Intermediate Beekeeping 201  Lesson Four

  USE OF CHEMICALS  And NON CHEMICAL TREATMENT             

How chemicals are used in a hive of bees is regulated by the label on the package in which the chemical is sold.   The label is the law.  We are going to examine several labels and discuss what they say.   Failure to follow a label could result in serious consequences for the user of the chemical product.

Generally speaking, prohibitions and restrictions on labels are for the protection of life and property.   It is possible to chemically analyze very minute particles of a chemical compound in a sample of wax or honey.  Often such samples are reported to have so many parts of the chemical per million parts.  Agents that have been found to be toxic to human life or for that matter, to the honey bee itself  have been prohibited or assigned a restriction on its use.   When a chemical is approved for use, it has undergone extensive test.

Anyone who has been around beekeepers will realize that many individuals choose not to read the labels and thus do not following the instructions contained in them.   Others intentionally disregard the instructions.   Some beekeepers  use chemicals intended for some other legal purpose but not approved for use with honey bees in formulas of their own making to treat honey bees.   This is illegal.   The reason beekeepers are inclined to do this is because they save a little money spent to fight diseases; however, the beekeepers doing this are  putting the entire industry at risk.   The buying public could easily turn from buying honey to buying other sweeteners if a scare of unsafe honey should surface.   It reminds me of the mad cow disease now currently causing various European countries to curtail the sale of  beef products.

By misusing chemicals, beekeepers could also be responsible for developing organisms resistant to the chemical.   This has already happened with Apistan strips effectiveness on some stains of varroa mite and reported cases of the baccilus larva being resistant to terramycin.

Reading a label    Click here to see a label and our comments

 

Some Non-Chemical Strategies:

We would not like to give you the impression that chemicals are the only solution to combating mites and bee diseases.  Let us give you some pointers that all beekeepers should follow:

  1. Cleanliness is important -- Follow good hygienic practices for yourself.  Keep tools that come into contact with bee equipment clean.  Use  Clorox and water in a bucket to wash hive tools and your hands while in the beeyard.  Wash your smoker as well--  Keep it clean especially on the bellows where propolis tends to build up. Remember that spores of some of these diseases can be spread by the beekeeper.
  2. Burning AFB hives completely rather than trying to salvage equipment.  One could also burn frames and bees, and scorch the surface of all wood equipment.  Repaint the equipment and mark it so that if another outbreak should occur in the same equipment, you could then dispose of it.
  3. One could use drone comb to trap Varroa mites before they emerge with adult drones.  This drone comb would then be removed from the hive, melted down, and new drone foundation or comb could be used to replace the comb removed.  Thus you remove many of the varroa mites before they can cause much damage.  You will still have a small population of varroa but at a level the bees can tolerate.  Bees will draw drone comb in frames if you cut a piece of foundation 1" wide and 15 to 17 inches long and attach it to the top bar.  This frame should be placed in an outside frame position during a honey flow.  The bees will eagerly build comb and most of it will be drone comb.
  4. Use of Crisco and sugar to treat for Tracheal mite.  These are food grade products and will not contaminate your honey.  Of course, you are not going to use sugar in such a large amount that you would adulterate  your honey.
  5. Use bottom boards with screen wire.  Claims are made that varroa drop through the screen and can not get back into the hive.
  6. We do not recommend the use of various oils said to control the mites.