Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[narustin]

Has anyone used MAQS to treat varroa infestation in Top Bar hives? If so how?

[trekmate]

The only reports I've heard about the use of MAQS is the high risk of losing the colony after treatment.

While I don't promote treatment for Varroa in general, MAQS appears to be the most risky on the market going by reports on many beekeeping forums.

[narustin]

What do you do to treat varroa?

[trekmate]

Generally nothing, but monitor Varroa levels. If the level rises enough to cause concern I dust with icing sugar (powdered sugar).

Make your Varroa board sticky so any Varroa that drop cannot escape; I smear on a coat of vegetable oil, some use paper with an adhesive covering. Give all bees in the hive a light coating of sugar. This encourages the bees to groom each other and the mites are dislodged. The mites also get the sugar granules stuck in their claws if they move and can no longer hold on. You can sprinkle the sugar (sugar shaker) on of use a blower (as used by barbers to apply talcum powder).

After 24 hours I clean the VArroa board.

Try to avoid getting the sugar into open brood.

As Varroa breed in the brood cells and many are "hidden" at any one time it is necessary to repeat the treatment three times at weekly intervals to be really successful. This will remove new generations of Varroa.

[CeeBee]

Can't help feeling that people only write about stuff if there's been a problem, so any search on the net is biased towards bad outcomes of whatever it is you're thinking about.

This is my 3rd year of using MAQS on top-bar colonies, so far with no problems. The difficulty is how top apply it, when you can't just lay the strips above the gapped 'top-bars' of a traditional hive.

I suspend two strips between bars in the brood-nest area, having spaces them just enough to get the strip in, using 'slings' cut from a fairly rigid garden netting. A couple of short lengths of garden cane, poked though holes in the netting and resting on the tops of the bars either side of the gap, stop the whole thing from just falling into the hive.

[honeygarden]

I've also used the stuff a few times now with no problems at all, even on fairly weak colonies. I find it provides more flexibility as I don't treat routinely, prefering to monitor and treat when needed, and the treatment period is so short it can generally be carried out at any time during the main season without interfering too much. Although I personally wouldn't use it in any hive containing honey I was planning to harvest, its lack of a withdrawal period also lends itself to use on top bar hives where separating harvestable honey from the treated brood area is not always straightforward.

I haven't used it on my top bars yet but when I come to I'll probably just place it in a tray on the hive floor under the combs. I think the key is providing enough ventilation and space within the hive for the bees to move around while the treatment is ongoing.

[catchercradle]

Used once in the days when I used to treat routinely. Didn't have any problems but that was on one of jy natinals so didn't have to think about ways to suspend them etc.