Sandoz have, of course, conducted tests on Apistan influence (+ve or
     -ve) on brood and colony development/health; these trials have been
     performed by various independent bee institutes. All the results that
     we have suggest no influence [of Apistan treatment] either way.
     I suppose the one effect that is clear is that treated colonies do not
     die from Varroa attack.
 
     However, with biological material and behaviour being as diverse as
     they are, it's impossible to say that there will never be an effect of
     applying any hive treatment to a colony.
 
Apistan has been repeatedly used and tested world-wide but if Sandoz were to
receive feedback from beekeepers that treatment was causing colony damage (as
some other preparations do), the product would be re-evaluated and possibly
removed from the market.
 
Apistan today is as "safe" a hive treatment for bees as you can get and the
bonus is that it's good at killing Varroa too!
 
 
 
Best regards,
 
 
 
Max
 
 
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Apistan and Brood Production
Author:  [log in to unmask] at INTERNET1
Date:    10/29/96 5:25 AM
 
 
 In a message dated 96-10-15 13:23:24 EDT,
 [log in to unmask] (Matthew Ter Molen) writes:
 
 << When revising my hives a week ago and pulling the apistan strips I
       noticed that I had around a 1 or 2 frames of brood per hive but no
       eggs.  However, when I went back yesterday to check they had around 3
       to 4 frames of eggs plus frames of capped brood.  Now, we've had nice
       weather recently and we haven't had a hard frost so there is still a
       lot of aster and goldenrod in bloom and the bees were bringing in a
       lot of pollen.
 
       However, I noticed the correlation last year in that when the strips
       were in place I saw brood production decrease and then, the minute the
       strips have been pulled, I see egg laying dramatically increase.
 
       Has anyone else experienced this?  I don't think that it is weather
       related, even though there is an obvious decrease in brood production
       at this time of year because of the cold weather and coming winter.
       Thanks.  Matt Ter Molen >>
  >>
Matt,  the phenomenon you described has been experienced and reported before.
 In the October 1995 ABJ, the article beginning on p. 687 mentions reduced
brood rearing in hives with Apistan, while control hives without Apistan had
lots of brood.  Furthermore, when Apistan was removed, brood rearing resumed.
 The research and article was by my friend, North Carolina Master Beekeeper
Paul Madren.  Based on some queries I have made on this topic, this behavior
does not seem to be widespread, but does occur in some instances for reasons
I do not yet understand.
 
David Martin, Raleigh, NC