Oxalic fog for nucs and growing hives

[malabarchillin]

In Fla it may be different because of lack of brood rearing slow period.
I am new and this is a growth season for me. I have a struggling nuc, another nuc recently placed in a 10 frame and another split that is in a 10 frame. I do not expect any honey in the spring, but may get some during the fall pepper flow. My question is with everything building or struggling at this point and no supers going on for a while is this a good time for a Oxalic fog treatment ? Will it kill bee eggs or uncapped brood ? Will it slow down the bee development ?
Thanks
Mike

[Cindi]

Mike, I use the oxalic acid fogging (vapourizing).  It does not kill brood nor bees.  That is one of the claims to fame of VAPOURIZING oxalic acid. 

Now oxalic acid syrup trickling WILL kill brood and can harm the bees.

Two different methods of applying oxalic acid.  I opt for the fogging, no killing of the brood.  Period.

When I fogged my bees last fall, I was shocked at the numbers of mites that were killed, I kept testing with sticky boards and mite kill continued for about a month, and then I didn't check numbers any more.  My mite counts prior to the fogging were pretty low, that was why I was so ding dang shocked when I saw the hundreds of mites that died.  My colonies went into winter pretty much mite free is my guess.  That is why I didn't lose any colonies to mites this winter.  All my colonies came flying through, all healthy and building up like there is no tomorrow.  I was in the hives last week and was impressed by the numbers of frames of eggs, larvae and capped brood, and lots of drones that the colonies had already rasied.  These lazy boys were walking all over the comb.

I will be performing a sticky board test pretty soon to see if there are any mites present.  If I see even one mite, I will use my vapourizer, once.  I have had colony collapse with mites, I lost 8 colonies, I have no intention of losing any more to mites, ever.  I still hope that the queens that I am getting from California later this month to requeen some of my colonies, will bring about zero need for treating for mites.  These queens have been bred for mite resistance.

I don't like to use chemicals in my hives either.  But if there is a choice between colony losses and O.A. vapourizing, the choice is very clear in my mind.  Beautiful day in this great life.  Cindi

[malabarchillin]

Bump,
Thanks for the reply Cindi.
Any other inputs ?

[Cindi]

Mike, sometimes I think that I am uninformed or something.  I have seen that word "bump" used before on the forum, it must mean something, but I just don't get it.  I can't remember who said it, but I wondered what it meant that time I read it too.  Can you explain it to me.  Probably something simple that I just have overlooked.  Beautiful day in this great life we live.  Cindi

[Romahawk]

A post with out replies will quickly move down and off the first page as it is replaced by newer posts. A BUMP with out a reply moves the topic back up to or near the top of the front page.

[Cindi]

Mike, OK, got it.  Yes, it is really easy actually for a post to go missing really fast when it has narry a reply.  That is kind of a bummer, so...... glad this post got a bump, hee, hee.  Best of a wonderfully great day, Cindi

[Michael Bush]

When I vaporized Oxalic I saw no ill effects.  Perhaps some very young brood was or was not damaged, but the effects were not noticeable.  The ideal time to do it, though is when there is little or no brood in the hive.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesvarroatreatments.htm

[Cindi]

Michael that is an excellent accounting of the mite numbers.

When I used the oxalic acid vapourizing in the colony, it was performed when the brood count was low.  I believe that there may have still been some capped brood in the colonies, but it probably was low.  I vapourized in the late fall.

I had sticky boards inserted and removed from the colonies for over a month, the mites that kept falling over that period of time were very staggaring, in my mind's eye.  I saw mites falling for a good month after the treatment.  No doubt many of them were from grooming, but the O.A. remained effective very obviously for quite some time.  Have the best of the best days.  Cindi