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Varoia

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Not good practice if your bees are coping on their own.

It's a good idea to to monitor in the Spring and after the supers come off. I tend to just before and after supering. An alcohol wash is the most accurate though kills the sampled bees so some people use the nearly as good sugar roll. If you don't know about these have a read of Randy Oliver's website here http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-11-mite-monitoring-methods/

 

http://www.bee-equipment.co.uk do a sugar roll kit for simplicity.

Inspection tray monitoring is a waste of time as it is inaccurate

 

The most common method is using some sort of thymol preparation, Apiguar, Apilife Var, Thymovar, though this is temperature dependent for the whole treatment time of four weeks so you might be too late for it to be effective.

Similarly with MAQS which is very hard on the bees and that queen you don't want to lose and has to be applied with supers on anyway.

You best get some Apivar strips. These are prescription only and you can get them from http://www.bee.vet.co.uk

 

I sublimate with oxalic acid three times at five day intervals after supers are off which is quick, easy and you don't have to go into the bees to do it; something you might like to look at for next season

 

Hope this helps

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Hello speckled hen.

Im sorry if ive offended you by now answering before now.

I have had an old friend visiting for the weekend and not been on here.

Your comments are very interesting and food for thought. I know that people have different ways of doing things. Is this one of the bee keeping hot potatoes? As in fairly sure i read somewhere that all bee keepers should treat for varoia yearly regardless.

 

I dont mind being disagreed with .... or told im wrong! Im only a beginnner so greatful for all conme ts :)

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Im sorry if ive offended you by now answering before now.

 

Heavens no....I didn't intend to suggest you did.

Not a hot potato and treating as a beginner is probably the best way to go.

The hot potato is WHAT to use.

You should monitor the mite load though so have a go in the Spring.

Best go for Apivar on prescription ASAP and monitor the drop for a week or so

Let us know how you get on

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