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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
GAVIN RAMSAY <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:50:34 +0000
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> Hobby Beekeepers in Scotland fumigate once a month (Oct - Dec). 

If there are any that do that they will be few in number.  For two years I was Scotland's national beekeeping organisation's representative for pests and diseases.  In that time I was recommending only dribbling of oxalic acid and thymol-based methods, plus drone brood sacrifice or other manual methods.  

There have been one or two vocal proponents of vaporising oxalic acid (and Frank seems to have corresponded with the main one) and so there is a following amongst those who like playing with complex apparatus, but the risks from breathing fumes mean that this really isn't a suitable method for the amateur.  Dribbling is safer especially for those not trained in handling harmful substances in risky ways and is very effective if conducted at the time of year when sealed brood is virtually absent (ie now for us in Scotland).

I've been using the dribble method (4.5% weight/volume of the dihydrate form of oxalic acid in 1:1 syrup, 5ml per seam of bees) for several years, sometimes relying instead on a thymol-based method through the active season, sometimes relying mainly on the oxalic.  Sometimes drone brood sacrifice to knock back spring populations if there is a problem then.  I'm about to use the Charriere and Imdorf (Swiss) recommendation of reducing the strength of the oxalic solution to 3.5% given that this seems to stop the slight loss of bees from the stronger treatment and yet maintain efficacy.

The man with most bees in Scotland is also using oxalic acid dribble as a main treatment and might well be reading this ...

best wishes

Gavin

Perthshire, Scotland


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