Great videos Phil! If your OA is too dry to stay in the plunger (ie it drops out all the time), I have added a few drops of water to a new OA container, and that usually eliminates the problem
Not this round. Got some real good benchmark sample results to use for some testing of indoor treatments. Since I don’t Amitraz will work next spring I need to come up with solid alternatives.
You can’t beat Princess Auto’s return policy. Maybe you should have chosen the hyundai inverter they sell so that we can hear you when you are by the generator. (In your previous video I listened to the part where you were by the generator twice and I still couldn’t tell what you were saying)
Phil, thank you, an interesting video. I use a GasVap used it for years. Pretty basic, brazed copper pipe. I have made my own unbrazed backup vaporizers, the following is for the GasVap. I do a lot with working things out. Butane canister, 100 uses is an estimate where I chalk marked each time I used the Vap. If treatment takes longer, 45 to 60 seconds with the burner going, then gas use increases. 30 to 45 is what I worked on. 1250 is where I bent the pipe and switch to a replacement. It was a good enough figure to work on to. I used two gas torches during that time. I made a few adaptations, a baked bean can was cut to make an all round wind shield. I also used a copper pipe reducer and a bit of short pipe to fit my ebay bought gas torch. In addition 22mm pipe cut to 24mm lengths plus 22mm end caps held in place by 3 centre punches made additional oxalic acid cups, one for each colony. This makes for a faster way to service all colonies. I have not costed my adaptations. Guessing it would add a few pennies (about 2p) to the cost. GasVap £50 ÷ 1250 = 4p for example. Butane £1.50 ÷ 100 = 1.5p per treatment. Burner torch £8 x 2 = £16 ÷ 1250 = 1.3p Approximately 9p per treatment/test. Time taken, umm depends how far apart ones hives are and how quickly one can use a long handled pliers to take the end cap off, put in another and put the Oxalic in (30 seconds treatment time). For me it is a no brainer. Using the GasVap (or a DIY unit) to deliver Oxalic Acid sublimation is cheap. Of course one needs to mask and goggle up, along with buying Oxalic Acid. Those costs would be the same for any vaporizing unit used. Another way of working costs out is by how much honey do I need to sell..... What are your costing, for the unit + batteries and treatments? I have zero connection with the manufacturer of GasVap or any other device. If you ask to review the product, show your videos, and you might get one. I'm just a Beekeeper. Ceredigion Beekeeper 🏴 🏴 🏴😢
Just something to think about but Randy Oliver stated in one of his videos that he takes mite samples from frames that are next to the brood frames. Apparently, there is less mite count deviation by doing it that way, resulting in more accurate mite counts.
I think most important is for a beekeeper to use the same method consistently so that they can use their results against their history. For me, 2% is the safe zone. If I started sampling differently I might be comparing apples to oranges.
Have you checked to see how they are looking now? My later August splits are mostly a full box of bees now. Once the queens were accepted in the splits, I switched them into the spots where I had full sized production hives while doing the last honey pull (with fume boards) to boost them with the bulk bees. That seemed to really help speed up their brooding and help them get extra resources, but it would be way too much work without a hummerbee haha
I’ve thought about doing these splits just by putting a box with a queen down at each pallet site and moving the hives out a bit earlier in the day. Maybe next year. We checked the splits yesterday during a feeding round and most were a full box. 4 out of 244 were duds we shook out.
@@soupvis2616 these samples come from different hives. As folks who follow me may know. The untreated hives have a different history than the main production hives. What those hives tell me is that 2% establishes a floor for what untreated hives might look like. A treated hive that has two percent now may have experienced a reduction of mite load but it isn’t low enough.
Thanks for posting! Is varroxan available to you? My understanding is that an OAE treatment performs poorly as a knockdown but does help slow proliferation.
Thanks for taking the time to do these experiments and sharing the results! It is very helpful for other Beekeepers trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. I was hoping the Apistan was usable again. Darn it.🐝
Thanks for posting 👍 this is useful to see what people are getting mite count wise and🤦you just reminded me, I did some spring splits and forgot to go back and put strips in them after I moved them🤦 and now it's dark 😂 guess I know what my first job is in the morning 😬🤦 thanks for posting from southern New Zealand 👋😃
I have gotten away from synthetic miticides, but one year I contributed to a randy Oliver study where hive were dosed with apivar and apistan at the same time. Three strips of each by the end of the trial. Those came through winter strong.
Phil, I think you should rethink how you collect your samples. If you shake frames into a tub and then scoop up bees with a measuring cup it would give you a more consistent sample size and give you a more consistently high proportion of nurse bees. Having consistent same sizes would save you a lot of math and make comparing mite loads of different hives a breeze. I realize it is one extra step when you are already busy but it seems like it would pay off in the end.
🤣That looks funny at first. Thanks for sharing Phil.😂How many practice runs did you do before the video? Thank you for the video Phil, you bring us some real good information. Blessed Days...
I opened up a Buyvarol pack.. aluminium foil with plastic strips packed again in foil. Looks the same as Apivar. It was from 1999. Tested it on two not treated hives until August. It completely cleaned the varroa out.. I'm ready to bet right now those two will be very strong hives in spring. Damn poison 😅. I didn't do the wash at all. The bottom trays were full... on day 25 there was 0 varroa on them. Killed every varroa in the hives.
I've never used Apistan or it's cousin Mavrik in my hives, but everybody was using it in the 1990s when I was a kid until it quit working. Amitraz being so heavily overused now and losing its edge makes me wonder about putting fluvalinate in the rotation. I use all the organic stuff too but about once a year in the late summer, you really need a good treatment with a uniform knockout.
I like this method, it breaks all the rules and saves all the time. Looks like you can get a bunch done in half a day. What do you normally expect to get for a queen take percentage on the checkbacks? Royal suppository 👍👍
HA PHIL THIS IS WHAT I UNDERSTAND U REMOVE HONEY PUT EMPTY BACK.. QUEEN EXCLUDERS ARE ADDED U GO BACK IN A DAY OR 2 REMOVE THE SEC AND ADD A MATED QUEEN. U PUT THE SPLIT IN THE SAME YARD DONT THE FIELD BEES GO BACK TO THE MOTHER HIVE ALWAYS ENJOY YOUR VEDIOS. HAVE A BLESSED DAY
I have some late queen replacements (superceedure) just coming on line. Things seem to be pushed later this summer, who knows, maybe we will get the needed weather into October
