Formic Pro

[Paul Zelenski]

I am going to treat my hives with Formic Pro this year. I have always used Thymol (Apiguard) in the past, but have heard good things about formic acid treatments and wanted to give it a try. I have also read that the Formic Pro is much better at releasing a steady dose of formic vapors than MAQS and reduces the risk of ‘overdosing’ , which had been a problem with even slightly elevated temperatures.

Anyway, I was reading the instructions and is says:

Add a honey super with frames at time of application if necessary to provide adequate space for strong colonies to expand, or if a honey flow is expected.

 

So, my questions for those with experience with formic acid treatments. How important is it to add this extra space? How strong a colony requires this extra super to expand. Is this expansion in response to the vapors in the hive that they don’t want to cluster as tightly and therefore more space is a good idea to limit bearding? Or is this just advice for not crowding hives during spring treatment and buildup.

My plan was to get all the honey supers removed, and get my bees into their winter configuration (1 medium, 2 deeps) and then treat with Formic pro starting in early Sept using 1 strip and another 10 days later. But, if I am going to need to add honey supers back on for the purposes of treating, it seems like extra work to remove them and then have to add them back again.

 

Also, I see that it very explicitly states that you should have a full entrance, with no reducer (but should close the SBB). I generally don’t remove my excluders ever, but leave them on the large reduction during the summer, since I also have a hole in every box. I am happy to remove the excluders entirely if it is necessary for treatment, but I am a bit concerned about robbing. This is the time of year when robbing is at it’s worst and it seems somewhat suspect to be opening the entrances and making it hard for the hives to defend themselves. I have  also noticed that the Apiguard made hives more susceptible to robbing and I generally needed to limit the entrances during treatment (while providing some ventilation through the SBB). What are people’s experiences with robbing while treating with MAQS or Formic Pro. Am I going to run into trouble with robbing when I open up the entire bottom entrance? Or, with upper entrances, is opening the bottom entrance not necessary.

 

Thanks for any input ‘veteran’ users of formic treatments might have.

 

Thanks,

Paul z

[lin...@tds.net]

Suggest using a cartridge breathing mask. (available Mann Lake).  Do a test on two colonies now to gain experience.  Place formic pro on the top middle of the first box.

Reports I have heard that if you have empty top supers some beekeepers in Ill have had brood in the top boxes.   Good Luck. Larry

[lin...@tds.net]

Also once you treat with formic it takes 6 weeks before you can test with any reliability as to the results of your treatment.  Per the researchers at the ABF convention in Texas.

---

From: lin...@tds.net
To: mad...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2018 4:39:34 PM
Subject: Re: [madbees] Formic Pro

Suggest using a cartridge breathing mask. (available Mann Lake).  Do a test on two colonies now to gain experience.  Place formic pro on the top middle of the first box.

Reports I have heard that if you have empty top supers some beekeepers in Ill have had brood in the top boxes.   Good Luck. Larry

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[Paul Zelenski]

[Oliver Wieben]

I used Formic Pro for the first time about 15 days ago. When I replaced the first strip with the second strip (one strip every 10 days for me), I noticed exactly that: in some hives, the brood nest had moved up into the supers.