that is the case here.
Keep us posted, Wandering Man.

[Jen]

Hi Wman! Nice to hear from one my fav beeks 

From what I understand in my area, we are suggested to use the Formics in the Spring, and Apivar in the Fall. I've been beekeeping for over 15 years now, and have been using oxalic acid all this time with continued success. This year my hives were doing just great from Spring thru Fall. Then out of now where I got the largest mite explosions in my hives that I've ever seen! Thousands! I was befuddled and aghast!

I soon found out that many of us in our town were experiencing devastating might bombs and absconds.

What did we do? We talked with the well seasoned beekeepers in the area who said to double up the ammunition with two treatments back to back of Apivar. We did! Some of our hives had very little brood or none, larvae, and some had ample brood.

We all went into winter with clean bees albeit smaller colonies. The beeks who had a lot of brood did not have less brood because of the Apivar. And the beeks that had barely any brood did not seem any different.

I'm thinking that if you do Apivar in the Spring you would be able to tell if there is a brood break than in the Fall when the queens have slowed down.

[Wandering Man]

Hi Wman! Nice to hear from one my fav beeks 

From what I understand in my area, we are suggested to use the Formics in the Spring, and Apivar in the Fall. I've been beekeeping for over 15 years now, and have been using oxalic acid all this time with continued success. This year my hives were doing just great from Spring thru Fall. Then out of now where I got the largest mite explosions in my hives that I've ever seen! Thousands! I was befuddled and aghast!

I soon found out that many of us in our town were experiencing devastating might bombs and absconds.

What did we do? We talked with the well seasoned beekeepers in the area who said to double up the ammunition with two treatments back to back of Apivar. We did! Some of our hives had very little brood or none, larvae, and some had ample brood.

We all went into winter with clean bees albeit smaller colonies. The beeks who had a lot of brood did not have less brood because of the Apivar. And the beeks that had barely any brood did not seem any different.

I'm thinking that if you do Apivar in the Spring you would be able to tell if there is a brood break than in the Fall when the queens have slowed down.

Thanks Jen.

Sounds pretty similar to us.  We had done OA treatment and then went right into the Apivar for our Fall treatment.  As your group discovered, some of our hives have no brood and some have a little brood.  I am pretty sure I saw eggs in at least one of the broodless chambers. 

A well-love beekeeper in Seguin, who supplies us with some of your California girls, had also noticed unexpectedly large populations of mites this year.  I confess I haven't been doing the mite count in my own apiary.  Anyway the Seguin beek "doubled up" and used OA on top of his Apivar treatment to bring down the mite population.  I haven't heard if he is also having some broodless bees.

I guess the brood break should be good for the mite counts.

In the meantime, we are cautiously feeding 2 to 1 syrup and pollen patties to the bees.  Despite our being in a drought, the bees are bringing in bright yellow and white pollen from somewhere.  And the hive we have with brood have a lot of capped honey and open nectar.  I hope they aren't robbing from the other hives.

[Jen]

 Wman, I check my hives every 7-10 days for mites all summer long, sticky boards. The day I pulled my sticky board out and saw hundreds of mites, I went into over haul mode and did 3 OA fog treatments every 5 days. I Could Not get ahead of the mites! It was alarming! So that's when I went for the advice of my beek superiors and went for Apivar (first time ever) in addition to 2 more OA fogs.

Repeating: Turns out that many of the hives within a 5 mile radius were experiencing the same thing.

I know what that problem is. Since 4 years ago, when we started our county bee club, now there are many more beekeepers all over our county. I live in town within a 3 mile radius we have 4 beekeepers with a combined total of 23 hives.

SOMEBODY!!! Was not mite checking their hives! Which infected all 4 apiaries!

Before the Apivar