Mike, I got back to my yards today.  We've been putting on Miteaway in the
mid 80F range--above label recommendation.

The strong doubles ignore it, keep feeding and broodrearing.

My crew freaked when they saw some of the weaker colonies looking like there
were no bees left after a few days, and pulled the pads.  I checked back
today, and most of them looked fine--somehow the bees reappeared.  Problem
was only with weaker singles (about 5-6 frames of bees).  Substantial brood
kill in those, but quick recovery.

We put pollen patties inside the rim with the pad.  All ate during
treatment, except a few whose queen simply shut down.  There was big
colony-to-colony variability.  Some queens ignored, some shut down at first,
then picked back up, some shut down as long as the pad was in.  It was easy
to spot the shut downs, since they didn't eat any patty.

We want to do more experimenting, such as leaving the screened bottom
open--this appeared to work last year on two colonies that I tested it on.
Mites apparently drop out of the hive.

In hot weather, we are really liking Apiguard thymol gel between the brood
chambers.

Randy Oliver

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