On 14-Oct-08, at 2:14 AM, randy oliver wrote:

>>
> Acetic-fumigated combs appear to have some benefit in CCD cases, but
> not as much as one would expect.

Hi Randy and all

My winter losses were very high last spring.  Following advice on  
this list and elsewhere, I fumigated the deadout combs with acetic  
acid.  After 12 days in stack with acetic acid 3 of these deadout  
boxes were used, without being aired out, as the second  brood  
chamber on 3 newly purchased strong singles.  Three days later the  
new brood chambers were full of bees in spite of the obvious acetic  
acid odour.  Freshly hatched larvae were seen on the 6th day in all  
three boxes.  These hives appeared not to have been affected by the  
acetic acid odour present. A month later, I received a call from a  
person with a swarm in her tree(8 km from me).  I grabbed another box  
from the acetic stack and headed off to the swarm.  The swarm was  
large on a low limb of the tree, 3 ft from the ground, and "a piece  
of cake".  I placed the super on the ground and shook the branch  
dropping the swarm into it.  The bees crawled in and out of the box  
for a while when I saw the queen, picked her up, and put her between  
the frames.  Later, the bees still were not totally committed, I saw  
the queen again and put her in again.  I don't have a queen cage and  
have never needed one before but the swarm was later on a higher  
branch of a different tree.  This time I was a total failure, or,  
they didn't like the smell.  The remaining deadout boxes are still  
stacked in the yard but no waxmoth damage.  Comments?

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

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