Here is a great little video that shows how to apply an oxalic acid trickle. It features Bee Craft Deputy Editor, Margaret Cowley (UK). She has the coolest little plastic squirt bottle that dispenses exactly 5 ml of the solution at a time. She just squeezes the bottle until the upper chamber is full, then […] Read more
Oxalic acid as a Varroa treatment first caught my attention two years ago when beekeeper Mark Luterra showed me a photo of his bottom tray after treatment. What an incredible display of dead bodies! I was intrigued. Later, I followed up with some research, mainly from Randy at ScientificBeekeeping.com. From him I devised a treatment plan […] Read more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has approved the use of oxalic acid for use in honey bee colonies. According to information in the registration decision, “Due to the significant problems this parasite poses for honey bees, the EPA review of the application was conducted under a greatly expedited process.” You can read the full […] Read more
It seems that every beekeeping group has its own way to monitor Varroa mites. I keep hearing variations on the sugar shake (or sugar roll), the alcohol wash, and the soap bath. But one thing remains constant: most hobby beekeepers don’t want to kill bees in order to count mites. The powdered sugar shake does […] Read more
After my last post, many people wanted to know “What the heck is guanine?” Very simply, guanine is one of the four nitrogen-containing bases found in DNA. You’ve probably seen strings of letters representing DNA structure that look something like this: ATGGATGTCGACGGT and so on. The four letters represent the four bases: adenine, cytosine, guanine, […] Read more
Before I get down to the details of each type of comb honey super, I want to discuss Varroa mites. In Honey in the Comb, Eugene Killion does not write a single word about these irksome creatures. This was not an oversight. In fact, the book was published in 1981, six years before Varroa appeared […] Read more
“It’s obvious you don’t like these mites, but I want to try anyway. Do you have any suggestions?” Well, I have some ideas, as long as you keep in mind that I have never actually done this . . . These little mites are fragile. Most suppliers want to ship them overnight or two-day mail. […] Read more