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Beekeeping questions

What is the best time of day to treat with BienenWohl®?

ImageThe product should be applied late in the afternoon or in the evening, in order to prevent robbing. Robbing can be caused as the odours of the essential oils adjust during a period in which there is no nectar flow. Especially with nucleus colonies and small colonies it is advisable to ensure that the hive entrance is not too large. Experienced beekeepers have reported treating the brood chamber with a few millilitres of BienenWohl® on every inspection, as a way of using this opportunity to reduce mite numbers.

Why must the BienenWohl® flask be heated and thoroughly shaken?

BienenWohl® is an emulsion, made up of citric acid and oxalic acid, together with essential oils, alcohols and propolis. At lower temperatures, the constituents of this type of composition will separate out, but the product will not lose its overall efficacy. The BienenWohl® flask must therefore be brought up to a lukewarm temperature - like a baby's feeding bottle - and then shaken. Wrapping the flask in newspaper will help to hold the heat for longer.

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Is there anything else I must do?

Before trickling in the product, remove any brace comb from the frames.











How do I ensure the correct dosage?

BienenWohl® is applied using the swan-necked applicator nozzle. This dosing aid has been in use for over 15 years, and has proved extremely successful. With just a little practice it can be used for every application. After the product has been heated and shaken, the swan-neck applicator is screwed on to the 500 ml flask. Larger flasks are not suitable for trickle application, as they are more difficult to handle and contain a greater volume of product. This means that the pressure is greater, with the risk of the product running out in an uncontrolled manner. The product is applied by drawing the swan-neck applicator along the beeways occupied by bees between the frames. This application technique, which is performed in one movement and without applying pressure, is demonstrated in the "Applying BienenWohl®" video.Image

To ensure that the correct quantity is trickled in, the action of applying the product is similar to that of drawing a line with a pencil. For 8 beeways, for example, this will give an application of about 10 to 15 ml. With practice, beekeepers will develop a feel for how quickly or slowly the trickling applicator is drawn through the beeways.

As a rule of thumb:

The larger the colony and the higher the temperature, the more slowly the product is trickled in. This will give a quantity of 10 to 15 ml of BienenWohl® per colony. The colder the temperature and the later the season, on the other hand, the more rapidly the swan-neck applicator is drawn through the beeways, so as to give an application of 8 to 10 ml of BienenWohl®.

As a way of visualizing the correct quantity, a schnapps glass of BienenWohl® can be trickled over the beeways. This serves as a guide for future applications.

Why is it important to use the correct sampling tray?

Most beehives have a slide-in base, mesh floor and varroa floor. If the hive does not have this system, a sheet of white paper can be covered all over with Vaseline or milking balm and pushed under the colony to serve as a sampling tray during the monitoring period. The mites that drop off then adhere to the sampling tray. It is important to note whether there are any ants or earwigs present, since these insects eat varroa mites and can falsify the mite count obtained.
It is also useful to calculate the mite drop over the course of the year, without a test treatment. The ongoing mite drop is also an indication of the level to which the mite population has developed in the colony. It is also important to note how many combs have sealed brood cells. We already know that, in late summer and autumn, two thirds of all mites in a hive are in the sealed brood cells. These mites will then gradually hatch over the late summer period, increasing the varroa load.

The mite drop can then be counted and analysed - see the mite statistics table and the article "Calculating the Damage Threshold".

Why should I carry out a monitoring treatment?

A monitoring treatment with BienenWohl® can be used to determine the varroa drop. This is done using a single trickled application of the product to the 5 or 6 beeways of the brood nest. The mite drop on the sampling tray can then be counted the following morning. If the hive does not have a mesh floor, or varroa floor, a sheet of white paper can be coated all over with Vaseline or milking balm and inserted to serve as a sampling tray. The mites adhere to this tray, and the mite count provides an indication of the level of varroa infestation.
Whether mite levels are monitored through continuous observation or a single monitoring treatment with BienenWohl®, what matters is that the mite drop is correctly assessed. Some beekeepers like to count the mites. Others will recognize the situation at a glance. Both need to know when to act!
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Monitoring treatment

How do I analyse the sampling tray?

Bodenunterlage Hive debris diagnosis is a way of preventing miscalculation of the mite infestation at an early stage. The composition of the hive debris will vary according to the time of year. Normally, it includes shredded wax, pollen residues, wax scales, cell cappings, polystyrene particles, parts of bee bodies, larvae and mites. The dark female varroa mites are particularly hard to see, and special care must be taken to identify them. Mites that hatch in May/June live for about 2 to 3 months. The so-called winter mites, which develop from September onwards, live for 6 to 8 months and then die in the early spring months, after brood laying has started.

Whether mite levels are monitored through continuous observation or a single monitoring treatment with BienenWohl®, what matters is that the mite drop is correctly assessed. Some beekeepers like to count the mites. Others will recognize the situation at a glance. Both need to know when to act!

Assessing mite infestation from the hive debris

Number of mites that have dropped by the following morning
Number of mites
(approximate) 		Infestation level Action
5-10 mites Low infestation Observe colony, further monitoring treatment
10-20 mites Medium to substantial infestation Block treatment
20-30 or more mites Critical infestation Carry out block treatment. Remove two or three capped brood frames from this colony, and replace with broodless comb. Also feed a 1:1 sugar syrup.

Note: Varroa mites will be removed by any ants or earwigs present in the hive.

Colour:
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Note the colouration of the mites. The mother mites are dark brown. Male mites are white.

Calculating the damage threshold

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In beekeeping, miscalculations and underestimates can have disastrous consequences. It starts with observation of the bee flight patterns. A pattern of direct flights to and from the hive, with active guard bees, provides an initial indication that all is well in the colony. On the other hand, if the bees are seen dragging out under-developed bees, or if there are crawling bees or bees with misshapen wings, a truncated abdomen or, in particular, bees showing stunted growth, this presents a challenge for the beekeeper.

Image 1 When the colony is inspected, these damaged bees will be found on the combs and in hatching brood cells. The brood combs, brood cells and pollen stores must be analysed carefully. Handling colonies that are already damaged will create a certain amount of unrest. Bees rush about on the combs, and varroa mites can be seen on individual bees. If the colony develops a poor brood ratio in relation to bee population as a result of treatment intervention that is too late or ineffectual, the colonies will sooner or later collapse. This is brood nest collapse due to varroa. These hives, with bees dead in the combs and with perforated and sunken cell cappings, present a source of infection for other bee colonies.

As the colony collapses, the honey that is still present is robbed by other colonies, with the result that the mites that are still alive get transferred into bee stocks that are still healthy to some degree (reinvasion).

What is a block treatment?

Dany's BienenWohl®, applied by trickling from the swan-neck applicator, acts only externally on the bees. This is in contrast to chemical preparations that act either through the bees' circulatory system (i.e. systemically), or acids that are vaporized and act through the respiratory system.

When a bee comes into contact with BienenWohl®, micro-droplets attach to the bee's bristles. These liquid particles are then rapidly distributed through the bee colony.

Consequently, since the varroa mite has a virtually perfect sense of touch and smell, it suffers irritation caused by the ingredients of BienenWohl®. The parasite finds that its host, the bee, is now completely altered, and it attempts to find a bee that is still neutral. After a short period, the mite starves and drops on to the prepared sampling tray.

The varroa mite multiplies in the brood cell in approximately 11 days. For the next 4 to 13 days, it clings to a young bee, or nurse bee, sucking its blood until the mite reaches egg-laying maturity.

The block treatment is designed to cover this cycle.

Three individual treatments are carried out, at intervals of 5 to 6 days.
Treatment day 1: effective from day 1 to approx. day 8
Treatment day 6: effective from day 6 to approx. day 14
Treatment day 12: effective from day 12 to approx. day 18 and beyond

There is no known damage to bees resulting from a targeted, correctly dosed block treatment.
Measures to combat the mite will only succeed if the biology of the parasites (see Varroa Mite section) is taken into account. With the BienenWohl® method, the mite can only be caught when outside the capped comb cell, especially during the period of "maturation feeding" on a bee, which lasts for several days. Reducing the mite population to as low a level as possible after the final honey harvest, and again in late autumn and winter (residual varroa infestation), has therefore become a major task in beekeeping.

Will Dany's BienenWohl® leave any residue in the honey?

BienenWohl® is a mixture of substances that are harmless to bees. These substances become undetectable after just a few days, and they leave no residue in the wax or the honey.

What is mite maturation feeding?

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The sexually mature juvenile mites need so-called "maturation feeding" to reach egg-laying maturity. During this period - of between four and fourteen days - they cling on to a nurse bee, sucking its blood. This occurs mainly in the brood chamber.