> Speaking of OAV, what are people's thoughts on current treatment regimens
> with OAV?
>

Just had an inspection by the State Inspector on my mentees hives and mine.
I wanted to see how good the OAV treatments actually were from a
dispassionate outside source.

I learned the obvious, that if you have a continuing OAV treatment schedule
- mine is spring once, end of clover once and follow up if needed (six or
more mites on the sticky boards after treatment), more if needed during
invasion sesaon (3x5), and one around Thanksgiving. My mite levels were
zero and one in the two I asked her to check. The zero was expected as it
was a split and the other a well established hive. The reason I limited it
to two was I was only in my fourth week of recovery from total hip
replacement surgery and did not want to stand there especially when she
would only confirm what I expected with the rest..

The only surprise was reflected in some of the posts about a year ago when
people told their experiences and the number of treatments that were
necessary to get things under control.That was with my only long time
beekeeper who treated but did not quiet understand just what to do (I was
completely unavailable at the time). They eventually had three treatments
but they were more than five days apart for the first and OK for the last
two. Even so, their mite counts were around ten, way to high for me, so
they are into another round of treatments.

What I should have prescribed for any beekeeper shifting from other
treatments to OAV is five treatments four days apart for the first
treatment. You really need to hit them hard and get the mites down. after
that you are really into IPM and to check after the first treatment to see
if the mite levels are elevated from normal (one or two) from the sticky
board 24 hours after the treatment, and if so, depending on the time of
year, treat at least once more but I would go with my standard 3x5.

The key to limited treatments is the obvious which is mite loads in the
area, which is why I am mentoring every beekeeper we find in the area.If we
all control Varroa, we all benefit.If you have others around you who do not
control Varroa, my guess is you will need to go on a more rigorous
treatment schedule until the other bees all die off, and they will.

BTDT my neighbor across the street was a very proud non-treatment beekeeper
who regularly lost every one of her hives every winter. And every year,
even with spring formic pads and another treatment in early summer, I would
end up with a mite level in late June-mid July of 4or more mites from an
alcohol wash. As noted, with her long gone and controlling mites in the
area I was zero and one. Plus healthy productive bees.

I go in for my second hip replacement on Sept 11th. I wanted both done
close together so I would be ready for the bees come early spring- a six
month recovery which is the most conservative estimate for complete
recovery. Some Drs are as short as three months.Right now I am about two
weeks ahead of the standard curve of where I should be. all because of PT
before the operation so my muscles were ready for it.My current "bad leg"
will become my "good" leg and everything I am doing now will be reversed!
Life is always interesting.

Bill Truesdell
Bath,Maine

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