I am a fairly new beekeeper and am getting ready to treat my hive for varroa mites using an oxalic acid vaporizer.
What time of day is best to treat the hive so that I get the most out of the treatment(s).
How many times should I do this?
I have a bottom board on…should I get a sticky board and replace the bottom board while I treat?
What should I do about wax moths? I found larvae and removed it but is there a treatment for those?
And, finally, I have a flow hive with 2 supers under it. The queen excluder is right under the flow hive super but the box under it only has honey…no brood. My bottom deep has some brood but I’m concerned that there’s no brood in my second brood box. Any suggestions as we head into Fall?
Thanks in advance for your advice!
More important than the time of day is the time of year - and it is not the best time of the year to use oxalic acid vapor. This is because most of the mites will be under brood caps where the oxalic acid won’t reach.
If you still want to do oxalic then you can do what @Dawn_SD has described and treat every 5-7 days until your accelerated mite drop after 24° is under 25 mites.
Hi Sharon and welcome!
No need. Assuming you’re talking about the coreflute slider or the bottom tray for the bottom board of your Flow hive, depending on model, either one will show mites that have dropped. But as @chau06 said, now is late for OAV anyway. Many beeks use Apivar or similar at this time of year, but it’s very important to do an alcohol wash to decide your best approach.
Your colony sounds like it has too much space and not enough population, which allows moths to get going in there. Best to reduce the amount of unused space by removing the super and possibly one of the two brood boxes.
Just pointing out that “supers” are what go on top of, not under other boxes. Boxes under super(s) are brood boxes. Anyway, it’s good you have some honey and some brood. How much brood is there, and are all the frames fully drawn?Does your flow super have any honey?