>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