Ontario Beekeeepers Association

Using plaastic drone foundation:


It is recommended to replace 3 combs in the brood chamber every year with new drawn comb. This practice will help to reduce the level of spores and miticide residues in bee colonies.
Disease	Time of Treatment	Treatment Material	Method of Treatment
American Foulbrood (AFB)	Spring and fall	OXYTET-25-S or OXYSOL-62.5 powdered sugar mix: Follow the label directions for preparation of material.	Preventative measure: All bee colonies should be treated. Treat according to the label on OXYTET-25-S or OXYSOL-62.5 with the powdered sugar mix along frame rest of first brood chamber. Repeat 3 times at 5 - 10 day intervals in the spring and in the fall. Stop treating 4 weeks before the main honey flow. It is not recommended to use the sugar syrup method of application or products such as pollen substitutes as carriers.
	At any time when colonies show symptoms of AFB (i.e. brown scales & sticky to ropy dead larvae). Report to your Bee Inspector immediately and ask for recommendations.	1. Burn or irradiate all infected equipment and kill the bees. 2. Treat the rest of the bee yard with OXYTET-25-S or OXYSOL-62.5 powdered sugar mix. 3. New queens 4. Gamma irradiation	Control measure: This is a serious, readily transmissible disease. Action should be taken immediately after diagnosis to prevent further spread of the disease. Several options of actions can be taken: 1. Burn all frames, bottom boards, and bees of heavily infected hives. Scorch empty bee boxes, inner covers and lids. 2. Treat all remaining colonies with OXYTET-25-S or OXYSOL-62.5 powdered sugar mix. Repeat 3 times at 5 - 10 day intervals. Stop treating 4 weeks before the main honey flow. 3. Requeen all remaining colonies with new queens from the Hygienic stocks. Check the list of Queen and Nuc Producers for those who have tested their stock in the Tech-Transfer program. 4. Disinfect contaminated empty hive parts using irradiation. Supers with frames without bees should be placed in bee tight containers for irradiation. For details, contact Steve Bowman in Whitby, Ontario at 905-432-1106. Treatment using 1.2 M rads will completely sterilize the combs and hive parts. You will have to decide if it is economically feasible to sterilize your contaminated combs and hive parts. You can reuse the equipment after this process.
European Foulbrood (EFB)	Spring and fall	OXYTET-25-S or OXYSOL-62.5 powdered sugar mix as described for AFB	Preventative measure: Same as AFB.
	At any time when colonies show symptoms of EFB (i.e. brown, twisted larvae). Report to your bee inspector and ask for recommendations.	1. Replacement of infected combs 2. Treat with OXYTET-25-S or OXYSOL-62.5 powdered sugar mix according to the label. 3. New queens	Control measure: You do not need to kill the bees as with AFB. Replace infected combs with new non-infected combs or foundations. 1. Burn or irradiate all removed infected combs as above. 2. Treat all colonies with OXYTET-25-S or OXYSOL-62.5 powdered sugar mix. Repeat 3 times at 5 - 10 day intervals. Stop treating 4 weeks before the main honey flow. 3. Requeen colonies in the bee yard with new queens from Hygienic stocks.
Chalkbrood	Spring and summer	New Queens	There is no registered chemical treatment for Chalkbrood. Maintain strong colonies and requeen with queens from Hygienic stocks.
Sacbrood	Spring and summer	New Queens	Same as described for chalkbrood.
Acarosis Honey Bee Tracheal Mite (HBTM) Detection: Every fall and/or spring, take 150 bees/ beeyard in alcohol and send samples to the diagnostic bee labs. Call the labs for sampling directions.	Spring: Place pads when daytime temperatures reach 10⁰ C. It is better to wait for warmer weather, and until the bees get some brood. On really small colonies, move the brood to the side of the hive and place pad in the middle. Read the label carefully!	65% formic acid* 1. Mite-Away II^TMsingle application pad (250ml per pad). This is the preferred method of application as you only go to the hive once. Those who use Mite-Wipes do not usually complete the number of applications to achieve proper control. 2. Mite-Wipe^b multiple applications pad (35 ml per pad).	If infestation level is 10% or higher, then treat your colonies. If you are using formic acid for varroa treatment you do not need further treatments for HBTM. 1. Place the Mite-Away II^TM single application pad on 1/2" spacers on top bars. Accommodate another 1/2" on the top of the pad by using a rim. Leave for 21 days. Follow the label instructions. 2. Apply one Mite-Wipe pad, which contains 35 ml formic acid/ hive. Place the pad on top bars close to the brood area. It is important to apply Mite-Wipe pads 3 times, 4 days apart.
	Late spring and summer	HBTM Resistant Queens	Requeen your colonies with queens from HBTM resistant stocks once every two years. If you are interested in breeding, encourage these colonies to raise more drones to help in spreading and maintaining the resistance genes.
	Fall: After harvesting the honey crop (preferably last week of August or first week of September).	65% formic acid - Mite-Away II^TMas in spring treatment.	If you treated with formic acid in the spring, it will not be necessary to treat again in the fall, unless the HBTM infestation level in samples are 10% or higher. Treat as described in the spring treatment after harvesting the honey crop.
Varroatosis Varroa Mite Detection: 1. Check capped brood. 2. Ether roll. 3. Sticky board and apply formic acid pad or Check-Mite+^TM.	Spring: Place pads when daytime temperature reaches 10⁰ C.	65% formic acid*: 1. Mite-Away II^TM single application pad (250 ml/pad). or 2. Mitewipe multiple applications pad (35 ml / pad).	Control measure: 1. If any varroa mites are found in bee colonies, treat all colonies using Mite-Away II^TMsingle application pads as described above. This treatment is good for both HBTM and varroa mites. 2. Use Mite-Wipe as described above. Apply 6 applications 4 days apart. This treatment is good for both HBTM and varroa mites. Note: For Mite-Wipe pads to be effective on varroa, they must be put on every four days.** 3. If varroa infestation is EXTREMELY HIGH in the spring and you have ABNORMALLY HIGH LOSSES over the winter call your Bee Inspector to check for resistance to Apistan® or Checkmite+^TMdepending on the treatment that you were using, before you treat with any product. A recommendation will be developed on a case by case basis.
	June	Monitor	In June, check all bee yards (5 hives each) using the monitoring method of your choice to be sure that varroa were controlled by your spring treatment. Refer to Table 1 in the NOTES section for recommendations if further treatment is necessary.
	Late spring and summer	HBTM resistant Hygienic queens Drone Trapping Using frames without foundation:	Requeen your colonies with queens from HBTM Resistant-Hygienic stocks. Check the list of Queen and Nuc Producers on the OMAFRA web site. Encourage these colonies to raise more drones to help in spreading and maintaining the mite resistant genes. To use as a drone trap: Remove combs containing drone cells from the brood chambers. Place two empty frames for the bees to draw into drone cells. The queen will lay eggs to be developed into drones in these combs. 80% of the varroa will be in the drone cells if they are available.. Remove these combs after the cells are capped and before adult drones emerge. Melt these combs to kill varroa mites and produce beeswax, or freeze for one week and then place in bee colonies for the bees to clean or feed to pigs or chickens. Scrape capped brood from plastic foundation before it emerges and replace frames. Repeat from spring until the drones are evicted in mid-August and you will get results equivalent to treating with a registered product. Note: Queen breeders need the drones for mating, so this method only works for production hives. Some beekeepers are putting 2 small frames in each hive and cutting off the drone brood each time they open the hives. Screened bottom boards - incorporate 8 x 8 mesh screens into bottom boards. You need a 1 1/2 inch spacing to have the varroa that fall through the screen separated from the bees.
	Early Fall: As soon as you remove the honey supers by the last week of August or the first week of September. The bees that form your winter cluster are hatched in these two weeks. If they are highly infested, they will have sustained enough damage that the colony will not winter properly and is likely to die.	65% Formic Acid*: Mite-Away II^TMor 6 applications of Mite-Wipe, 4 days apart. CheckMite+^TMand Apistan® Oxalic acid trickle method	It is recommended to use Formic Acid treatments in both spring and early fall, with a follow up in the late fall with oxalic acid. This recommendation will keep CheckMite+^TM and Apistan® effective (for extremely high mite infestations) by preventing the development of resistance to these products or it will allow those areas with known resistnace to these products to revert back to susceptibility. CheckMite +^TM and Apistan® are still registered for use in Ontario. If you choose to use either of them, apply according to the label directions. There is also a group of diligent beekeepers that carefully monitor their bees and only treat when monitoring results indicate. They have been able to reduce their treatments significantly. See the NOTES section for monitoring methods.
Nosema Detection: Take 25 bees from the suspected colonies and send them to the slicers for diagnosis.	Spring Late spring and summer Fall - Nosema is proving to be more of a problem when associated with mites.	Fumidil-B^b New Queens Fumidil-B	Feed bees a mix of Fumidil-B with sugar syrup in spring if you have a high level of infection (> 1 million spores/bee). Protect your Fumidil-B medicated sugar syrup from direct sunlight when feeding bees. Requeen colonies when queens are available. Feed bees with the mix of Fumidil-B with sugar syrup as described above. The fall feeding is very important to protect bees during the winter season and reduce bee stress.