Hello Everyone,
At my queen mating apiary, I've noticed that there seems to be a higher varroa load than usual, which has really fluffed my spuds!
For me, at least, varroa treatments are rarely done mid year. The ones I usually do in autumn, such as Apiguard and Apivar, can take almost a month to finish. Possibly eating into the upcoming summer nectar flow.
With the high load, I felt that I needed to try something, at least as I want my bees to be happy and strong, which varroa mites do their best to stop.
I've done a fair amount of research recently and found a treatment called Formic Pro, which will hopefully do the job.
The benefit of it is that the treatment period is very short compared to the other treatments, with the majority of the work being done in the first three days and it treats all cells, even if theyre capped unlike a lot of treatments. I'm hoping to be able to treat all of my colonies before the summer nectar flow has started. Maybe the reduction of varroa will reduce the stress that's possibly preventing them from expanding. I thought I'd be prudent and just test it on one colony first to see the outcomes.
There are a fair amount of possible problems that can arise from the use or Formic Pro. The dose of formic acid needed to kill the mites is very close to the lethal dose of the honey bees, so you can have mass larvae death, queen rejection, and sometimes even absconding. The manufacturers have worked hard on preventing this from happening, and I've heard really good things from other beekeepers, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Disclaimer: This is not a 'how-to' video as this is the first time I've used it. I can only hope that I've used it correctly!
I hope you enjoy this video. If you do, then please think about liking and subscribing to see more in the future.
Hope you're all safe and well
Greg
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20 авг 2024