I had sticky boards under both hives. my 3 box well established hive had some mites on the sticky (expected, 2nd year hive). Hadn't seen any viruses. Treated anyway.
the newer hive starting from merged nucs had some brood breaks, no varroa on sticky. Didn't treat.
Young fellow from bee club going into his first winner came over to help me seal up the hive.
well darn, this is where the OAV stuff goes. yesterday I finally got my 2nd treatment done. I used 2 grams of the wood bleach from Ace Hardware that is 71% oxalic acid. I have one deep 2 mediums on the hive I treated so I considered it 2 deep brood boxes
guess I will seal less and increase dose a bit more. then put the sticky in after to check count. If I can treat from under the screen that is going to be so much easier on me
with solid bottom boards sealing the hive would be much less important. However, screened work a lot better at dealing with moisture and temperature down here.
I used to build my own screened bottom boards, and they have a back opening with a slot for the sticky board, at least the one under my big hive does. I could worry less about the vaporizer contacting the bottom of the frames if I put it in under the screen in there and stuffed something in the front opening and something in the wide slot along the back. less contact with bees. I quit building these after my helper and I burned up my router by letting sawdust build up in the blade area (it was a table router) I may go back to making them if it makes treatments easier.
And I treated yesterday morning and didn't actually weigh the Oxalic Acid. On one deep 2 mediums I filled my varroa cleaner bowl level and on one 5 frame nuc I half filled it (side to side being easier). All the bees are alive, stuck a sticky under the nuc and white paper under the bigger hives to check for mite drop without messing with the bees. I do love my screened bottom boards for some things...
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