Oxyalic Acid Vaporizing

GSF · December 02, 2013, 08:36:17 PM

It was warm Sunday so I fed the girls a quart of sugar water.

I just got an oxyalic acid vaporizer and I had planned on treating them. The concern I now have is the sugar water most likely isn't cured/capped yet. The o/a vapors forms tiny crystals on most everything in the hive. I "think" I read where feeding the O/A to the bees was found to be detrimental to the health of the bees and the production of the queen. Can anyone clear this up for me? I think it was fed in sugar water or something.

Vance G · December 02, 2013, 10:02:04 PM

There are open cells in all hives and I doubt it is much of a problem or we would have heard about it as a lot of people use it. Oxalic is also already present in the honey so the bees can probably handle it with little difficulty.

D Coates · December 03, 2013, 10:15:03 AM

Don't worry about it at all. I've vaporized while feeding a few time with no adverse effects on the bees.

mdbee · December 03, 2013, 03:23:32 PM

When is the best time to Vaporize, in the morning before they start coming out, if they are flying at all and if you closed the box up for 10 Min's that a lot of bee's would start building up.

edward · December 03, 2013, 04:30:51 PM

When they all are at home, also when there is no brood in the hive!

If you have pupae the effect will not bee optimal as most of the varroa is in them :-x

mvh Edward :-P

GSF · December 03, 2013, 07:00:50 PM

I can't say if this is fact or fiction. It's recommended to treat once a week for three weeks and four if the mite load is real heavy. The advantage OA has over Fogging is it will kill the varrora in the empty cells as well.

mdbee · December 05, 2013, 09:26:27 AM

I did a OA treatment on two of my big hives yesterday, this is new to me and I'm not set up for it, my SBB are 3/8 So I have to lift the boxes up some to get it to work. I will check the drop count in the coming days.

GSF · December 05, 2013, 09:35:01 PM

Those with actual experience please correct me if I'm wrong.., Seems like I remember reading your biggest drop will be the third day of the first treatment. Tomorrow's my third day. I can't say if my first treatment can be considered a full treatment. I tested it outside of the hive to get my vaporizing time down pat. Then I stuck it in the front entrance. Once the time was up I disconnected it and waited 10 minutes to pull it out of the hive. There was a bee right in the middle of where the O/A had been and it didn't look like all of it had vaporized, there was some black resin. Since then my brain has grew a little larger and my next treatment I will remove the oil pan tray and stick it in there. The screen bottom will keep the bees off of it.