If it is above 4C (about 39F) outside temp you should be able to vape successfully, according the manufacturer of my equipment.
You didn’t hear it from me, but Savogran Wood Bleach in Home Depot etc is over 99% pure Oxalic Acid and vapes very well.
I use both, but I have very sensitive lungs (asthma) and very sensitive skin (rosacea and eczema) so the last thing I need is concentrated acid vapor to distract me! If you don’t have a respirator, you could use one of those tight-fitting shaped thick paper mulch masks that you can get in Home Depot to protect you from breathing sawdust, metal filings etc - they don’t work quite as well, but they are a lot better than nothing.
Seal up the front entrance with a damp towel before you start.
If you have an SBB, you can vape from below it (from behind the hive) - I like to put a piece of plywood in the lower slot to seal it up. Putting the hot vaping iron on the plastic slider is probably not a good idea.
Try to stand upwind when you connect the battery power - you want any escaping vapor to be carried away from you.
I followed the steps @Bobby_Thanepohn went through in his video. Because I didn’t have a respirator, I liked his idea of lighting a smoker to be able to see the wind shifting so you can stay upwind of vapor. Worked for me, except for the one time I forgot to look at it first & caught a small but irritating whiff. I did wear safety glasses, didn’t wear gloves, just used caution.
I do it as long as it’s above freezing. I go by actual temp at my bee yard not what my phone/computer says…
Being a chimney sweep, and because I have a beard most of the time, I wear a battery powered respirator. I have a negative one for those rare times I might shave lol. A negative unit wouldn’t make a tight seal to the face with a beard.
Make sure it does organic vapors. I actually wear my full bee-suit and the respirator is underneath.
Bobby I lost all my colonies & everyone I know in my immediate area (Long Island, NY) lost at least half to most during the the first cold snap. I don’t treat at all and had successfully overwintered for the last 3 yrs. No one is quite sure what’s happened.
Untreated colonies usually make it for their first 2-3 years and then collapse per our NJ State Bee Apiarist. Of course I didn’t believe him in my first few years and lost all my colonies but two in my second year but was able to rebuild those back to 50.
No I didn’t mean all healthy colonies would die out. Sorry if it read like that. Common consensus is that if you have a colony of bees that are NOT resistant to the effects of varroa in some way if you leave them completely untreated they will last three or so winters before they collapse.
That is more or less what chilli is saying
What I meant to say is if a colony is going to die from Varroa, it usually happens in year 2 or 3.
There is usually a sufficient brood break in package bees and most swarm captures. Most commercial nucs see some sort of brood break unless it is an over-wintered nuc.
When I was a new beekeeper, I was fooled by all the internet expert beekeepers that had only kept bees for 1 year boasting “treatment free”. I fell for it, and in my second year I was mostly treatment free because I had no bees left to treat lol.
Hi Bobby,
Thank you for posting this video/topic. I too unfortunately learned of the same exact fate occurring with my hive. The hive is full of both capped and uncapped honey with the bees face-in/butt-out positioning within the comb.
Since reading/watching your post I have set out to better understand why my colony collapsed. I have been reading about Varroa Mites and how they result in DWV and spotty brood pattern with partially emerged bees. I have been reading about starvation and how you will often see the adult bees dead in the individual cells (face-in) and with a large number of bees on the bottom board. However, I am now convinced (mildly melodramatic) that my hive encountered and crumbled due to every process imaginable including pesticides. I took some pictures and was hoping you all in the blogosfere can help with the diagnosis.
But first some background information. I started my hive late by most standards when a local beekeeper contacted me in early July. This beekeeper is highly experienced and is currently breeding bees in our area that have been shown to be resistant to infection. The bees did fantastic from the very start and quickly drew out 11 foundation-less frames. The queen (born in May 2016) was laying in a very tight pattern and seemed incredibly healthy. Every two weeks a hive inspection was performed with no mites identified. In November the first sightings of varroa were noted, however minimal. In late November the varroa count was high enough were I noticed several young bees with DWV so I decided to treat with vaporized oxalic acid, as the brood count was relatively low. The bees had been incredible foragers and had 11 frames of 80-90% honey and therefore I elected not to additionally feed. In mid January I noticed a large amount of dead bees at the entrance of the hive and so on a warmer day I cracked the top to inspect (just the top box) and there was minimal activity but a cluster was identified. Last week I became increasingly concerned and did a full inspection …this is what I found.
Really hard to know. You have good honey stores, so they shouldn’t have starved. You have bees with heads in comb in your photo - that is either starvation (not likely) or freezing. Your post and profile don’t say where in the world you are located, so it is hard to give a climate-accurate answer. It seems like northern hemisphere, given your source and timing of bee colony, and probably US with the language and spelling you use.
Without the additional info on your region, I would speculate that they froze or more likely died from condensation/freezing if you did not insulate or moisture quilt the hive. Could be wrong, but that is the only thing that looks very likely to me. I will be interested to read what others think.
I have to agree with @Anon, varroa is probably the most common cause of winter hive loss in the US. I haven’t seen the piles of bees that you show on the bottom board from varroa, but I am sure it can happen. Those piles of bees made me think of wet freezing from condensation. However, Ed has a great point, and we are all far too complacent about varroa these days.
Thank you both! Dawn, your detective skills are fantastic. I am located in Washington state where we have a fairly long growing season. Wind is a major factor in this area and is difficult to avoid. I am thinking of building a wind barrier to help reduce the chill factor.
Is the alcohol wash method more effective than the powdered sugar approach for measuring the varroa burden?
If you don’t have a respirator, you could use one of those tight-fitting shaped thick paper mulch masks that you can get in Home Depot to protect you from breathing sawdust, metal filings etc - they don’t work quite as well, but they are a lot better than nothing.
