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Subject:
From:
"<Tom Hochheimer>" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 1 Nov 1995 21:18:23 -0500
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>Hello fellow Beekeepers,
>
>        I am a hobby beekeeper with six hives in eastern
>Pennsyvalnia, east of Philadelphia.  I robbed my girls early
>this year in July in order to treat early with Apistan strip
 
>Most definitely your honey will be contaminated, the best thing is to
use it
>as feed for the bees. It came from your bees and can be fed back without
>problems. We feed honey most years, from cappings and drippings etc.
 
        The robbed colonies currently have two deep brood chambers
and a super full of tainted honey. If I feed back the honey taken, they
probably will store it and won't it still be tainted next year? Does
fluvalinate breakdown in honey with time?  Does the trace hydrogen
peroxide generated during the sugar inversion process do anything to
oxidize fluvalinate?  The Apistan add states that "Apistan doesn't
contaminate honey." If  1000 microgams get into 22 pounds (10 Kgm)
of honey, this amounts to 100 parts per billion fluvalinate. What
level is harmful? I would have thought that fluvalinate would be
more soluble in the wax than a saturated sugar solution. Perhaps
it equilibrates to some degree between the wax and honey.
        It seems that if Apistan can contaminate honey, some
trace levels would be detectable in subsequent years, even if the
strips were removed before a honey flow. In any event, I think I
have more tainted honey than can be consummed by the bees.
How about making mead with it, or would this also be inadviseable?
        Apistan is the only approved treatment for Verroa and
it means that we must treat or lose the bees. It is a remarkably
effective product but apparently comes with a highly negative
side effect if we can't use the contaminated honey.
 
        Thanks for any feedback on my dilema.
 
                [log in to unmask]
                Downingtown, PA

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