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| Hive sealed during treatment |
I have used oxalic acid based products with a Varrox
Vaporiser for five years and must have done hundreds of treatments. One day last
week I’d completed about a half dozen hives and decided to take a break after
disconnecting the battery. This nucleus colony housed a newly mated queen, I’d
just seen her for the first time and there were lots of sealed worker brood
cells, happy days!
When I came back I found smoke bellowing from the nuc, I
hadn’t disconnected the battery after all!
Luckily there were no actual flames but after letting
things cool down for a while and taking a peak inside, there were lots of
apparently dead bees on the floor and frames.
Having written off this colony, I was pleasantly
surprised five days later to find three frames with eggs and lots of bees. The queen was obviously still present and laying. I
didn’t see the queen but who could blame her for hiding from me after our
previous encounter?
Were the bees dead or were they overcome with CO2 ? Who
knows? I’m just grateful that they survived and I learned a lesson, another one!
Take care when using a vaporiser, in addition to the toxic nature of these products there is a substantial fire risk!
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