So I have been doing a varroa count on the hives for the last few days and Beatrice has a high varroa count even after the four week apiguard treatment back in August/September. Today I decided to treat them with a new product called Varroagard a powder put on a plastic tray just inside the entrance of the hive. The idea is that the bees walk through the powder and it encourages cleaning. The powder has oxalic acid in it so it must have some effect on the mites too. I took a tray of 75g of varroagard upto Beatrice hive took off the reduced entrance block so that I could push the tray in. A huge erruption of bees poured out of the hive as I pushed the tray in so I was unable to replace the entrance block.
I'll have to go back at dusk and have another go because the wasps are still around and showing alot of interest in the hives.
This is also the hive that feels significantly lighter than the other two even though they have all had 4 gallons of sugar syrup. So we will have to see how this goes.
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