OAV treatment schedule

[rgennaro]

This has probably been discussed before, but I thought I'd post with the specifics of my situation.

Last year, I had an almost non-existent mite problem. My sticky board count was zero most days, and never went to double digits. Did not do a alcohol or sugar roll. I did treat the hive in early October anyway and at that time there was very little brood present (the queen had been missing for a while, and I combined my strong queenless hive with a weak queenright one after treating them both).

This year I did a sticky board count yesterday and it was 20 (24 hours). From what I read the number is still low, but much higher than last year. Right now I have a honey super on, so I don't want to treat.

My plan is to remove the honey super at the beginning of September and then treat with OAV. Should I treat once or twice? If so what's the best schedule?

thank you, as usual.

[Dabbler]

Everyone has their own thoughts on this but for what it is worth here are mine:

A) Start with a sugar roll or alcohol wash on bees from brood frames. These methods are more accurate than sticky bd counts and it's important to know where (mite levels) you are starting from.
B) If supers are still on, I place a board between the supers and the brood boxes during the OAV treatment.
C) I OAV 3 times - on a once a week schedule.
D) Do another alcohol wash/sugar shake a few days or a week after the last OAV treatment. This lets you know how successful the treatment was. If levels are still high, you can do additional treatments.

I do not like to wait too long to do my treatments because you need to treat the bees that will raise the winter bees. Also I like to stay ahead for the mite breeding curve,

Hope this helps.