Beekeeping | Did Formic Pro Kill My Queen & Brood?

Beekeeping involves constantly managing your bees to keep them alive, especially when it comes to preventing mites from killing our bees.
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[@auroraglacialis]

The strips are good to use on large hives of 10000 and more. With smaller hives or splits they can cause damage. I prefer to evaluate mites by looking at mite boards put below the screen bottom. That way I don't have to kill bees and still get at least a good relative number

[@woodlandharvesthoneycompanyllc]

David I enjoy watching and have learned from your videos. I have an opinion Id like to respectfully share with you on this video. Formic Pro is a good product and it does work to kill mites even under the cappings. You made kind of a big event out of the fact that it didn't kill your queen or stop her from laying.Thats great but beginners have to realize that several things are in play when treating with Formic. Number one the high temperatures were below 85° F. You get above that and you are courting disaster. The next thing is you had a strong colony. If the colony is low on numbers of bees they are unable to ventilate enough of the gasses out before it becomes lethal. Then if the colony has suffered a high mite load the bees themselves may be weak and sick from viruses and may succumb to the Formic which wouldn't hurt them if they were healthy. The beekeeper has to check each hive and treat accordingly and know all the pros and cons of whatever product he uses. In your case all was good but add something different next time and it may not be such a good ending.

[@illumi-Nate]

I used OA with sugar water in a spray bottle this fall & it worked so unbelievably well, shot a Lil between the frames, after 16 hours it sent those mites for a loop!! Very inexpensive way to get rid of mites this time of year when the brood cycle is down...i was seriously more impressed than any mite treatment I've ever done

[@Steele_Wings]

They always pull out brood when I use mite away quick strips. The hive beetles try to take over a hive when using it in my colonies. Charlotte NC

[@dkeithcollins]

I've had several colonies abscond when using the 2 strip method with Formic Pro. I've since switched to the 1 strip method.

[@sethshortt4315]

I have a mixed response. In the summer I had 5 hives. Emphasis on had. I’m now down to three. Back in the fall, I used formic pro on 3 hives with plans on doing the other two the following week. However, one of my hives was wiped out completely with over and once of dead bees on the bottom board. In the 2nd I discovered the queen had died and no eggs or brood remained,but bees were present. In the third it had some dead bees but was ok. The difference maker turned out to be ventalation. My first two hives had solid bottom boards, reduced entrances or mouse guards so bees could not get the airflow. The third hive has a screened bottom board with a plank insert tht had some cut out grooves to allow some airflow in winter. The vents helped the bees and I translated that to the last two hives and they didn’t have any issues either. So in the future I will be allowing better ventalation. It appears that the formic pro was still very effective even on hives with fully open bottom boards (with a board laying about 6 inches below the screen). the hives just need improved ventilation.

[@kmf9921]

5 hives, lost 2 queens post 2 strip treatment with strong colonies. The third hive was a fairly good colony but was robbed out by yellow jackets. They did not appear to be bothered by Formic and when the colony bearded outside the hive the jackets really moved in.

[@bigbob5603]

I have a question I can not find answered anywhere. Most everyone knows the function life cycle of summer bees in the hive, but I have been unable to find any info on the function life cycle of winter bees and how it is determined.

[@mcorne8134]

Have you ever used CO2 as opposed to alcohol wash so the bees survive the test?

[@beek]

Yes, made a video on it. Here's my video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d53KfKt6ptqgqM0si=cyygcNggBe2Te1xQ

[@altecime]

In case of small families, you can use one strip only, and repeat treatment twice. Temperatures are important as well. As matter of fact, it happened to us, one queen was found dead right after starting the treatment. 4th season for 2 queens, one was dead... Maybe age is a factor?

[@vinceaardal2681]

Enjoy your content and it has been a huge help. My question- With an eight frame colony with two deeps thriving, and a ten frame colony that was a package, and doing ok but not great, is it ok to take frames of bees/resources front the right frame to the ten frame in preparation for winter here in central NC? Thanks in advance.

[@markchoate300]

Hello from ky , started beeking in Aug . Powder sugar treatment end of Aug , was wondering when should I treat with formic pro ? Healthy hive of winter physiology with a candy board ! Thanks I have learned a lot from y'alls videos !

[@beek]

Good to hear

[@NielsenValleyFarms]

Hey David. I'm looking for a different way to treat mites in combination with OA. I do not want to use synthetic treatments. Unfortunately I haven't had enough time to properly test all of my colonies like I should to see how the OA did. However I have noticed a good number of mites on the backs of my bees in my colonies after the treatment periods (i treated spring summer and fall), this in combination with seeing deformed wing virus and such tells me that the OA maybe didn't do a very good job. Is forming pro a more naturally derived product I can try ? Thanks!

[@offshoot1008]

If i raked my bees like that theyd be really angry and flying around .

[@beek]

There are some of my hives that would get angry too.

[@user-hp7gj5fd3e]

Day 2 and a third of my bees are DEAD in one hive 1/2 in my strongest hive… Two strips, low of 50 high of 78!! Day two still bad die off so I’ve removed my strips!!! What the heck happened?? Tomorrow I’ll go in to see if Queens survived in either of my hives… Any suggestions

[@beek]

That's insane. I do hear that more people are moving toward only using one strip first, then the second one later.

[@AllanGyllingOlsen]

Formic acid Will Fall Down, so Why is the plantes in the bottom magasin?

[@skyhighactiondrones5453]

I couldn’t tell but are you running 2 deeps and a super into winter?

[@beek]

Yup

[@joejackson9214]

David, I used Formic Pro last year with great results. I used it again this year( new order of Formic Pro) with less than desirable results. I noticed that last year when I put the pads on, the bees got really loud. This year not at all. Must be a different formula. It’s not as strong. What have you noticed?

[@beek]

Oh it is strong!! I believe there are so many variables that can give different results. Size of hive, temps etc.

[@adkfoothills1973]

Glad to see it went well and you have a healthy queen. Thanks for the videos. 😊

[@alecjaquez9194]

Thanks Dave & Sheri.. Hi to everyone form NYC 🗽🇩🇴

[@rodneymiddleton9624]

Thanks David!

[@offshoot1008]

Tom will not buy you a new queen. I lost my 2 queens in less than 24 hrs of initiating formic pro. I was losing lots of bees also so i removed the formic. I will never use it again.

[@rstlr01]

Same thing happened to me using one pad on my single deeps within the required temperature ranges. My double deeps that I did it on were fine, but I won’t be using it again. my mentor, a professional beekeeper, basically told me that if Formic kills your hive it was already dead

[@beek]

So odd. I've used a lot of formic pro and have never had it kill my queens or brood or hive. Lucky I guess.

[@schulerimkereiobsflotwedel35]

Doing the math Formicpro has not worked, formic acid should fall from the top, reaching the brood, killing at least 80% of all mites. Damage of uncapped brood and less eggs are signs of good working formic acid, too. Probably the temperature was low and there was plenty of space. Take off the super and put the stripes on top of the second deep, by use of a miteboard you will see the success.

[@charlesclark371]

Hi David enjoyed the video, my question is can you leave your phone or make Pro on all winter

[@kellymoore4517]

What?

[@WildwoodsBeekeeping]

Thanks David, great Information! Have a great week

[@illumi-Nate]

The beekeeping infomercial channel, love this channel!!

[@brianbennett4374]

Good video thanks for sharing David. 👍

[@brianw.520]

I don't know how your bees are so calm! When I go to collect my 300 they'll all fly around and get really aggressive. Probably something I'm doing wrong.

[@johnreynolds614]

Been using this product for years now. Great success with minimal queen loss.

[@LocalBuzzLLC]

I waited the 2 weeks and lost 2 of 3 queens. Luckily I found some emergency replacements last minute

[@davidpotts3844]

I did a mite check 2 weeks after treatment and did a sugar test to see if I was counting dead or live mites as the sugar test is just as accurate and you can see if mites were dead or alive