Have had a useful reminder e-mail from Andy Pedley at the Ealing Beekeepers Association, as me and Emma inspected early on Saturday and missed the usual 2pm meeting up…
“The date for starting the Apiguard treatment this year is Saturday 6th August. It is mandatory on Association apiary sites at Stockdove Way, Perivale Wood and the Brentham Allotments. Apiguard is available at the hut at a favourable price to members.
We strongly recommended that all members follow the procedure for all of their colonies no matter where they are. It is worth running a pre-treatment check to get an idea of existing mite levels before starting.
Further details on how to carry out the treatment can be found on the Vita-Europe web site. Link
Remember that you should remove supers that you intend to extract before applying the Apiguard because the pungent aroma will taint the honey.
Mesh floors should be closed using the monitoring board to contain the vapour within the brood box.”
Emma is in charge of the Ealing Association website and has done a nice round up of news stories about bees this week: http://www.ealingbeekeepers.org.uk/page2.htm.
Adventuresinbeeland's Blog 
Hi Emily,
I am a new beekeeper and saw beetles and couple of roaches and some ants (ants were outside our top bar hive). I looked up some treatments and made a bait box with corrugated sign board sealing the opening on one side with crisco lard then added a bit of boric acid and again sealed the open side with crisco. We’ll see how it goes – also made a barrier on the ground under the hives with the boric acid under some plastic. An old timer old me his grandpa used a pinch of snuf in the hive to rid it the bees of mites. The bees are active and combs are full of honey 🙂 hope to post some pictures soon – on my blog amazing hideaway –
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Hi Hannah, am impressed by your trap making skills! Good luck trapping all those insects. I’ve heard some beekeepers with ant problems put the legs of their hives in containers containing oil, as ants cannot walk across oil.
What’s your blog address? would love to see the pics.
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