I used formic pro for the first time this year also. My results were not as bad as yours I only lost one qureen out of 36 colonies. The only thing different about my hives is I have a upper entrance. The loss of open brood and queen not laying was the same results as yours. The queens are now laying like mad and the mite level went from 5% to .5%. Thanks for all your posts!
At what point is treatment as bad as the problem you are trying to solve? I hope the golden west queens are living up to expectations. I know when I used formic and hopguard III last year I had major bee death. Please keep your viewers updated on the progress of this experiment.
Wow, that one minute of watching Carrie graft answered several questions for me. "Embrace your losses". It's like pouring alcohol on a wound. Man, it sucks but ya gotta do it! 😵💫😉
Its a crying shame that the EPA and the USDA wont aprove an Oxalic extended release product. I run about 40 hives and heres my treatment regimen. 1 formic pad x 10 days in the spring. A one week break where i feed pollen patties and then i add 2 OAE STRIPS and just let them bee. Weve had zero overwinter losses x 3 years now using this method. The info im using is from Mr Randy Oliver. The only thing i do different is i change out the 2 OAE PADS in late summer when i rob the bees and i put a single OAE strip in each colony to overwinter with. Swedish Sponges are my go to pads.
Ian, I was thinking, making your splits with all the capped brood, as soon as you pull them off treat original hive with oxalic acid and treat again the next day. Treat nuc before placing queen in. If you are making a split with a queen, leave her caged for at least 5 days. That leaves you with 7 days of capped brood which should be emerged before the next batch of brood is capped. This gives you opportunity to have broodless(uncapped) hive to also treat with OA(I would treat before even placing queen in) on day 12 and 13 or 13 and 14. Queen cells maybe wait after she is laying good. I think doing something like this is way better then using formic product.
Randy Oliver has suggested caging the queens at the start. He suggested The queens don’t die, the bees kill them. He had no losses by having the queen caged with a some attendants.
your comments in this video intrigued me. my first year using formic I had 60% Queen loss. the past two years we've had about 10% Queen loss and 20% triggering a supercedure. this year we also had 40 colonies that were overwintered in Florida or a split off of those overwintered hives with queens out of California. on those hives we lost eight Queens out of 40. three successfully requeen on their own. not sure if it would be health or there's something in the genetics that allows them to handle the higher dose of formic acid. All hives treated with two pads.
I live in the southeast of the USA. Formic's effects seem to be intensified by high humidity, which we have all summer. Between that and out of range temperatures as well, formic is pretty much regulated to late winter and very early spring use. We see the same effects, hard on weak queens and some brood. I personally haven't seen completely wiped out open brood. We have even gotten away from using it in the fall when temps and humidity are down because there is no time to recover from any queen loss or brood impact while preparing for winter. Although, with the increasing popularity of OA treatments in the winter, many beekeepers aren't needing a late winter/early spring treatment. So formic use is declining.
Formic acid fume clings to moisture, that's why it lingers in your eyes. That's part of the reason to not have liquid feed on the hives while you treat with it.
I am wondering if having the pollen patties in the hives caused restricted airflow. In the presentation by NOD earlier, he seemed to stress the need for proper airflow to circulate the formic properly. Just a thought.
Have used Formic selectively on colonies in the UK without any issues like you have had. But we use mesh floors rather than solid floors, plus I haven’t treated at temps in the high twenties Celsius. Might be worth trying in lower temps and mesh floors to check again.
I never had formic kill a hive? Wow I wonder how a super or upper vent would have gone, I have inner and outer lids with some vent , I always have 1 super on so they could spread out
I’m horrible at Celsius conversion so not sure what the temps were but I’ve had no issues with two pads in the upper limits of the temp range but I had atleast three deeps with each colony
hey Ian, greetings from overseas from Poland, the marked queens are easier to see and you can mark them with the same color according to age, in our case we use a mesh bottom in the hive and under it there is an insert so that after fumigation you can always see how many ticks have fallen, there is also good insulation of the queen bee on 1 frame or 3 frames, plus there are special insulators, do you know these methods?
I have never had that level of death from formic pro OR regular drenched formic pad. I am very curious what weather, temperature, or feeding conditions caused that.
To many vapor of formic acid. Ian, you had two boxes for brood? That's correct? Why did you put the formic between two brood boxes? I use different type of beehives, but I also have two brood boxes and the point is to treat bees above the brood boxes! On top of the second. 😮
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog did they write directions, instructions, how to solve the problem with constant temperature oscillation and differences in humidity? Ian, you are good working man, farmer, father, husband and great beekeeper, don't be naive. 😕 Formic acid is not only used in apiary as mite tretment, we use it also as sort of tretment against chalkbrood, EFB, for killing pathogens, microbes... It has very strong vapor. Because of that, it is smart to put it as far as you can from queen and brood, but in the same time in brood box. Circulation of vapor is done by the bees! Through whole beehive. You use closed system on your beehives, so only way for formic to circulate through beehives and to produce fresh air is by the bees and their wings. 🤷 Sorry for my bad English. Probably I should say on much prettier way in other case. 😁
Hard to see the point to formic when it has so much livestock cost. Seems at least if a hive dies from mites, you're moving towards a more mite resistant stock.. Unless the non effected queens have been selected for formic resistance by accident enabling formic to be another tool.
What were the Temps. I've put two pads of MAQS which is stronger and have not killed an entire colony. Sometimes a queen. It's normal to see some bee loss . But not all.
Formic is unpredictable! If it's to hot too much is evaporating causing the workers to wait outside untill the smoke is gone therefore they are basically untreated. The brood can't walk away and usually dies... I stopped years ago using it and switched to oxalic in combi with biotechnology. Never had losses anymore.
My girls are finally starting an explosive hatch ,such a relief the drn weather ruined the best dandelion pollen flow ive ever seen and made us miss most of the wild fruit . Leaving carriganna and mountain ash possibly pasture clover ☘️ soon Good flight day today june 13 untill it poured at 😢. It would be depressing if i gave up easily but im not quitting untill the bugs win .
Its tough to explain all the variables . I think you are on to something with the caged queen then a strip to kill the mites after all the brood has hatched .
It’s interesting that different lines of bees had different responses to the formic. I wonder if the source apiaries had been using formic for a few years. I just started using 60% formic on meat pads this year, and so far I haven’t seen much disruption to the brood nests. I think it must be a less concentrated dose than the formic pro.
It did occur to me, that if you reduce the number of hives in the second round of treatments, you could fog them with OA as the amount of open brood makes it a perfect time.
🤔Ian can't stand the heat🥵he has to get out of the kitchen.😂Getting them new queens cooking.👍Replenishing from your nuc battery back-ups. Ian I know you don't need my opinion but with the short season you have in the North and the damage caused, I don't think I'd use the 2nd pad. I do not believe I will use that treatment, it appears to have the ability to cause to much damage for my short season. Plus I hear it has issues with humidity not just heat. Thanks Ian, Blessed Days...
I have seen a lot of people testing different things, from what i see you would do just as well making splits using cells. It will give you a break in brood rearing and give the same result except you will be making more hives. I haven't treated in 20 years. Anytime your treatments are killing bees i don't believe i would need it. The next thing you know the whole bunch is shot to hell. To me treatments are just legalized robbery. I like your videos' and sense you raise a lot of your own Queens just try using the hives that seem to handle the mites the best. Keep breeder Queens in one yard and drone hives a mile or so away. Its been my finding that in a short time you will be treating a lot less.
I used formic pro for the first time this year also. My results were not as bad as yours I only lost one qureen out of 36 colonies. The only thing different about my hives is I have a upper entrance. The loss of open brood and queen not laying was the same results as yours. The queens are now laying like mad and the mite level went from 5% to .5%. Thanks for all your posts!
At what point is treatment as bad as the problem you are trying to solve? I hope the golden west queens are living up to expectations. I know when I used formic and hopguard III last year I had major bee death. Please keep your viewers updated on the progress of this experiment.
Man the things I learn from you! Thank you Ian! Love your videos!
Wow, that one minute of watching Carrie graft answered several questions for me.
"Embrace your losses". It's like pouring alcohol on a wound. Man, it sucks but ya gotta do it! 😵💫😉
Its a crying shame that the EPA and the USDA wont aprove an Oxalic extended release product. I run about 40 hives and heres my treatment regimen. 1 formic pad x 10 days in the spring. A one week break where i feed pollen patties and then i add 2 OAE STRIPS and just let them bee. Weve had zero overwinter losses x 3 years now using this method. The info im using is from Mr Randy Oliver. The only thing i do different is i change out the 2 OAE PADS in late summer when i rob the bees and i put a single OAE strip in each colony to overwinter with. Swedish Sponges are my go to pads.
EPA can take a hike, where does the tyranny end?
Ian, I was thinking, making your splits with all the capped brood, as soon as you pull them off treat original hive with oxalic acid and treat again the next day. Treat nuc before placing queen in. If you are making a split with a queen, leave her caged for at least 5 days. That leaves you with 7 days of capped brood which should be emerged before the next batch of brood is capped. This gives you opportunity to have broodless(uncapped) hive to also treat with OA(I would treat before even placing queen in) on day 12 and 13 or 13 and 14. Queen cells maybe wait after she is laying good.
I think doing something like this is way better then using formic product.
Randy Oliver has suggested caging the queens at the start. He suggested The queens don’t die, the bees kill them. He had no losses by having the queen caged with a some attendants.
How many days caging the queen?
your comments in this video intrigued me.
my first year using formic I had 60% Queen loss.
the past two years we've had about 10% Queen loss and 20% triggering a supercedure.
this year we also had 40 colonies that were overwintered in Florida or a split off of those overwintered hives with queens out of California. on those hives we lost eight Queens out of 40. three successfully requeen on their own. not sure if it would be health or there's something in the genetics that allows them to handle the higher dose of formic acid. All hives treated with two pads.
I live in the southeast of the USA. Formic's effects seem to be intensified by high humidity, which we have all summer. Between that and out of range temperatures as well, formic is pretty much regulated to late winter and very early spring use. We see the same effects, hard on weak queens and some brood. I personally haven't seen completely wiped out open brood. We have even gotten away from using it in the fall when temps and humidity are down because there is no time to recover from any queen loss or brood impact while preparing for winter. Although, with the increasing popularity of OA treatments in the winter, many beekeepers aren't needing a late winter/early spring treatment. So formic use is declining.
Formic acid fume clings to moisture, that's why it lingers in your eyes. That's part of the reason to not have liquid feed on the hives while you treat with it.
What is your opinion on the formic acid pads would you do it again or would you use something else
I am wondering if having the pollen patties in the hives caused restricted airflow. In the presentation by NOD earlier, he seemed to stress the need for proper airflow to circulate the formic properly. Just a thought.
Possibly
Have used Formic selectively on colonies in the UK without any issues like you have had. But we use mesh floors rather than solid floors, plus I haven’t treated at temps in the high twenties Celsius. Might be worth trying in lower temps and mesh floors to check again.
I think the same for me.
I never had formic kill a hive? Wow I wonder how a super or upper vent would have gone, I have inner and outer lids with some vent , I always have 1 super on so they could spread out
I’m horrible at Celsius conversion so not sure what the temps were but I’ve had no issues with two pads in the upper limits of the temp range but I had atleast three deeps with each colony
Hi! How are working last yr Tenuta Buckfast from Italy?
hey Ian, greetings from overseas from Poland, the marked queens are easier to see and you can mark them with the same color according to age, in our case we use a mesh bottom in the hive and under it there is an insert so that after fumigation you can always see how many ticks have fallen, there is also good insulation of the queen bee on 1 frame or 3 frames, plus there are special insulators, do you know these methods?
I really hope you guys are ok with that tornado that you guys had go through somewhat close to y'all.
So how was the mite drop?
There is your best queens right there ❤
I have never had that level of death from formic pro OR regular drenched formic pad. I am very curious what weather, temperature, or feeding conditions caused that.
24 degrees at most but otherwise under 20’s and windy , bit of sun. Not much foraging .
Colonies light but lush, Paul feeding and patty
To many vapor of formic acid. Ian, you had two boxes for brood? That's correct? Why did you put the formic between two brood boxes? I use different type of beehives, but I also have two brood boxes and the point is to treat bees above the brood boxes! On top of the second. 😮
One box of brood that was working into the second box, but mostly empty comb or partially filled with nectar.
Suggested directions on package
@@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog did they write directions, instructions, how to solve the problem with constant temperature oscillation and differences in humidity? Ian, you are good working man, farmer, father, husband and great beekeeper, don't be naive. 😕
Formic acid is not only used in apiary as mite tretment, we use it also as sort of tretment against chalkbrood, EFB, for killing pathogens, microbes... It has very strong vapor. Because of that, it is smart to put it as far as you can from queen and brood, but in the same time in brood box. Circulation of vapor is done by the bees! Through whole beehive. You use closed system on your beehives, so only way for formic to circulate through beehives and to produce fresh air is by the bees and their wings. 🤷
Sorry for my bad English. Probably I should say on much prettier way in other case. 😁
Hard to see the point to formic when it has so much livestock cost. Seems at least if a hive dies from mites, you're moving towards a more mite resistant stock.. Unless the non effected queens have been selected for formic resistance by accident enabling formic to be another tool.
What were the Temps. I've put two pads of MAQS which is stronger and have not killed an entire colony. Sometimes a queen. It's normal to see some bee loss . But not all.
Ian, we never see you do many mite washes. Why not?
Continually
Hola un Díez para la que Ace celdas👏👏👏👏💪🐝🐝🐝🇦🇷
Formic is unpredictable! If it's to hot too much is evaporating causing the workers to wait outside untill the smoke is gone therefore they are basically untreated. The brood can't walk away and usually dies...
I stopped years ago using it and switched to oxalic in combi with biotechnology. Never had losses anymore.
Wow!! I guess I wont be using formic unless it’s a last resort
Maybe the variable kill off of hives by Formic is due to quality control issues at the factory?? Too much formic chemical per pad??
My girls are finally starting an explosive hatch ,such a relief the drn weather ruined the best dandelion pollen flow ive ever seen and made us miss most of the wild fruit . Leaving carriganna and mountain ash possibly pasture clover ☘️ soon
Good flight day today june 13 untill it poured at 😢.
It would be depressing if i gave up easily but im not quitting untill the bugs win .
Its tough to explain all the variables .
I think you are on to something with the caged queen then a strip to kill the mites after all the brood has hatched .
Nice,,,, am beekeeping in india
BINGO!!!! natural brood break...
Wow! That formic killls hard eh?
Thanks for this information. I look forward to your videos. How strong was the mite infection before you started? I think I missed that.
Low mite infection. I’m trying to learn the product
It’s interesting that different lines of bees had different responses to the formic. I wonder if the source apiaries had been using formic for a few years.
I just started using 60% formic on meat pads this year, and so far I haven’t seen much disruption to the brood nests. I think it must be a less concentrated dose than the formic pro.
Hi
From my knowledge never use formic acid above 25 °C
The curious mind will never be satisfied by incomplete data, prudence would be advised, maybe considerably few hives in the second round.
It did occur to me, that if you reduce the number of hives in the second round of treatments, you could fog them with OA as the amount of open brood makes it a perfect time.
I wouldn't even treat colonies till fall, but thats just me...
Looks like a standard Canadian truck thing is having a cracked windshield 🙄
🤔Ian can't stand the heat🥵he has to get out of the kitchen.😂Getting them new queens cooking.👍Replenishing from your nuc battery back-ups.
Ian I know you don't need my opinion but with the short season you have in the North and the damage caused, I don't think I'd use the 2nd pad.
I do not believe I will use that treatment, it appears to have the ability to cause to much damage for my short season. Plus I hear it has issues with humidity not just heat. Thanks Ian, Blessed Days...
I thought my bees did better with top ventilation then the ones that didnt have. But still not impressed with the product
I have seen a lot of people testing different things, from what i see you would do just as well making splits using cells. It will give you a break in brood rearing and give the same result except you will be making more hives. I haven't treated in 20 years. Anytime your treatments are killing bees i don't believe i would need it. The next thing you know the whole bunch is shot to hell. To me treatments are just legalized robbery. I like your videos' and sense you raise a lot of your own Queens just try using the hives that seem to handle the mites the best. Keep breeder Queens in one yard and drone hives a mile or so away. Its been my finding that in a short time you will be treating a lot less.
Man stop using that stuff like you said if it killed 2 weeks of brood cage
Your Queen and brood break 😢
Đây là một địa điểm rất đẹp để đặt ong