My hive decided to requeen and just found the new virgin queen that emerged today. I was gonna do a oxilac acid dribble to treat for mites. Should I wait till she Is mated and laying eggs before I do that? Not sure if it will mess anything up with new queen.
Thanks E
I would wait, as you say. Oxalic acid is pretty potent stuff and new queens do not have very strong pheromones. The hive may abscond if she isn’t laying. Waiting until you see eggs or larvae is a great idea.
What mite treatments would you recommend? This is my 1st year beekeeping.
I recommend Oxalic Acid Vapor above everything else, but I still think you are correct to wait. Formic Acid (MAQS) is even more corrosive, and I have had a hive abscond after we put Apivar strips in it. Bees are very sensitive with new queens and it is just best not to upset them.
Do you always use the vapor? Or do you switch up treatments. I was told you should rotate between at least 3 different treatments so they dont become resistant to treatments. I’m just trying to educate myself more every day.
There is no evidence of resistance developing to Oxalic Acid, even when it is the only thing used over many years. A big research study was done on it by a respected team in Argentina.
I do sometimes use Apivar strips if the mite counts don’t drop by mid-Fall. I have tried Thymol and don’t really like it, and I am worried about the 10% queen loss with MAQS. Hops-based treatments are not effective enough for my liking. So Oxalic Acid is top of my list. 
Thanks for helpful tips.
Love this, me too. I think a really cool thing about all this learning is that it extends well beyond bees and beekeeping!
So I checked on my hive today 10 days after new queen hatched and found some new cells. Is it possible she didn’t make it back from her mating flight?
Sorry to say… That doesn’t look promising for your queen. At this time of year, I would look to merge the remaining bees with another hive.
Others will probably have different opinions. After all, that is what beekeepers do.
A week after a queen hatching is a bit borderline in time to see eggs in the cells. Are those queen cells old ones or now being made, is there any capped? Maybe they are old ‘play queen cells’, I used to knock them down but the bees soon remade them even when there was no reason as they remained unused.
Dawn could well be right but for me I would give it a few days and check for eggs then if you are good at seeing them, and in the meantime look into your options of re-queening the colony with a bought queen or a frame of eggs from a donor hive.
Good luck Eric, Cheers
Yes I believe 2 were capped. It’s been 10 days. I didn’t expect to see eggs today. But was hoping I found queen walking around d in some frames. Is it around 14 days for queen to start laying after emerging from cell?
Thanks Eric
About 14 days after emerging is when I would be looking for her but then I wouldn’t be looking for her for another week. My reason is that I prefer to give a new queen time to settle without adding to her stress by disturbing her. Bees are much more susceptible to stress than a lot of bee keepers accept or think about. I have had new queens return from a mating flight then vanish and I think the reason was that she got stressed as I could think of no other reason that made sense. That has made me rethink my habit of checking on the queen too soon. Once she has enough time for brood is when I first check she is ok. Lifting the roof and listening is a pretty good indicator if the hive is queen-right, a noisy droning sound is a good indicator to a queen-less hive.
I don’t knock down queen cells, why do it when the next day they have rebuilt them often in the same place, but when I see one is capped I keep an extra eye on it and put plans in place depending I what I want the outcome to be, at the moment I am happy to use the new queen cell to make a new colony as a part of a split leaving the old queen in the hive.
Cheers
Sounds good thanks for great info from all.
So I found new queen on this past Monday. I believe there were eggs on one frame in hive. I was gonna check tomorrow to see if I see larva or not. If I do what would you guys suggest waiting to do a mite treatment. Another week or so? I’ll do am alcohol wash first to see what the count is. Would you guys treat with something lighter for the new queen? Fall is approaching fast here in Wisconsin. Day time is still mid 70’s to 80’s. Night has been getting into mid to low 50’s
If you see eggs and larvae, the hive is much less likely to abscond, especially at this time of year. My choice would be Oxalic Acid vapor, but if you can’t do that, then Apivar strips.
I would only do an Oxalic Acid dribble on a broodless hive - perhaps late October for you.
Sounds good thanks . Maybe I’ll invest in a vaporizer.
Hi Eric, I’m never completely satisfied that I have a successful queen until I see sealed brood. However if you see mature larvae where the cells haven’t been extended upwards, you can be sure that it’s worker brood, not drone brood.
