Oxalic acid can be a very effective mite treatment during the winter brood break.
Oxalic is a relatively well tolerated treatment and when the mites are all outside of capped cells, as they are during the winter brood break, it can be nearly 100% effective.
So, is my brood broken?
Well, different bees will stop laying or feeding the brood at different times. Some keep brood almost all winter. The other day I was going through a hive and not finding any open brood at all, so I thought I would go find the queen. I did find her!
And she flew right off the frame and into the air.
So in at least one case a queen right – up until that point – colony didn’t have any brood in late October.
Or maybe she was off to mate. Either way I hope she comes back.
At any rate…
Your brood break could be on or it could be coming up.
And during the brood break we want to treat with oxalic acid.
We will be doing so at the Awbury Apiary on November 11, starting at noon. This is an open event and we will be giving away oxalic acid solution and syringes for application. Click here to RSVP
You can also use oxalic acid vaporization, but dribble is easier, safer, and more effective. So why mess with that?