Merlins, COVID, Formic Acid, Next Steps

 

In my backyard today- a fledgling merlin- a rare one, a black coastal, cried out on the grass,  trying to get it's mom's attention.  This is a photo off the net- I never took a picture- and this is an adult bird, but they are one of the most beautiful falcons in the world.

No luck in attracting mom back- our expert falcon handling friends came to help capture it- it's tricky, they are wickedly defensive animals equipped to slash- but  we  got it in in an old deep bee brood box I had, with a bottom on it as I collect apples with it- and after an assessment by these experts (thank you Mike and Vicki), that it had no injuries, and lacking any evidence that there was a nest nearby  that I could ladder up to and set it in (which in then end, I think there probably was, but didn't find it this point), I hit the road to take this wild animal to Lynnwood, an hour away, to the only place in the whole frickin area that takes wild animals and nurses them back. PAWS- and they were awesome. If you read this, and you love wild animals, you need to get online and donate.

This all happens at the tail end of a horrible experience with COVID. I've been sick non-stop for 15 days today, only now feeling a little better. It's no joke, I thought often enough I'd probably die- as lots of folks probably do. Even today, sick, coughing, feeling my guts churn up. Not good for the human spirit, and for those who tend toward crabbiness normally, as I do,  this makes it all more intense.

In the midst of this COVID, and I'd say, feeling a bit lost about directions in general, due to some significant changes in my life, though maybe that's just getting older, I had to deal with my  danged bees. I busted out some back muscles coughing with COVID, and that made shifting supers to treat that much more intensely painful. Like many knives. If you've had that pain, you know what I mean.

However-I can report, despite the above that happened since,  my experiments with FORMIC flash, and the technique, was a total success in every way except the most important one. It did not appear to kill mites. And now I have to do it all again.

Below- central to my version of this technique- I've caged a queen for the night (she's inside,of course):

I am still convinced this is the way to go. All the mechanics went excellently-the rapid removal of the queen to avoid queen loss, the application of the exact amounts of formic acid and HBH, the proper placement of the formic acid fumigation board...

...and yet, I saw no initial mite death, and very little bee death. Some hives didn't even seem to react at all, except some an initial roar fanning (which is at it should be). I can't say for sure why yet- I've done this before, and it wasn't like this at all then.

So- round #2 coming up. Tightening up the ship- nix the screened bottom boards (even though they all have slide in mite boards, I don't think those are tight enough), tape every crack and opening, and shut down the entry opening to 3" x 3/8". I'm thinking I didn't do a careful enough job of this- as I am certain the acid strength and amounts were spot on.

I'm doing it all again, with great hopes. Pulling queens, for sure. I've got a good feeling that of all the methods I know, this is the most promising and likely to succceed.

If you, dear reader, are a beekeeper, and think you can keep beekeeping when you can't kill the 80% of mites that are happily fornicating behind cells walls- producing up to 6 females every ten days- if you think you can touch this with Oxalic- then good luck with that. Been there, Not going to work. It is my personal belief and experience that both Formic Pro and Apivar are equally ineffective- too watered down perhaps for very serious infestations.

This is me preaching but without much success to preach about. So, standby!