>
> I ran OA vapor for the first time this year. Around July 1 I gave the
> hives a brood break by doing splits and replacing queens, let them sit for
> two weeks, then gave them 3 rounds of OA vapor, 1 week apart, 1 g per deep
> body (and +0.5 g per medium). I mostly run solid bottom boards, but have a
> few screened bottom boards mixed in the yards from when I bought another
> beekeeper out. Closed all entrances with an old t-shirt while vaporizing,
> plugged it in for 2:30, then let it sit for another 5 min before pulling
> the vaporizer out. With screened bottom boards, I put a piece of
> chloroplast under the screen for about 10 min (so 2:30 longer than removing
> the shirt). It didn't create a perfect seal, but I would say it was no
> better or no worse than some of the other hives that had cracks here or
> there (at least visually from watching the vapor leak out). I came back two
> weeks after treatments to take a representative sample of mite counts. Most
> were 0 per 100 bees, a few had 1 or 2. I didn't take the time to compare
> screened vs. solid bottom boards.
>

End result: ~75% (3 out of 4) of the hives that had screened bottom boards
showed PMS issues, and later collapsed from mites. ~3% (1 out of 29) of the
solid bottom boards ended up perishing (I think for a reason unrelated to
mites, a requeening failure, but not 100% sure).

Lesson learned on my end. With screened bottom boards, make sure you do a
better job sealing the hive up before, during, and after vaporization.

>
>

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