1) How often should OAV respirator cartridges be replaced? 4:56 2) Does it make a difference if the Long Langstroth hive entrance is on the end or long side? 9:53 3) How is a winter bee made? I wouldn't think the egg is different. 14:19 4) I would like to make a honey house in my backyard. What square footage do you recommend? 21:55 5) Can you PLEASE review the Paradise Smart System Honey Super that auto-extracts? It's a flow hive competitor. 34:20 6) You had the Ceracell Robbing Screen in a recent video, do you think these will work as a mouse guard? 45:05 7) What are your thoughts on Treatment Free Beekeeping? 54:56 8) I thought thin syrup was not stored? :( 9) I want to learn how to support bees in my region. 1:18:58 10) My only fear with OAV is cooking the queen. 1:24:40 11) Thinking of investing in a horizontal hive. What would you recommend? 1:30:47
Thanks for the shoutout and response to my question, Mr. Dunn! You're a true gem in the beekeeping community. Without your videos, I’d probably lose my mind during the long winters of the Wisconsin Northwoods!
I used screened bottom boards and trays to get hive beetles under control. I put a thin layer of oil and a bit of pollen patty in the trays near the entrance.
Hello Fred!! I enjoyed your answer on my "winter bee" question. Another reason I enjoy beekeeping.....it's fun to figure out some things, and just as fun to just be amazed at what we don't understand!! See you soon.
I had similar results when I looked into the Paradise smart honey system earlier this past year. It seems to be available in Finland but not in the USA. I bought a couple of the Paradise Bee Boxes and I can recommend them. I have been gradually changing over all my hives to the polystyrene hives as they seem to be the simplest answer to keeping bees in my northern Michigan area. the bees do really well in them and there is nothing else to buy or put on in the winter.
Hi Derick, thanks for sharing your experience with Paradise Hives. :) I can definitely see a benefit to more insulation in colder climates like yours. There is considerable push-back on the plastics once they reach their useful end. What's your plan for disposal?
@@FrederickDunn No I don't have a disposal plan. I plan to use them and enjoy the benefits of the insulation for many years to come. I have had 3 Superior polystyrene hives for 3 years now and not noticed any deterioration or ill affects from them. Just bought the Paradise bee box this last summer to try one. The two brands are very similar. I don't care for the larger hand holds on the sides of the Bee Box as I feel you are loosing some insulation value there. I do like the recess they have in the inside of their lids as that allows you to put in hive alive fondant packs without using a shim. I have overwintered the Superior hives using a single deep and added one pack of hive alive fondant to help them out. This winter I am trying a deep and a medium box filled with honey so don't plan to use any supplemental feed. We will see. Like I said before the big benefit is that you don't have to do anything to prep for winter except pack the boxes down and reduce the entrance opening to make it easier on the bees. One of the things I have noticed with the poly hives is that the bees utilize all 10 frames in the box. Even raising brood on the outer frames and storing honey there. In 10 frame wood boxes you never see brood outside the 5 or 6 middle frames and usually not drawn out on the outside frames next to the wooden box wall.
Thanks Fred, love hearing the switchgrass pellets are going to be available again, I’m almost out. The segment about the marked drones amazed me a little bit, I know they drift, but I didn’t realize how quickly. Have a great weekend, hope you get some rain up there.
You and me both! My grandson has indirectly boosted my beekeeping education in many subtle ways. Regarding the pellets, we're having a working party at the end of this month with volunteers all pre-packaging switchgrass pellets so they can resume shipments in 2025. I will be sure to let my listeners know, after.. I get mine :)
Good evening Fred, thanks for another great Q&A. Randy Oliver is doing some research with robbing screens that he presented to the NY Bee Wellness webinar, interesting data on daily forager loss. I may have experienced some loss after putting robbing screens on multiple hives this year...good thing is I got the honey...the robbing screens prevented robbing...
I actually reached out to Randy O. via email about his robbing screen drift measurements. He has not responded to me yet. I want to see the drift measurements also without the robbing screens on at all as there truly is a tremendous amount of drift occuring all the time with or without robbing screens. I also volunteered to join his review group and did not receive a reply. But I'm hopeful to learn more about the experiment parameters. Thanks.
Hi Fred. . . Watching on a Friday ! Yay. (OK it's 11.40pm) but I am happy to watch this late... 😊 Been really Mild here in Scotland 🏴 14C (50'sF) for the first week of November ! Bees are busy Flying today. Still gathering in that lovely Wild Ivy and it's mass of Pollen. Good to see. 👍 We are also getting "Autumn" Colours almost like North American 'Fall' Trees have. Nice mix of Tree Colours. It's not Rained here either for x10 Days. . . 🤭 (But it did Rain in the UK : all April, May, bit of June. In parts of August and some of Sept & Oct ! So some Dry Weather is better Late than never ! Hope it improves your way soon. . . 🤞 Wild Fires 🔥 are not good. Lived in Australia for a while (Bush Fire Warnings were as Regular as Weather Reports.) Unless, a Fire is for : "Guy Fawkes" 5th Nov Celebrations ! Where Folk have Fire Safety to Hand, and enjoy Warming Foods & Drinks around the warming Embers, in the Evening get together. . . 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Oh I absolutely concur with you on beekeepers making unwanted beekeepers and your encouragement to have your audience to plant pollinators plants ,I’d like you to go further and ask the seed companies to lower their prices - let me tell you a story that happened to me this year I ordered 10 packets of seeds cost me £32 and just this month a email came to me from that company ,with anger knowing I’d been stung out of my money ,but this time they had a 40% discount but they were promoting green manure,ground cover crops so I decided to place items into the basket and changed the volume anything from 100 seeds to 10kilo - so I order 10 types of seeds costing £33 ,then I received a email with tracking but from a courier not a postal service ,couldn’t understand why letters of seeds were being delivered by courier so redirected it then went to collect ,low and behold I’ve order 2 kilo of seeds - with seeds thrown in - my impression 2nd time round am impressed with the quantity for the price paid . Now I’ll just scatter between my yards and field edging the area - thanks for all your videos keep them coming
Here in the U.S. we have some gorilla gardeners, and the practice of throwing seed bombs... maybe I'll cover that, but I do get push back as it's a method of spreading seeds in areas not owned by the seeding individuals. :) We're talking about vacant lots, or areas left to decay. :) Thanks for sharing.
Hi Fred, Saugus,MA here and under a red flag warning for about 3 weeks now. 3 different fires in the area keep sparking up due to the winds. Embers are under ground and making it a bad situation. Hoping for some of the rain soon.☔️
A nice long rain would do wonders for so many. Thank you for sharing what you're dealing with. I hope people are mindful with their use of fire until things dampen back down.
We are cold 3 degrees this morning in Nova Scotia days now are no higher then 8 but wind makes it feel like 0 three days nights are lows -6 snow tonight no more flight days in the long forecast I have all winter prep done only issue is they are eating the hives alive fondant I’m thinking I should have waited a little longer to put it on but my hives are all well insulated there not clustering yet
With the Hive Alive Fondant, once you start it's important to keep it going. :) I wanted people to wait until the nights were below freezing so the bees don't jump-start that consumption. I'm happy for the 5lb packs now. Thanks for sharing.
That's a question I often get, the problem is that I use a series of camera equipment depending upon what I'm trying to capture. The opening sequence for this video was captures with a Sony high-speed camera with a Zeiss lens, f/2.8 Vario-Sonnar T* My settings were f/11 50mm 1/1000 second at 999 frames per second. Played back at 60 frames per second. I hope that helps. That particular camera is no longer available for sale... which is the case with much of my older gear. Focus and all settings were manual.
My bees are still bringing in lots of orange pollen , won't even look at the ultra bee I put out, which is weird compared to the last couple years..Ne ohio
Sure, but the Fins thought they played smarter than the Chinese. No difference, only the key to open the cells is different, the Fins came up with a stick just to push straight, no rotation.
What ways can I combat varroa without chemicals I have respiratory issues. Sticky boards,dissecting drone brood, buying quality stock,brood breaks, feeding drones to chickens.Try to raise your own stock and don’t buy packages Is there anything else? Seen a video about those Tripy mites. 1/3 the size of varroa and super fast.
The war on tropilapse mites is being waged for sure. Look into Darwinian, or Natural Beekeeping practices where integrated pest management is well described. It can be done, but you'll also need to get any nearby beekeepers onboard with the same practices. It's a huge challenge to get all beekeepers onboard with a single stock or practice. Synthetics show up in comb, honey, and bee microbiomes even in colonies that have never been treated. This is strongly attributed to bee-drift from one apiary to another. This is why it's such a challenge to do in backyard apiaries. I do wish you all the best with that approach. I do my best to support the larger breeding operations that are working toward treatment-free stocks, but they tend to lose those traits rapidly when released in uncontrolled areas.
Not yet produced as I was down in Austin, Texas for four days at the Texas State Conference. But I will post new videos soon :) Thanks for your patience.
I'll need to post that as an upcoming quick-tip... once you see it, it's very easy to do. I talked with the owner of Hillco about providing a rolling stand and he was not interested in that at all. But it's an easy diy project.
Ps. Later watching tonight's Q&A. . . . At end you mention Oxalic Acid Vapourisation 'Heated Pan' Tool 'Issues' (?) . . .🙄 Re Oxalic Acid Treatment. "Cooking a Bee or Queen" ??? Tip : I don't have / use those 'Heated Pan' O/A Tool on Principle on my Bees here I Scotland 🏴 Instead : I made my own "DIY" Copper Pipe "T-Junction" O/A Tool where the Wider "T" Cross Section has Caps both Ends. One is Fused Tight (Crimped) and doesn't move at all ever ! The other End is the "Dosing" End with a "Removable" Cap ! (May need to Sand or Wire Wool a good bit to 'make the Dose Pipe End less Tight) Re Adding its "Removeable" Cap ! It needs to Fit but not be super Tight, eg to hard to get off, to Dose up with O/A again. (Once all unit is completely Cold !!! And never HEAT the 'Solder Areas*' or it will fall apart !) If done easily 'fixable'. The 'Long Neck' of this "T" shape is a Narrower Copper Pipe (Cut Hole into wider T Pipe & use Solder to Hold Tight !) If it loosens, Clean, get correct alignment and Re-Solder the Connections once more. Better to use correctly and thus not Fix your Oops moment. . .🤭 Instruction : This Thinner Tube is Pushed into the Hive Entrance. It's via this that the O/A Vapour gets into the Hive Box : The Vapour (Gases) rise up into the Bees above in their Brood Box or Nuc. No Bees or Queen get any way "cooked" via this Device ! I use a 'Creme Brulee Gas Torch' to Heat the Dosing Tube / Dosed 'Cap' in its "UP" Twelve O'Clock Position, gets "Heated" for say x 60 Seconds. It gives perfect Oxalic Acid Treatment to my x14 Hives. I've made several of these Units (Long Plumber Pipes cut up) and a Baggie of Caps. And some Solder ! Use your Creme Brulee Torch to Melt the Solder when soldering the Connections together.. Simples. 👍 Each time I Heat and Treat a Hive. I Leave the T-Tool in the Hive Entrance, with Damp Rags pushed into any Front Hive Entrance gaps. And allow it to Cool completelyl. While I go to another Hive and use another one, with more spare Tight fitted Rags. And Repeat ! Have not lost a Colony in x4 Years of Regular 'Multi-Season' Use. Do get your Timings right, re Duration of Heat / to get the O/A l Gases going. And know when to do your Varroa Mite Treatments, throughout the Bee Season. (Remember the Cap Size to Colony Size Re Amount of O/A Powder Dose to use ! ) Get the Parts in the Plumbing Section. Costs about £8 for a Bigger Hive Stack style one. And around £3 for a Small Nuc version. (That $6 & $2 !?! ) Just need a good Wood Shop Vice, a Metal Drill Bit, some steady Heating & Soldering. And Copper Pipe (even Dumpster Plumbing Scrap would do !) And the Correct Cap End sizes. Easy to make and Use. . . Hope this Helps 😎 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 Happy Beekeeping 2024 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Thanks for sharing how you've rigged your own OAV system. For those who wish to know more about how critical the temperature parameters are, please watch this video: ruclips.net/video/Bry6rcXpmjQ/видео.htmlsi=OOeinSeuPo008wSd
1) How often should OAV respirator cartridges be replaced? 4:56
2) Does it make a difference if the Long Langstroth hive entrance is on the end or long side? 9:53
3) How is a winter bee made? I wouldn't think the egg is different. 14:19
4) I would like to make a honey house in my backyard. What square footage do you recommend? 21:55
5) Can you PLEASE review the Paradise Smart System Honey Super that auto-extracts? It's a flow hive competitor. 34:20
6) You had the Ceracell Robbing Screen in a recent video, do you think these will work as a mouse guard? 45:05
7) What are your thoughts on Treatment Free Beekeeping? 54:56
8) I thought thin syrup was not stored? :(
9) I want to learn how to support bees in my region. 1:18:58
10) My only fear with OAV is cooking the queen. 1:24:40
11) Thinking of investing in a horizontal hive. What would you recommend? 1:30:47
Adam! You are THE MAN! Thank you as always.
Thank you Adam
Dziękujemy.
Wow, thanks for your kind generosity, it's much appreciated :)
Thanks for the shoutout and response to my question, Mr. Dunn! You're a true gem in the beekeeping community. Without your videos, I’d probably lose my mind during the long winters of the Wisconsin Northwoods!
You are very welcome! I'm actually headed for Wisconsin early next year to give a presentation :) I hope all goes well for you :)
@@FrederickDunn Beekmeet 2025!
@@kushytooshybees That's the one!
I used screened bottom boards and trays to get hive beetles under control. I put a thin layer of oil and a bit of pollen patty in the trays near the entrance.
I love how you explain everything and I love your knowledge of bees You are my favor beekeeper❤ 👍🏻🐝
Thank you so much!
Always so thorough with your answers! Thanks, Fred!
Thank you so much, Mary Kay, I try :)
Thank you Fred, for sharing your thoughts and experiences, specifically on the treatment free and OAV.
You're very welcome, Kennith :)
Hello Fred!! I enjoyed your answer on my "winter bee" question. Another reason I enjoy beekeeping.....it's fun to figure out some things, and just as fun to just be amazed at what we don't understand!! See you soon.
I'm with you, Keith! It's just fun to know :)
Another benefit of the long lang is that the pan is inserted under the screened bottom board.
True :) passive IPM :)
another great one uncle fred!!!!! i have flow hive because of you that other hive sounds janky!!!!! i learned
I had similar results when I looked into the Paradise smart honey system earlier this past year. It seems to be available in Finland but not in the USA. I bought a couple of the Paradise Bee Boxes and I can recommend them. I have been gradually changing over all my hives to the polystyrene hives as they seem to be the simplest answer to keeping bees in my northern Michigan area. the bees do really well in them and there is nothing else to buy or put on in the winter.
Hi Derick, thanks for sharing your experience with Paradise Hives. :) I can definitely see a benefit to more insulation in colder climates like yours. There is considerable push-back on the plastics once they reach their useful end. What's your plan for disposal?
@@FrederickDunn No I don't have a disposal plan. I plan to use them and enjoy the benefits of the insulation for many years to come. I have had 3 Superior polystyrene hives for 3 years now and not noticed any deterioration or ill affects from them. Just bought the Paradise bee box this last summer to try one. The two brands are very similar. I don't care for the larger hand holds on the sides of the Bee Box as I feel you are loosing some insulation value there. I do like the recess they have in the inside of their lids as that allows you to put in hive alive fondant packs without using a shim.
I have overwintered the Superior hives using a single deep and added one pack of hive alive fondant to help them out. This winter I am trying a deep and a medium box filled with honey so don't plan to use any supplemental feed. We will see. Like I said before the big benefit is that you don't have to do anything to prep for winter except pack the boxes down and reduce the entrance opening to make it easier on the bees.
One of the things I have noticed with the poly hives is that the bees utilize all 10 frames in the box. Even raising brood on the outer frames and storing honey there. In 10 frame wood boxes you never see brood outside the 5 or 6 middle frames and usually not drawn out on the outside frames next to the wooden box wall.
loved hearing the switch grass pellets will be coming back .🎉
You're not alone :) I'm so glad we got some volunteers to do that again. :)
Thanks Fred, love hearing the switchgrass pellets are going to be available again, I’m almost out. The segment about the marked drones amazed me a little bit, I know they drift, but I didn’t realize how quickly. Have a great weekend, hope you get some rain up there.
You and me both! My grandson has indirectly boosted my beekeeping education in many subtle ways. Regarding the pellets, we're having a working party at the end of this month with volunteers all pre-packaging switchgrass pellets so they can resume shipments in 2025. I will be sure to let my listeners know, after.. I get mine :)
That’s smart I say the same thing we have drones queens workers and winter bees they are totally different then winter bees
Our bees were bringing in orange, yellow, and tan pollen today în Cleveland Ohio. Mid 50’s and mostly sunny. I was pleasently surprised.
Ok, that's impressive! Any chance you live near the botanical garden? :)
Our daughter lives next door and has cosmos and marigolds still blooming. The bees were on those today.
Fred you are so kind
Thanks, Peter!
I just noticed that you labeled the sections of the video...getting fancy on us 😂
Very handy and thanks for the extra work
I've been doing that for quite some time now, but glad you noticed and maybe found that helpful? :)
Good evening Fred, thanks for another great Q&A. Randy Oliver is doing some research with robbing screens that he presented to the NY Bee Wellness webinar, interesting data on daily forager loss. I may have experienced some loss after putting robbing screens on multiple hives this year...good thing is I got the honey...the robbing screens prevented robbing...
I actually reached out to Randy O. via email about his robbing screen drift measurements. He has not responded to me yet. I want to see the drift measurements also without the robbing screens on at all as there truly is a tremendous amount of drift occuring all the time with or without robbing screens. I also volunteered to join his review group and did not receive a reply. But I'm hopeful to learn more about the experiment parameters. Thanks.
@FrederickDunn indeed
Looking forward to an update, since it’s a very interesting subject.
@@hedoublehockeystick2046 indeed
Hi Fred. . .
Watching on a Friday ! Yay.
(OK it's 11.40pm) but I am happy to watch this late... 😊
Been really Mild here in Scotland 🏴 14C (50'sF) for the first week of November !
Bees are busy Flying today. Still gathering in that lovely Wild Ivy and it's mass of Pollen. Good to see. 👍
We are also getting "Autumn" Colours almost like North American 'Fall' Trees have. Nice mix of Tree Colours.
It's not Rained here either for x10 Days. . . 🤭
(But it did Rain in the UK : all April, May, bit of June. In parts of August and some of Sept & Oct ! So some Dry Weather is better Late than never !
Hope it improves your way soon. . . 🤞
Wild Fires 🔥 are not good.
Lived in Australia for a while (Bush Fire Warnings were as Regular as Weather Reports.)
Unless, a Fire is for : "Guy Fawkes" 5th Nov Celebrations ! Where Folk have Fire Safety to Hand, and enjoy Warming Foods & Drinks around the warming Embers, in the Evening get together. . . 😎
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2024
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
It's great news that your bees are still able to forage! Thanks for sharing about your part of the world. :)
Oh I absolutely concur with you on beekeepers making unwanted beekeepers and your encouragement to have your audience to plant pollinators plants ,I’d like you to go further and ask the seed companies to lower their prices - let me tell you a story that happened to me this year I ordered 10 packets of seeds cost me £32 and just this month a email came to me from that company ,with anger knowing I’d been stung out of my money ,but this time they had a 40% discount but they were promoting green manure,ground cover crops so I decided to place items into the basket and changed the volume anything from 100 seeds to 10kilo - so I order 10 types of seeds costing £33 ,then I received a email with tracking but from a courier not a postal service ,couldn’t understand why letters of seeds were being delivered by courier so redirected it then went to collect ,low and behold I’ve order 2 kilo of seeds - with seeds thrown in - my impression 2nd time round am impressed with the quantity for the price paid . Now I’ll just scatter between my yards and field edging the area - thanks for all your videos keep them coming
Here in the U.S. we have some gorilla gardeners, and the practice of throwing seed bombs... maybe I'll cover that, but I do get push back as it's a method of spreading seeds in areas not owned by the seeding individuals. :) We're talking about vacant lots, or areas left to decay. :) Thanks for sharing.
Hi Fred, Saugus,MA here and under a red flag warning for about 3 weeks now. 3 different fires in the area keep sparking up due to the winds. Embers are under ground and making it a bad situation.
Hoping for some of the rain soon.☔️
A nice long rain would do wonders for so many. Thank you for sharing what you're dealing with. I hope people are mindful with their use of fire until things dampen back down.
Freday😊
Very interesting comment about the marked drones showing up almost immediately at other hives.
We are cold 3 degrees this morning in Nova Scotia days now are no higher then 8 but wind makes it feel like 0 three days nights are lows -6 snow tonight no more flight days in the long forecast
I have all winter prep done only issue is they are eating the hives alive fondant I’m thinking I should have waited a little longer to put it on but my hives are all well insulated there not clustering yet
With the Hive Alive Fondant, once you start it's important to keep it going. :) I wanted people to wait until the nights were below freezing so the bees don't jump-start that consumption. I'm happy for the 5lb packs now. Thanks for sharing.
I love your bee videos. They come out so clearly. What kind of camera do you use?
That's a question I often get, the problem is that I use a series of camera equipment depending upon what I'm trying to capture. The opening sequence for this video was captures with a Sony high-speed camera with a Zeiss lens, f/2.8 Vario-Sonnar T* My settings were f/11 50mm 1/1000 second at 999 frames per second. Played back at 60 frames per second. I hope that helps. That particular camera is no longer available for sale... which is the case with much of my older gear. Focus and all settings were manual.
Currently my bees was cleaning out dead bees
Anyone interested in the Paradise system go to Black Mountain Honey "Is this the end of Flow Hive?"
Thank you for that! Did he ever show the final result? I found the introduction video that he did. Thanks so much.
I revisited Black Mountain Honey and left a comment. I don't think he posted a video after the bees filled it, but I hope to hear back. Thanks again.
My bees are still bringing in lots of orange pollen , won't even look at the ultra bee I put out, which is weird compared to the last couple years..Ne ohio
It's a great sign that they are finding it somewhere else. I hope you have a great winter!
You wanna see what the bees did I had 7 inch entrance they proppolized it to a half inch hole
Oh man! What a great video that would make! Did they do that in spring? Or throughout the year?
@ yes it’s pretty cool I have never seen them do it to this extreme they were a swarm I caught last week in August
The Fins are in a legal battle with the Australians for copyright infringement
Is that for the Paradise Auto-Super? Thanks. It's a complicated beekeeping world out there.
Sure, but the Fins thought they played smarter than the Chinese. No difference, only the key to open the cells is different, the Fins came up with a stick just to push straight, no rotation.
What ways can I combat varroa without chemicals I have respiratory issues.
Sticky boards,dissecting drone brood, buying quality stock,brood breaks, feeding drones to chickens.Try to raise your own stock and don’t buy packages Is there anything else?
Seen a video about those Tripy mites. 1/3 the size of varroa and super fast.
The war on tropilapse mites is being waged for sure. Look into Darwinian, or Natural Beekeeping practices where integrated pest management is well described. It can be done, but you'll also need to get any nearby beekeepers onboard with the same practices. It's a huge challenge to get all beekeepers onboard with a single stock or practice. Synthetics show up in comb, honey, and bee microbiomes even in colonies that have never been treated. This is strongly attributed to bee-drift from one apiary to another. This is why it's such a challenge to do in backyard apiaries. I do wish you all the best with that approach. I do my best to support the larger breeding operations that are working toward treatment-free stocks, but they tend to lose those traits rapidly when released in uncontrolled areas.
Where's 283?
Not yet produced as I was down in Austin, Texas for four days at the Texas State Conference. But I will post new videos soon :) Thanks for your patience.
Do you have a photo of your extractor on the base you built? I'm looking to do this myself. But it's a hillco 18 frame. Idk if that's too big.
I'll need to post that as an upcoming quick-tip... once you see it, it's very easy to do. I talked with the owner of Hillco about providing a rolling stand and he was not interested in that at all. But it's an easy diy project.
@@FrederickDunn that would be incredible! Thank you.
Ps. Later watching tonight's Q&A. . . .
At end you mention Oxalic Acid Vapourisation 'Heated Pan' Tool 'Issues' (?) . . .🙄
Re Oxalic Acid Treatment.
"Cooking a Bee or Queen" ???
Tip :
I don't have / use those 'Heated Pan' O/A Tool on Principle on my Bees here I Scotland 🏴
Instead :
I made my own "DIY" Copper Pipe "T-Junction" O/A Tool where the Wider "T" Cross Section has Caps both Ends.
One is Fused Tight (Crimped) and doesn't move at all ever !
The other End is the "Dosing" End with a "Removable" Cap !
(May need to Sand or Wire Wool a good bit to 'make the Dose Pipe End less Tight)
Re Adding its "Removeable" Cap ! It needs to Fit but not be super Tight, eg to hard to get off, to Dose up with O/A again. (Once all unit is completely Cold !!! And never HEAT the 'Solder Areas*' or it will fall apart !) If done easily 'fixable'.
The 'Long Neck' of this "T" shape is a Narrower Copper Pipe (Cut Hole into wider T Pipe & use Solder to Hold Tight !) If it loosens, Clean, get correct alignment and Re-Solder the Connections once more. Better to use correctly and thus not Fix your Oops moment. . .🤭
Instruction :
This Thinner Tube is Pushed into the Hive Entrance. It's via this that the O/A Vapour gets into the Hive Box : The Vapour (Gases) rise up into the Bees above in their Brood Box or Nuc.
No Bees or Queen get any way "cooked" via this Device !
I use a 'Creme Brulee Gas Torch' to Heat the Dosing Tube / Dosed 'Cap' in its "UP" Twelve O'Clock Position, gets "Heated" for say x 60 Seconds.
It gives perfect Oxalic Acid Treatment to my x14 Hives.
I've made several of these Units (Long Plumber Pipes cut up) and a Baggie of Caps. And some Solder !
Use your Creme Brulee Torch to Melt the Solder when soldering the Connections together.. Simples. 👍
Each time I Heat and Treat a Hive. I Leave the T-Tool in the Hive Entrance, with Damp Rags pushed into any Front Hive Entrance gaps. And allow it to Cool completelyl. While I go to another Hive and use another one, with more spare Tight fitted Rags. And Repeat !
Have not lost a Colony in x4 Years of Regular 'Multi-Season' Use. Do get your Timings right, re Duration of Heat / to get the O/A l Gases going.
And know when to do your Varroa Mite Treatments, throughout the Bee Season.
(Remember the Cap Size to Colony Size Re Amount of O/A Powder Dose to use ! )
Get the Parts in the Plumbing Section. Costs about £8 for a Bigger Hive Stack style one. And around £3 for a Small Nuc version. (That $6 & $2 !?! )
Just need a good Wood Shop Vice, a Metal Drill Bit, some steady Heating & Soldering. And Copper Pipe (even Dumpster Plumbing Scrap would do !) And the Correct Cap End sizes. Easy to make and Use. . .
Hope this Helps 😎
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Happy Beekeeping 2024
🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Thanks for sharing how you've rigged your own OAV system. For those who wish to know more about how critical the temperature parameters are, please watch this video: ruclips.net/video/Bry6rcXpmjQ/видео.htmlsi=OOeinSeuPo008wSd