caging queen as varroa control

[Acebird]

Cage the queen such that there are no eggs, like a queen clip.

Now I am more confused.  How do you let her lay for 6 days if she is contained in that way?

[texanbelchers]

Cage the queen, then release her so she can lay again.  OAV after 6 days; she will continue to lay and all will go back to normal with far fewer mites.  There will always be brood in some stage to minimize the abscond and supersede responses.

All this on an old thread.  I think I'll just stick to 3x7 days OAV and not cage the queen.

[Acebird]

OKay, now I get it.
Hopefully you guys that are OAVing will keep good records especially with multiple treatments to learn what cycle is best and at what point these cycles encourage obscounding and supercedure.

So if caging the queen (without OAV) is successful it might be something the bees could learn on their own.  Triggered by mite infestation the colony shuts down the queen for a period of time and just goes into grooming mode.  Then the colony goes back into bee production mode.  Something like a second spring build up.  The availability of nectar would be key for this to happen.  So I can see where it would never work in some locations.

[little john]

I think a better bet would be to cage the queen for 18 days, let her lay and 6 days later (day 24) hit them with 1 round of OAV. All the drones should be emerged and the new larva are about to be capped.

Surely not ?

The best time to hit the colony with VOA is the evening before the queen is released and allowed to lay - that way any mites piggy-backing on bees will get zapped, and there should be zero mites lurking in any of the cells.  And any mites wandering around on the woodwork hoping to hitch a ride on a passing bee, will also get zapped.
LJ

[Acebird]

there should be zero mites lurking in any of the cells.

It is my understanding that the mite first dives into a pool of royal jelly then after the larvae emerges it comes out and attaches to the larvae.  If it has this ability to submerge itself and survive why couldn't it submerge itself in honey or nectar to avoid the OAV treatment?

[little john]

If the queen is caged there won't be any eggs in the cells, let alone any royal jelly.

As for the mite taking a honey bath - are you being serious ?
LJ