How To Treat Varroa Using Apivar - Safe and Effective Treatment Guide

Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. Today I'm going to show you how to apply Apivar to prevent varroa damage. So at Black Mountain Honey, we have an integrated pest management program. We use various different miticides and kind of organic and chemical treatments for our bees. So we use Apibioxal, which is an oxalic-based product that you sublimate, and you can use that for a rapid drop. We use Max, which I know some people don't like, which is formic acid-based, and you can use that one while the supers are on. And that will— that is the only treatment in the UK that will actually impregnate the brood and kill mites that are already under capped brood. We use Apivar, which is Amitraz, which is a miticide. That's the one I'm going to show you today. We use that as an end-of-year treatment, and they're pretty much the 3 that we stick to. We have used Apiguard in the past as well, so a thymol-based treatment, and we, we like that, but we don't find we get the drops compared to the chemical-based treatments. Also, Apiguard is a pain because you have to do 2 separate stops to get in there and do the treatment. So you have to go in, put the treatment on, Go back in 2 weeks, take it out, put another treatment on. So it doubles the amount of effort that is required. So our management strategy for this year is we're doing Apivar around middle of August, which it is now, potentially a little bit late. We like to hit them early August or the middle of August, completely dependent on when we take the honey supers off. So that's our process, is we, we go in, we take all of the honey supers off, we put the feeders on. We put the Apivar in and then we just leave them for 6 weeks. And all we do then during that period is we go back in and just top up the feeders. What I like to do is not even take the feeders off at that point. I've already done a check, they're queen right, the queen's laying. I've gone through, I've resolved any issues with queen rightness or drone-laying queens or poor laying pattern. So I know what's in that box is good. And then I can safely put the feed on, put the Apivar in, And I'm good to go throughout the season. So that's what I'm going to show you in this video, is how to apply Apivar to your hives. So this is what Apivar looks like. It comes in a sealed packet with 10 strips, and that is supposed to be 5 doses. It's got really, really good clear instructions on it though. Basically what it is, is that for every 5 frames of brood, and it doesn't say how big the brood frames are supposed to be, but every 5 frames of brood you hang 1 strip. So for me, in my 14 by 12s, I tend to take that as if they're pretty much full, I'll use 2 strips. If they are absolutely jam-packed, I sometimes go to 2 and a half. So you can cut the strips. I never go to any more than that. I don't find the need to. If I've got a small colony that's only up to 5 of my frames, I'll use 1 strip. And then for all of my nuc colonies, I use 1 strip as well. That works really well. It's definitely one of the easier treatments to use, and that's the reason that I really, really like it. It's quick, it's effective, and it's easy to use. So they come in strips like that. When you take them out the pack, this is what they look like, and that is effectively 2 strips. So you just tear it down and you've got your 2 strips. So that is one treatment for one full-size hive. This is the hive we're going to treat here. Like I said before, the active ingredient in here is Amitraz, which is a recognized miticide. The issue with miticides is that you can build up resistance in your colonies, so you don't want to be using this treatment year in, year out with the same bees because they will or can build up a resistance to it. So you want to mix and match, maybe go with some formic acid, go with some thymol products, go with some oxalic products, really kind of keep the mites on on guard, just so they're not getting used to the same treatments year in, year out. Like I say, I really like this treatment. It's very effective, especially if you've not used it before. It's a slow-release treatment, so it's not something like an oxalic blast or a sublimation where you do it and then 24 hours later or up to a week later, you get a huge drop in mites. It doesn't work like that. This is between 6 to 8 weeks you need to leave these in your colonies. So there's only really one time in the UK when you can use that, and that is after you've taken your honey supers off. So it explicitly states, do not use these during a flow and do not use these when you've got your honey supers on. So you can't do that. And what it does say is that at the beginning of the year you can use these if you know you're not going to put honey supers on for up to 8 weeks. So in the UK, you've got absolutely no chance of that because especially in North Wales, they go from being dormant To building up straight into the flows in about kind of 4 to 6 weeks. 6 weeks is the very maximum. So that, that's out the window. We don't use it as an early year treatment. It's very much a late summer, early autumn treatment. So they say leave it in for 6 weeks to 8 weeks. Doesn't make it perfectly clear. I like to leave them in there somewhere between that, maybe around 7 weeks. But what it does say is definitely do not leave them in for anything longer than 10 weeks. And whatever you do, don't leave them in there over like the whole of the winter. That is a perfect way to get the mites resistant to this product, this miticide, Amitraz. So don't do that. Make sure you take them out. So the method of fixing, they have their own little method of fixing, which is this prong here. So that's what they look like. And you get this prong and you're supposed to just suspend that in between the 2 brood frames. Terrible design. Absolutely shocking. Um, I don't know why they've even bothered putting that in there because it just doesn't work, and I'll show you on this one why it doesn't work. It's a really, really bad design. But luckily they've given you the option as well of a little hole, so just put a toothpick or a nail or a screw, which is what I use, um, and then it just balances it perfectly. And what that allows is that if you imagine that's the top of the frames, if you use it on the hook, it stays there. And if you use it on the nail, it goes to there. So it's like more submerged within the frame and you don't have any issues with bee space at the top as well. So it's definitely the superior method of fixing. Mm-hmm. You need these spread evenly throughout your hive, so don't put them both on the same frame of brood. It says in the instructions that you want them at least 2 frames of brood apart. So I tend to go for frame 3 and frame 7 on a full hive, but it's completely dependent on where that cluster is within the hive. So you just need to kind of use a bit of common sense. It says keep them at least 2 frames apart, but then it says make sure that they're on frames that contain brood. So you need to take that into account as well. So I think I've covered everything. So we're going to get inside and I'll show you how to apply these to the hive. So this time of year when I'm kind of closing everything up and getting them ready for winter, I always like to do a check to see whether they're queen right or not. Doesn't mean I need to see the queen. I just want to see some eggs. So I'll go in there just to check for eggs. I can see eggs in that frame. Really nice brood pattern, fresh nectar coming in. So these guys, there's Himalayan balsam around here. They've definitely found the balsam, but they're just not bringing in enough. And I really don't like to leave things too late. This is the issue, and I've had my fingers burnt with this in previous years. Trying to chase those late flows have got me in trouble with my mite treatments. So I just say now, beginning of August, I cut my losses, I take off anything that's capped, and then everything else the bees can have. And I find that that works and you get really, really good, strong colonies. So I'm happy with that. I've seen eggs, so now I'm going to safely treat this hive. So that method of fixing, like I said, all I do is I take a screw. This time of year, the bees, they're either angry or they're chasing something, but this lid got stung a lot yesterday. Very, very angry bees this time of year for some reason, so they're a bit crazy. So sorry about that. So I just take a screw, normal screw, And then I just put the screw through there like that. And I find that's a little bit better than a nail actually, because you can get some traction on it. So I only put it through about that far. But what that means is that it literally can't slip out, whereas a nail, if they lodge it, it might drop and then you lose the treatment. So I find a screw's a really, really good method for doing that. So for this colony here, definitely a 2-framer. We want 2 of these strips going in. Like you can see there, that's a really, really strong colony. I've pulled out a couple of frames. There are over 10 frames of bees. There's about 7 or 8 frames of brood in there. This is a definite kind of colony where you need the 2 strips. So you don't want to over-treat, you don't want to under-treat, you want to just get it just right. So then the locations that I like to put mine, I put one on frame 3, in between frame 3 and 4, and then I do the opposite on the other side, so between kind of frame 7 and 8, and I just mirror them. So I've got one there, one there. That gives me a nice spread of the miticide across the hive. Now, don't just blindly follow this, do you know what I mean? If you've just got these 6 frames here crammed full of brood and there's nothing up there, then you need to adjust it as per the brood pattern. On a full colony though, that's a nice pattern to use. So between 3 and 4. And between 6 and 7, you've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 frames in the middle. So you've got 3, 4, 3, and then that's a nice even split for this colony here. Let's give you a little close-up on them again. So there's the first strip and there's the second strip. And as you can see, that screw just holds them in place really, really well. That's not going anywhere. So the way that Apivar works Is that those strips, it's like a polymer, a plastic, and it's impregnated with a miticide called Amitraz. That Amitraz is used across various different products. This licensed one is called Apivar. And the way it works is that the bees, they don't like things in their hive. And this is how a lot of the treatments work. They don't like them in their hive, so they walk over them and they try and remove them. And obviously with this one, they can't kind of remove it like they do with thymol. But they walk over it and then the walking over of that polymer strip, it gets on their feet and then they pass it to other bees and they walk it on the brood and it basically just gets spread throughout the hive. So it takes a while for that concentration to reach a reasonable level within the hive. And it's that kind of the boosting concentration when it gets up to that killer level, that's when you're going to see the mite drop. So you're not going to come back tomorrow and see loads of mites on your landing board. It's definitely not a treatment like that. Apivioxyl, and it's not a Maxx where you're going to see really, really good drops within the first kind of 5 to 7 days. It's a treatment that works over the longer term. So make sure that you get them in early because you want 6 to 8 weeks of activity to get the bees to transfer that throughout the season. So don't come in middle of September, 1st of October, and stick a couple of strips of Apivar in. Firstly, because you're going to have to start taking it out on Christmas. Which is not going to work. But secondly, the bees are kind of— I mean, they might be clustering by then depending on the weather. Um, all right, they probably won't be clustering, but the activity is going to be not as much, so they're not going to spread that miticide around. So I found with this one, what I like to do, I get them into this position, put the Apivar strips in, put the feeders on, and I'll show you quickly now how big the feeders are. And then I really fill them to the brim with syrup, and then I just leave them. Because I know that I've checked, there's a queen in there. I've checked, there's eggs in there. They've got their mite strips, so the mites are going to be steadily reducing. They've got syrup. They've got loads of syrup to keep them going. They're happy bees. They're going to kind of go well into winter, and I can come back kind of early September, middle of September, do a check for weight to see if there's enough syrup in the hive, enough stores, and I can top it up accordingly. And what that does is is it keeps the hive enclosed and sealed. And what's so good about that is that the concentration of this miticide is improved by doing that. And then you're going to get a really, really good drop over 6 to 8 weeks. So like I say, I'll put the feeders on now. I'll come back in a few weeks to top up the feeders. I'll come back in 6 to 8 weeks to take the strips out. And then at that point, you should see a really, really good drop of mites. So these are the feeders that we use. You've seen these before. These are the feeders that we use, Suyenti ones, take about 15 litres. I've added my rim, which means I can take the queen excluders off now, so no need for any queen excluders. I basically just put the feeder on and fill it up to the top with syrup. So I get all of my colonies set up like that, and then I just go around and do a big run at the end, fill them up with syrup. Saves kind of getting the syrup out too early, you can cause robbing. I want to put the syrup on, Put the lid on, ratchet down, and then there's going to be no robbing. So that's it. That's how we apply Apivar. That's our treatment of choice for this year. A few reminders though, while using this product, make sure you use the correct PPE. So it's not as dangerous as some of the other ones, but you definitely don't want to kind of touch those things and get any kind of residues on your hands. So always use kind of skin protection. Make sure you're using it at the right time of year. So like I say, always get your honey supers off first and then put it on. If you want a basic rule of thumb, first week of August in the UK is a really, really good basic rule of thumb, but it is completely dependent on when you take your honey supers off. So if you've still got really strong flows in August, obviously you're not going to take it off. If your flows are finished by the end of June, then obviously don't wait till the 1st of August. Just you need to kind of judge it to when those flows finish. But the good process is take your supers off and then literally on the same day or the next day, get the Apivar into your hives and then get your feeders on. And Apivar is such a good product that you can use it while you feed. There's some treatments on the market that don't recommend treating while you feed, and that can cause a bit of an issue. So I like Apivar because you can get it into the hive and then you can feed at the same time. It becomes quite a chilled-out time of the season for me. All right, you're doing quite a lot of honey extraction, but you can get the bees ready for winter and you don't have to go into them every week, which can become a little bit tiring at the end of the season. So that's it for the video. I hope you've enjoyed it. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.