BBKA Forum

Any ideas why bees sometimes trash sealed brood when the colony is treated with Apiguard. I have noticed this in previous years as well, with large quantities of pupal limbs on the Varroa board.

Fortunately it is associated with effective Apiguard treatment and such colonies recover well and subsequently drop few Varroa with the Christmas oxalic acid treatment.

No I don't but I could guess and i am not sure that would be very helpful!

I am interested in how others find Apiguard with a long 2 x application period and I found some colonies simply will not take down syrup if it overlaps with Apiguard being on and it became a real issue to get sufficient winter stores down them. Others no problem.

Just me?

I wonder if the apiguard does actually penetrate the brood cells when it's strong enough? Or perhaps the bees move away from the cells due to the close presence of the apiguard and the larvae cool and die so they are hoiked out?
(Is hoik a word?)
I too have noticed a lack of appetite for syrup feed when apiguard is in the hive.

Just went through the colony 2 weeks after starting the first Apiguard. No brood of any description, so the workers must have cleaned it out. Did not encounter the queen so have put in a test frame to see if they are queenless. This was a new colony with 7 frames of brood and looked promising.

Probably didn't need to treat as they have only dropped 38 mites in the two weeks post treatment. I won't put in the second tray in the hope that the queen starts laying again. I also have time to use my OA vapouriser on a broodless colony if needed.

That's quite a severe reaction Jim. I would expect to see some brood removed from near the Apiguard but not all of it!

Morning Adam, I think I was a bit too effective at sealing the OMF and with a reduced entrance in a single brood box in the warm weather, they may have been over exposed to thymol. My other colony on double brood was fine and was able to provide the test frame.

Plenty of stores, pollen and even new nectar coming in, so hopefully the queen will start up again. The colony behaved normally during inspection so I don't think it was queenless, and maybe the test frame will help resolve things.

Updating my last post. The queen is now laying. That is 6 weeks after putting on the Apiguard and over 4 weeks without her laying any eggs. I am thinking the latest burst of warm weather and the advent of the ivy pollen and nectar encouraged the queen to start laying again. Never give up hope!

Alternatively don't use varroa control methods that can cause queens to stop laying.
Mine have just had their third vape...time to clean the gunge from the sublimox...thanks Apibioxal NOT!

I was going to just use my vapouriser this year but had some Apiguard left which was still in date so decided to use it up. There is always next year.