>I will find the queens in all hives in the spring and put each in a 3 frame
nucleus box without any sealed brood. I can vaporize oxalic in the nuc boxes
at that time and get all their mites. The main colonies I will leave to
raise their own queens. It takes 13 days till the queen emerges and another
7 days before she is bred and laying eggs. At this time there should be no
sealed brood left in the main hives and I can vaporize the oxalic in them at
that time.
If you do this in spring I think you would need to watch when all the drone cells emerge to get all phoretic mites. Unless your goal is to double the size of your apiary with the nucs, why not just cage the queen for 14-16 days, right in the main colony, and then treat during the one or two-day broodless window that will occur?
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