# heat treating brood frames for varroa control info



## mwjohnson (Nov 19, 2004)

In the 2001 New Zealand MAF "Control of Varroa, a guide for New Zealand beekeepers",in chapter 8, they discuss heat treating brood frames to kill varroa that are in capped cells.

Anybody know where to find more on this?

Seems applicable for little guy's like me,and maybe even for big time nuc producers.

Thanks
Mark Johnson


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

Mark,

here's a link to a bunch of beekeeping patents

http://robo.hydroville.com/v12/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,16/

the second one down is for a "beehive heater"
apparently the idea is that bees can take more heat than varroa and by blowing heated air at just the right temp through the hive you can kill the mites and just REALLY annoy the bees
I don't think I'd hold my breath on it being a realistic solution
if you try it, post your results









Dave


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

The Russians were heating the hives in ovens for a while. I don't think it ever caught on.


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>I don't think it ever caught on

Maybe it did catch on... on fire that is


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## samak (Sep 15, 2006)

There is something somebody developed to zap mites in the cells. Here are some links about it:

http://www.mitezapper.com/
http://www.cyberbee.net/huangpub/2001ABJ.pdf


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## mwjohnson (Nov 19, 2004)

Thanks everyone...
Maybe it's the cabin fever,maybe I'm just a sucker,but I keep thinking about this New Zealand thing.

They say on pg.62:
"Treating the whole hive(including the bees)has been found to be ineffective,since either the heat will kill many of the adult bees,or the colony will regulate the temperature downward by fanning,resulting in the mites on both the bees and in the brood surviving.As a result,a method has been developed to treat the brood,once the bees have been removed,by heating it in an incubator.
The method is generally used in conjunction with queen isolation cages,or with nucleus colonies,since all of the worker brood is treated.Studies showt that if the brood is heated to 44 deg.C for 4 hours,100% of the mites in the capped brood will be killed.Only 5% of the brood itself is killed in the process,"

But mainly,I just wondered if anybody knew what study they were refering to.

But I like whacky stuff,so thanks again.

I keep having one whacky idea in paticular,and I am just speculating big time here, it might also be a way to reduce a combs "virus load".

O.k....I got to go shovel some snow


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

Mark,

don't get me wrong
I like wacky as much as the next guy








it just sounds like a lot of trouble to do
there are easier ways to handle varroa
if you decide to give it a go let us know your results

Dave


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## mwjohnson (Nov 19, 2004)

Hi Dave,
Your right...
I doubt I actually will,but it is interesting.

Might try incubating some empty combs from my dead out(s?) before restocking them,but then again....

Mark


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Don't know how much research has been done on the relationship between hot summer temps and mite levels. I am not even sure how you could do it unless you could come up with climate controlled control hives. We had a number of days of 110+ degrees last summer and with the help of some oxalic in the fall they came through very well. Guess I will never know how much of this related to the heat.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Don't know how much research has been done on the relationship between hot summer temps and mite levels.

There have been some and the conclusion was that more mites die in hotter temperatures. Which lead to the ovens in Russia.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Other than the Zachary Huang's "Mite zapper" I haven't heard about heating the "Combs" for varroa control. 

There has been some work done on heating the bees, though. Several years ago, a beekeeper visited Vermont. I think he was from Azerbaijan. He toured the beekeeping operations in the state, and shared some of hin management practices. 

One method of varroa control, that he and others use, is a device that heats the bees. Looks like a rock tumbler, with the tumbler wall made of screen...about 1/8' mesh. In early winter, all the bees are shaken from the combs, and into the heater. They are heated, and tumbled...and the mites are dislodged. They fall through the screen, and are eliminated. The bees are shaken back into their hive.

One of our beekeepers was so impressed, that he travelled to the beekeepers country, and got first hand training. On his return to the States, he applied for and received a grant to build a bee heater machine. He did build the device, and got some positive results. 

Not sure if I can find the info for you, but that's how I remember it...from about 10 years ago.


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## mwjohnson (Nov 19, 2004)

Thanks...

Also,anybody hazard a guess on this?

Let's suppose you incubated your capped drone brood to kill the mites, instead of freezing.
Then used those drone for drone saturation hives.
Do you think those drones would be fertile when they reached maturity,or would they be shooting blanks?


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## thorbue (Dec 22, 2005)

Heating frames with capped brood (no bees - and open brood) can kill varroa in the cells as they are a bit more sensitive to increased temperatures than bee brood.
You need a incubator of some sort. Put in the frames and increase the temp to 44 C (?? fahrenheit) - this is done gradually over a 3 hour period - Then put the frames back to the bees.

The method is effective in terms of killing varroa - near 100%. But it is a lot of work and you need a incubator...

If you want to treat broodframes without the bees , I would go for a formic acid boost (if its legal to you...)
This is done by putting the frames with capped brood in a airtight super (here normaly a poly-hive brood box) over and under the frames you have a absorbing pad of some type with 25 ml 85% formic acid (remember to keep nose, eyes etc. away from this stuf). The box is closed for one our - and nearly 100% of the varroa is dead







. So is around 10% of the brood  ! The oldest brood is the most sensitive...

-Thor

[ February 11, 2007, 01:56 PM: Message edited by: thorbue ]


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