💥Apiguard Thymol Trial Ep. 1 of 3

Controlling Varroa Naturally.
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#Beekeeping #Beekeeper #Honeybee

[@aventureabeille9257]

Good ✌️🤗

[@bobbinnie9872]

Great demonstration.

[@kamonreynolds]

Thanks Bob I enjoyed your demonstration on apiguard as well. Hope you have a great fall, and see you in Iowa.

[@12ArmyNavy12]

You did a great job also Bob. Two different methods to deliver the same product. I am a second time beekeeper, back in the late 70's and early 80's the first time. This is my third year. Didn't have any of these kind of problems like now back then. So much to learn these days. I have learned a lot from you and Kamon Both.

[@bobbinnie9872]

@@12ArmyNavy12 Thanks John. I've always benefited from seeing different methods and other's experiences too.

[@TheCaliforniaBeekeeper]

Solid brick and beautiful late summer queen. This style hive gives me a great idea for our queen banks.

[@Jane-L.S.]

Thank you and your lovely wife. I appreciate these videos. Think I'll stick with the basket type.

[@kamonreynolds]

Even though the mites counts are not yet out of control, by Late October they will be. 1. reason I believe they are this low is because we pulled a frame of capped brood from this hive twice to prevent swarming and they had a brood break when they superseded their queen. Without either of these things happening the mites could easily be 1-2% higher. This is just one example of why colonies are not always the same in how, or when, they should be treated.

[@joesmith409]

5 hives started from nucs this year, 0 mite count across. Are you still treating?

[@kamonreynolds]

Hey @@joesmith409 I wouldn't treat if I am washing 0's

[@amylarson3958]

I am so impressed

[@samkuhl]

Kamon that's a really ingenious way to check for mites I really like the way you explain what your doing to check the colony. I hope you get the mites down to a good level.

[@claudesully]

I am jealous of your queens...they are always ready to pose for the camera...lol. I have to look at all the frames in 5 hives to even catch a glimpse of one...

[@kamonreynolds]

I couldn't believe I found her first shot. When your hot, you hot!

[@josedariocordobacubillos3614]

sorprendente la mansedumbre de estas abejas

[@CallahanHomestead-n-Bees]

Good to see your still alive Thanks for video ,I may try this treatment next year, this year brood breaks, formic and oa .

[@kamonreynolds]

Where we got the Honey Bee Collector and the GQF Incubator. www.cutlersupply.com/collections/bee-pest-control-treatment-and-winter-care/products/bzcol-honey-bee-collector Their GQF Incubator can also be found on Amazon: amzn.to/3Dv9AmA After words we counted a total of 5 mites and 357 bees. for a 1.4% infestation rate. Still needs treated. We also use the Varroa easy check for mite washes and it too leaks some alcohol.

[@CastleHives]

I just finished a 6 treatment cycle on all of my hives, did mite wash before and tomorrow is my mite wash after. Hopefully they are in check.

[@Irene-ke6to]

Thanks for posting this! It is perfect timing for me. I'm set to treat 2 of my horizontal hives tomorrow with ApiGuard.

[@aricibayraktarkardesler_NL]

Nice to see how other beekeepers work

[@kamonreynolds]

Yes sir it is. I love learning new styles and techniques myself!

[@charlottejohn1783]

Try useing canning jar rings or large o-rings for lid seals

[@horizontalbees3480]

The mite card was perfect for the mite treatment!!! LOL

[@kamonreynolds]

When Laurel saw it she just shook her head! I live for those reactions!

[@cbbees1468]

@@kamonreynolds Before you know it, ApiGuard may suggest these hand written cards for a +2% Efficacy Rate, action figures sold separately.

[@larrystevenson4577]

More horizontal hive videos and/or other info sources, please.

[@BackyardBeesNC]

All you need is a 5 gallon bucket and a measuring cup+ the Varrora check.

[@CastleHives]

That's what i do Brian.

[@kamonreynolds]

I typically use a jester nuc box to shake in but yes, a bucket would work great also.

[@christianshannon3943]

I ordered two of those devices Friday. I truly think that a great tool for harvesting extra bees for a split too . I will still use the other type mite wash cup that has the lil basket inside it . To harvest out enough bees will bee so much faster to do a mite wash . If this keeps up I might become a professional beekeeper after all. LoL ! Labor Day Monday I will be evaluating my hives and giving a weaker one a frame or two of brood. My bees are doing a great job of helping to control the hive beetles.

[@mohamedalsaegh5023]

You can dye the legs with shaved oil to prevent ants from climbing the legs, but you need to do that again after it dries.

[@ojibwemamastevens768]

I find if I put Vaseline around the edges of the legs the ants cannot get to them I've also tried out the water method using bowls that fit around the legs filling them with water because the ants will not cross the water

[@billlewis2401]

Stay safe from Ida!!!

[@SteveDratwa]

i got my first nuc June 24th live in Ashtabula,Oh,,i have 5 hives and a swarm on south end of house behind brickfreeze ,,,im switching to alcohol ,,i didnt like the p.sugar and also going with ur treatment advice too! Ive watched all u,barnyard bees,bob binney,jc bees and fred dunnes vids,,AWESOME 411, THANX MAN

[@stevenmartin4111]

have you thought to use a green drone frame per brewed box. for varroa mites,help control them.

[@kamonreynolds]

It can help retard them but my bees don't like raising alot of drones during our summer dearth typically in spring my mites are low. Washing 0s mostly right now

[@stevenmartin4111]

@@kamonreynolds thanks

[@russellkoopman3004]

Wish I knew the of more of my local plants. Never use to look at weeds until I got bees. I did another mite wash today and got another zero on my out yard. I still threw in Apivar but all my hives had a brood break and the swarms got an OAV before capped brood. Averaged over 200 lbs of honey per hive in a bad drought year here in MN. Healthy bees make a lot of honey. See you in Jan.

[@kamonreynolds]

Holy smokes that is a honey crop.

[@russellkoopman3004]

@@kamonreynolds I haven't developed a good customer base yet as a 2nd year beek so it will be a problem selling that much. Some of the early honey tastes funky and crystalized right away so I'm not going to buy any sugar for awhile. LOL

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

Where in Minnesota are you Russell? Did you have to feed your bees throughout the drought?

[@russellkoopman3004]

@@MinnesotaBeekeeper South of Willmar 30 miles or west of MSP a 100 miles. I gave them some pollen patties in April and some 1 to 1 sugar water. After that they just kept raising brood until they either swarmed or got split (all 4 hives) ending up with 10 hives. Two of the splits made honey. After it was all over with I harvested over 1000 lbs of honey and drew out a lot of frames of foundation. Don't know where they got all that nectar. Basswood was poor.

[@russellkoopman3004]

@@MinnesotaBeekeeper Here, we don't have a fall flow. Some dandelions is about it so I will have to feed them. The hives were so big that I didn't dare pull the last super on each hive so I plan on pulling them off later and let them rob it out.

[@nathanpotter8569]

And I just bought the easy check based on early videos, mine also talked about a co² check... just got all the gear to do it. They say studies show it's just as accurate as a alcohol check.

[@kathyhathaway8823]

Hello kamon I am in the same boat you was the last 3 inspection I can not find my marked queen . But I have eggs all season mite checks 3 of them I had a zero on this hive . Thanks for you videos

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

Ants, darn things. We sprinkle the cheapest bulk cinnamon on top of our hummingbird feeders. Stopped 90% of our black ants. It is amazing how the ants refuse to walk on it. I put it on the base of our concrete block hive stands. Worked like a charm. Thinking maybe on the top edges of the inner covers?

[@burleybeeyard]

Nice video. Bob fed syrup in his video. Y’all have me wanting to try this instead of Apivar next season.

[@kamonreynolds]

Right. This is a tricky area for myself on youtube. There are things like this that I don't do myself. However, I feel compelled to also explain how to follow the label to a degree. You can feed while doing apiguard but it is probably still better not to.

[@johnbarlow5835]

Do the powder sugar shake it will get ready of mits

[@jomiller4397]

Could you put that treatment on the bottom of a long hive that has no access to top of frames?

[@13CDallas]

Well, my bees did not like day 1 with the apiguard, they all are bearding outside the hive. the mite board was covered with mites though just 10 hours later, i have a really bad infestation, 12% but I am not going to give up on them. NSDQ!

[@brucesbees]

If you don’t have a shim can you simply tun it along the tops of the frames to allow the bees a es side access?

[@kamonreynolds]

My experience with it is that it doesn't work as good and many times you end up with dry crystal on top of the frames without the proper room. Having some space and air movement helps a lot I think with the treatments efficacy. I have a little dead pupae being pulled out right now. The weather was warm one day but the rest have been very cool. We will see how they fair.

[@12ArmyNavy12]

Hey Kamon, I loved your presentation and how you used the Apiguard. Did you say you will or will not put the inner cover back on? I really liked the new toy for the alcohol wash. Good luck with your horizontal hive.

[@kamonreynolds]

Hey John thanks! I did put the inner cover back on. Using the card gave them plenty of room to work the product around

[@ToBeeOrNotToBeHoney]

I just started a Formic Pro treatment on 3 of my 5 hives. Previously I followed the 20 day program (1 pad 10 days, 1 pad 10days) and saw very little die off. This time I decided to try the 2 pads for 14 day and 2 of the 3 hives had lots of dead bees out front. All the hives are pretty strong so I am not too worried. If I don't loose any queens the remaining hives will go next week (since the most likely time to kill the queen is the first few days. If I loose a queen I will combine some hives.

[@wasted4satan390]

This was what happened to me last year. 2 pads of formic and I came back 8 hours later to a yard full of dead bees. Still trying to decide an alternative.

[@ToBeeOrNotToBeHoney]

@@wasted4satan390 I had a better experience using the 1 pad for 10 days, then a second pad for 10 days. A little more work but I did not notice more than a few dead bees. That said, the numbers I am seeing dead were still less than the number I kill during a mite wash. Most of the dead bees seem to be smaller than the normal bees, so maybe the kill off is just killing weak bees. I have seen a few drones too, but at this point in the year it looks like some are being escorted out to die anyways... I prefer OA, but I have determined it is better to vary the treatment between a few alternatives to reduce the chance of making resistant mites.

[@KatrinMelite]

Thanks for the video. I dont treat for mites instead I articially select for mite resistant bees.

[@kamonreynolds]

Thanks for watching.

[@carlosrobado]

That can take years...how do you determine if they are highly resistant???🤞

[@KatrinMelite]

@@carlosrobado yes, it takes several years but it is the most sustainable (and treatment free). There are several tests that can do but if you dont want to do any. Just breed from colonies that lived on their own for longer than 5 years. To see the best results, all beekeepers in your area should follow the same approach.

[@attesmatte]

@@KatrinMelite Yeah, everyone in the area has to do the same thing, otherwise it's no point. How long have you kept your bees treatment free? What's your average winter loss?

[@KatrinMelite]

@@attesmatte almost 10 years - regarding losses it varies, from around 20 colonies sometimes 1, 2 or none. There are other factors involved like stress due to lack of rain. The biggest issue is that not all the beekeepers around me follow the same approach. Also, I rear only the endemic Maltese subspecies. Local subspecies are always the best for the region to which they are native.

[@masoudmon3411]

Would you give some information about the size or any plan about the horizontal hive you have

[@rahulchaudhary8840]

👍👍🐝🐝

[@joanslemenda5286]

Do you add the inner cover on the horizontal hive in order to give bees room to walk over the treatment?

[@gary5172]

get rubber gaskets from mason jars.

[@evonnewhalen9794]

I have a layens hive. The top bar close together. Can I put the gel in the bottom of the hive? Or can I make some stripes out of paper or something and put between several bars

[@kamonreynolds]

Hi Evonne, I don't really know. Maybe you could leave a bar or two off so the bees can access the gel. Perhaps try to reach out to the company. I am sure this is a question they get asked often at Apiguard.

[@nhra-ct8396]

I contacted VITA on that very question. this is their response, "Apiguard cannot be placed in the floor, thymol vapour is heavier that air, so the performance of Apiguard will be reduced. We have tested Apiguard in Layens hives following this strategy. Depending on the time of year, and how many frames covered by bees you have. 1- We treat colonies at the end of the season, so only half hives have bees. Beekeepers remove 3 or 4 empty frames per hive and place the tray on the top of the frames with bees. We create a small space between frames (big enough for bees to go up). A ½ sugar cake (fondant) was placed near the tray, in order to stimulate the bees to go up. When bees found the gel, they start the remission. So, Apiguard was able to work in both ways, by contact and by vapour." Hope this helps

[@bhill7358]

What about doing a powdered sugar wash for a mite test?

[@rogerdrury6537]

Thanks Reynolds family! Do you think the sampling method & jars would work on/with the suger-shake method? No judgment, just curious if less sugar would spill

[@kamonreynolds]

I think the sugar wouldn't spill but I haven't tried it yet Roger. Maybe I will in the future.

[@rogerdrury6537]

So I bought one & tried my first suger shake. It went pretty well, bees rolled fine. I found that very little water is better in the "deposit" jar. Too full splashes the bees in the shaker jar.....they dislike that more than the sugar I also have to admit - you make getting the girls in the hopper look easy. More practice due I guess......but nice piece of gear

[@marcushughes5085]

You mentioned 2 treatments 7 days apart. But Apiguard is recommended 2 treatments 14 days apart, so 28 dayst. I just wondered what the rationale is for the shorter treatment?

[@charleslange8393]

Hi Kamon, I just finished treating my mites with apiguard and my mite count went from 3 to over 30. Any thoughts?

[@kamonreynolds]

WOW. My only thought are something must have failed. Either the first wash or the treatment. I am not sure but keep me posted

[@petercollins7192]

Where do you get a horizontal hive?

[@scottfortune9016]

Kamon, what was the bee count from your alcohol wash?

[@kamonreynolds]

Hey Scott! 357 bees and 5 mites. Was the by hand counting. So that is a 1.4% infestation.

[@craigkirich9646]

I've not seen a check in over a decade ;) How about money orders?

[@kamonreynolds]

We can accept those as well.

[@ojibwemamastevens768]

So I'm new to be keeping this is my first year and I've been very successful I think so far I did a split both hives are thriving very well I did kind of test for mites but I don't think I did it properly didn't kill any of my bees I didn't see any mites is that possible for my hives not to have any mites?

[@kamonreynolds]

It is possible to have low mites. All hives in the US have mites though. Did you use the alcohol or the sugar shake method? The sugar shake doesn't outright kill the bees and the accuracy isn't as good.

[@ojibwemamastevens768]

@@kamonreynolds when I first started I used the shake method and then my next time I did was the alcohol I did not see any mites I'm in northern Michigan and I've got two hives now I found a queen in a nuke that I put over a friend's house wondering if I should make a split or what because of the cold weather coming up. Thank you for answering my question would like to show you some of my bees and hives not sure if you can attach photos on this or not

[@ojibwemamastevens768]

@@kamonreynolds just got done treating my hive with apigard, I use the trays instead of the fumes,

[@DonaldRogersBaldEagle]

what was the app for varroa inspection?

[@jeffahrens6246]

Not a very good mite wash system, I like the other one you posted. Thanks for all you do!

[@gordondean1782]

why not use the foil top instead of a paper card?

[@Bourbonsouth47]

Why not just the tub of the apiguard instead of the packets so u can apply right on to the cards with the syringe

[@kamonreynolds]

We almost always use a syringe and tub. These were going to expire next year and I had a couple that were donated for videos so i didn't want to waste them

[@Bourbonsouth47]

@@kamonreynolds gotcha

[@shevlin2650]

Kamon, Are you going to still do OA treatment in Oct/Nov time frame? Craig Fr. VA / SML Bees

[@kamonreynolds]

Hey Craig! I do our OAV in December. Will do 2 rounds each colony a week or two apart during that Dec. broodless period

[@shevlin2650]

@@kamonreynolds I see the track of the storm IDA is going up through your area. Hope you and your family stay safe. Craig

[@cesarserpa1515]

Why don't you use powdered sugar instead of alcohol? the effect is the same and you don't need to kill the bees.

[@kamonreynolds]

Testing shows sugar shook bees die shortly after being returned to the colony. Also the count is not as accurate. These bees in particular were taken inside and the mites and bees counted to get a very accurate count and percentage of infestation

[@chadeikenhorst4333]

Doesn't look like that one washes the mites out of the bees well enough.

[@kamonreynolds]

Well i checked and counted everything afterwards and it did get all 5 out of 5. Though the leaking was a tremendous pain

[@zetectic7968]

It is a pity you have to kill bees to get a mite count. Maybe you need a washer or O ring to get a seal between the containers to stop the leak. Hope the mite treatment goes well for you. Must be quite a job to do this with all your hives.

[@321homewrecker]

How does nature treat mites?

[@kamonreynolds]

It kills bees and mites at a high rate, has smaller and weaker colonies, and the ones who are fortunate enough to swarm - shed mites at the right time will rinse and repeat and likely perish in the second-third year by and large

[@wishicouldspel]

Lol

[@321homewrecker]

@@kamonreynolds so how are bees still existing?

[@kamonreynolds]

@@321homewrecker I said how they are above, a small percentage survive and then they reproduce the following year multiple times and a small percentage of that will do it again. Bees don't thrive like they use to. They can in nature for a little while but new mites and viruses bring them back down quickly. They are not going extinct either. As beekeepers, we keep our bees thriving and our bees survive at a much higher rate

[@attesmatte]

@@321homewrecker Beekeepers keep bees alive and thriving. If there were no beekeepers that kept bees that swarmed, the "wild" colonies would probably vanish too. When people say that there's been bees in a certain "wild" colony for decades, it's most likely swarming bees from local beekeepers that re-colonize the tree or whatever over and over and over. They don't just thrive and grow in the wild if there are varroa mites there. They just don't... :/

[@barryegan2998]

ever tried sugar skake instead does not kill bees nearly as accurate

[@Siirkervan]

Yurtdisinda yim yoksa kesin senden bal isterdim. ☺

[@jackcollins799]

You can make up a gel of sugar and borax to stick up there to kill the ants so there not a nusence 🤪

[@MrFishone777]

Seems logical to do mite treatment and NOT do alcohol wash. Save the 300 and just do all the hives with scheduled mite treatments.

[@attesmatte]

300 bees is nothing, really. ;) There are 1500-2000 bees being born each day during peak season. 300 dead bees will barely put a dent in the population. ;)

[@BlessedBeJESUSCHRIST]

Treating for bees= waste of money and time

[@kamonreynolds]

My honey crop, nuc sells, and hundreds of ripped healthy hives say otherwise.