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British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • Extended release Oxalic Acid

  • Honeybee pests and diseases.
Honeybee pests and diseases.
 #1604  by AdamD
 01 Jan 2019, 12:11
Randy Oliver in his Scientific Beekeeping website has recently published a report on his trials on extended release Oxalic Acid for varroa control. It would be a good product to reduce mites whilst honey is on the hive, before the main varroa treating period after the honey comes off.
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/extended-release-oxalic-acid-progress-report-4/
 #1605  by Chrisbarlow
 01 Jan 2019, 16:04
it looks a fantastic idea. looks very easy to make up and i am sure if it was legal here I would have tried it and thought wow, thats easy to do and apply. :D
 #1606  by Jim Norfolk
 01 Jan 2019, 18:40
Oxybee solution is 85% glycerol(glycerine) with 35g oxalic acid in 750 ml, according to European Medicines Agency.

You add a a sachet of sugar to it before trickling. Anyone tried it yet?

Could it be trickled onto bits of paper towel that just happened to be left in the hive to mimic Randy's trials?
 #1607  by Chrisbarlow
 01 Jan 2019, 19:05
you could I suppose but from just checking the recipe its says you need 12g of oxalic acid per sheet, so out of that 35g solution, you would only get 3 treatments. thats not much depending how much oxybee is.
 #1609  by Jim Norfolk
 02 Jan 2019, 12:53
I missed that detail Chris. 12g is a hell of a lot of oxalic acid to put in a colony. Vaping or trickling use in the order of 1 to 2 g.

The oxalic acid in Oxybee works out at about £1 per gram so a very expensive way to do it.
 #2633  by NigelP
 06 Apr 2019, 18:36
Unless he has cracked it...Randy reports hives having varying success rates.
The "towel" method works for many but not all...so not a magic bullet.
Bit similar to OA vaping where a few rogue hives continue to drop large numbers of varroa long after their compatriots have lost theirs.