Oxalic Acid Vaporizer

[ski]

Anyone planning on using OAV to treat for mites?
Anyone already using OAV to treat for mites?

This is one I am in the process of putting together.
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... bhytac.jpg

[ski]

Finally got my two home made OA vaporizers wired, assembled and tested.
The sheet metal below the aluminum block keeps the vaporizer from scorching wood on solid bottom boards.

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... qvsdbi.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... igdmav.jpg


It takes 5 minutes for the OA to completely vaporize and I have read that the hive should remain closed for another several minutes after vaporization is completed.

load a vaporizer up with a half of a teaspoon of OA.
Smoke the front entrance to move the bees away so they don’t get cooked by the vaporizer.
Put the unit in the front entrance and close the front entrance with cloth and power it up.
After 5 minutes disconnect the power and start on the second hive with the second vaporizer.
After a total time of about 10 minutes I remove the first unit pour a little water on it to cool it down and move it to the third hive.

The screened bottom boards will be closed.
I read one beekeeper went through his hives and removed all the burr comb before using the vaporizer.

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... 6rzejh.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/ ... uxin1c.jpg

Hives treated 8/01/2015
24 hour mite drop -
48 hour mite drop -

[Wally]

VERY NICE.

You make them and I'll market them.

SERIOUSLY.......

[ski]

Unless we had 60-70 of them not sure it would be worth it.
Anyway there are quite a few folks making them and I am not interested in a Job right now.

[ski]

I treated my home yard and the two out yards with OAV.

The home yard had 3 treatments but the third treatment was 10 days after the second which I think accounts for the high mite counts I got during sugar rolls.
Hive # 1 mite count - 16
Hive # 3 mite count - 13
Hive # 4 mite count - 0
Hive # 5 mite count - 9
Didn't check the rest of the hives.

The two out yards were treated 4 times with the last 3 treatments being 5 days apart.
I think the hives with 5 and 6 mites are in the treatment threshold.

Strawberry Farm Hives
Treated August – 9, 19, 24, 29
Sugar Roll Sept 2, 2015
Hive S1 – Mite Count - 6
Hive S2 - Mite Count - 4
Hive S3 – Mite Count - 3

Blueberry Farm Hives
Treated Sept 8, 19, 24, 29
Sugar Roll Sept 3, 2015
Hive B1 - 3
Hive B2 - 5

A beekeeper that has been doing OAV for a few years suggested that I do one more OAV treatment now and another when broodless.

But I don’t feel comfortable enough to only use oav on the two outyards.
So I will use a half dose of MAQS on the hives at the strawberry farm and the home yard.
The blueberry farm will get one more OAV treatment now and another when broodless.

OAV takes some work and I think the timing of the treatments being 5-7 days apart is critical to getting the mite load down.
All I can say is that it has been fun getting the vaporizers together and treating the hives.
Comments and questions are welcome.

[Jacobs]

Have you looked for and are you seeing any significant brood kill during these treatments?

[ski]

I have not seen any larvae or pupae outside the hive and during the sugar rolls I shook bees from the brood frames and they looked ok.
So I have not seen anything abnormal so far.

[Jacobs]

I treated my 6 hives at McLeansville yesterday morning. They had received half treatments of MAQS in late summer/early fall, so this treatment was aimed at getting a varroa knock down while brood rearing is at a minimum.

I used 2 grams of OA in each hive and kept the vaporizer on for 4 minutes and left it in each hive for another 10 minutes to cool and to finish vaporizing. All of the OA was gone at the end of each treatment, and although the bees did not react heavily to the vapor, I could hear increased buzzing in the hives during and after the treatments. I worked when the temperatures were between 38 and 51°F so that the vast majority of bees were still in the hives.

I was curious to see, so I used my new 12 volt lawn and garden battery to power the vaporizer. It is much lighter that the full sized batteries that we are using for the GCBA "Mite Patrol" program. It handled the 6 hives without a problem and took about 5 hours to fully recharge using a 1.25 amp battery tender.

[Jacobs]

I took advantage of the "warm" temperatures today to use the OA vaporizer on 4 hives at the house. The other hives are either Wayne's Bees (no mite treatment) or nucs that are too small to safely vaporize. When we get a warmer stretch, I plan to treat at the Cooperative Extension, Brown Summit, and McLeansville. Before long, queens may start to increase brood rearing, and the OA may not be at it's most effective.

[Jacobs]

The OA didn't kill the treated bees--I still hear buzzing in the hives. I am debating whether I want to go to Brown Summit and treat if temperatures will reach the upper 30's-low 40's on Wednesday.

[billhurd]

I took advantage of the "warm" temperatures today to use the OA vaporizer on 4 hives at the house. The other hives are either Wayne's Bees (no mite treatment) or nucs that are too small to safely vaporize. When we get a warmer stretch, I plan to treat at the Cooperative Extension, Brown Summit, and McLeansville. Before long, queens may start to increase brood rearing, and the OA may not be at it's most effective.

So, how are your 'Wayne's Bees' doing this spring? have you inspected them yet?

[Jacobs]

The ones that survived are going gangbusters. One did not inherit mite tolerance and died out early. One hive of Waynes Bees starved during the period at the beginning of the year when it did not get above freezing. I had a shim and sugar blocks on the hive, but the bees had consumed all of the honey in the hive and could not get to water to use the sugar. That was my error in not figuring on a long stretch where they could not fly to water. This is the first time since I have been keeping bees that we had several days in a row where the bees could not fly and could not even break cluster.

I have split one of my Waynes Bee hives and plan on splitting another when the weather cooperates.