MiteAway Quick Strips

[Wally]

Come down and pick up 2 for those hives, and/or make a dozen or so. I have the wood, saws, and screens.

[Jacobs]

I'll call you in the morning. Picking up 2 sounds better for the short term.

[Jacobs]

Lots of dead bees at the house, but so far it sounds like all hives have some living bees. It was a perfect storm of a robbing frenzy followed by placing robber screens on the hives followed by a full day of rain. I don't know if the dead bees I was scraping out of hives were robbers that were trapped in by the screens or old and feeble bees that were unable to get away from the MAQS fumes for over 24 hours and didn't make it.

Next time I decide to do a late season, multi hive application, I will put strips on much later in the day and closer to dusk--less time for major robbing and chaos to keep going.

[Wally]

Sounds to me like it is time to reduce the herd and let a few of the least resistant hives go down.

[Jacobs]

Actually, my plan is to breed and market "MAQS Survivor" bees.

[Jacobs]

The last couple of late summers I have been using the half treatment of MAQS on hives that were strong enough to be treated. David and I checked out yard hives and the Ag Center hives yesterday, and removed strips from treated hives. All were queenright and appeared to be doing well. Some of the hives had several really nice frames of capped brood in them. I'm planning on examining/treating the bees at home today.

[Jacobs]

Updating this string of posts--I put half treatments of MAQS on full hives and quarter treatments on nucs at the house this afternoon. My Wayne's Bees here at the house do not get treated. I also treated the Cooperative Extension (Ag Center) hives today. The nucs, late season swarms & very late season swarms, look strong enough to be able to take a quarter treatment, and if not, so be it. Time (one week) will tell.

[Jacobs]

All hives have laying queens after removal of the MAQS, including the Cooperative Extension hives. Despite what NOD has said, I have NEVER seen any of my bees remove the strips once treatment was completed.