Seems every conversation about honey bees today eventually ends up with a discussion of mites and how to manage them. I have been taught like most of you about using Apivar or oxalis acid. I have never seen a bee school teach about alternative treatments. That brings me to the subject at hand. I am going to discuss how I use an alternative to conventional mite treatments.
As soon as the bees break cluster in the spring, and right up until they cluster in fall I treat for mites every three weeks. In order to treat mites, you need to understand some basic things. Mite slay their eggs into cells in the hive. The cell is sealed and the mites hatch and attach themselves to the pupa inside the caccoon. The mite feeds on the pupa as it will continue to do for the rest of the bees life. The mite has a gestation timetable of about three weeks. This means every three weeks you will have a new batch ofmites hatching out. I fog my hives with a Fogger. Inside the reservoir I put mineral oil and wintergreen oil. These both need to be food grade essential oils. The ratio I use is 16 fluid ounces mineral oil to 20 drops wintergreen oil. I put the Fogger nozzle about 1 foot from the hive opening and blast the fog into the hive till it comes out the top cover. If this treatment is used every three weeks you will not have mite issues. Also unlike other meds, this process can be done with the honey supers on the hive and nothing special needs to be done. As usual text or call or email me with any questions.