Oxalic Acid Solutions
Beekeepers have been using Oxalic Acid mixed with Glycerine all over the world for many years. They have found it extremely beneficial to the health of the colony. It can be used at any time of the year and the secret to its effectiveness is to maintain regular treatments.
Queen Cage Frame
950-0075
Price excludes GST
Regular price
$15.00
For efficient Varroa Mite control in beehives when using Oxalic Acid for treatment.
Check out our Blog Post on Brood Breaks in Hives
Two size options available:
- Full Depth
- 3/4 Depth
Oxalic acid treatments do not usually kill the mites that are inside capped brood cells. There is now a very efficient and effective solution!
Lock the queen in this cage to create a brood break period. Treat the hive with Oxalic Acid while there is no capped brood and achieve a very high Varroa kill rate.
See Data Sheet of testing done on this
Oxalic acid can be applied by vaporization, fogging or by the dribble method.
Check this link for more info:-
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/oxalic-acid-questions-answers-and-more-questions-part-1-of-2-parts/
Due to its large size the bees don't feel queenless and are less likely to build queen cells. It has queen excluder sides so that nurse bees can still enter the cage and care for the queen.
There is a large opening under the top cap to release the bees when required. Only 25mm wide at the top and will fit in a standard brood box along with 10 frames with 33mm end bars. The main body of the frame is only 16mm wide so as not to interfere with brood emerging alongside.
The bottom edge is curved on the full depth cage to match the typical shape of the winter cluster.
There are many other applications.
In warmer locations, the queen can be locked up over winter to stop her laying eggs to conserve stores and to stop the Varroa mites from breeding.
Can also be used to bank an extra queen over winter when running 2 queen colonies and the bees are already familiar with 2 queens in the hive.
We recommend that clients add a small piece of wood as shown, if using the cage over winter. The wood is naturally the warmest material for the queen to rest on, while being surrounded by nurse bees.
The suggested wood dimensions as shown, are 20mm x 10mm x 110mm long.
(Tip: - The bottom bar on a beehive frame is often 20mm x 10mm section.)
Wood at 10mm thick is a firm fit, but we still recommend that one or 2 screws are fitted to keep it secure and in the best place. The top cap unclips to allow easy access for the strip of wood.
The top bar is 480mm long. Cage height is 228mm for full depth brood boxes and 175mm high for 3/4 depth.
Top quality product made in Europe from food grade polypropylene.
Stock supplied may be a different colour to what is shown in the photos.
Queen Isolation Cage 240
760-0240
Price excludes GST
Regular price
$6.00
For brood breaks and healthy hive management.
Queen Isolation Cage
As varroa mites become resistant to miticides, and varroa re-invasion issues become more severe, beekeepers all over the world are searching for alternative treatments. Brood breaks in conjunction with Oxalic Acid vaporisation are extremely effective and low cost, and are becoming a very popular option.
Quick summary
- Purpose-built cages made from food-grade Polypropylene.
- Sliding door on one side.
- Side openings in the grill are 4.2mm, the same as a queen excluder.
- Nurse bees can go in and out to care for the queen.
- Large enough to allow plenty of pheromone distribution, so the bees don’t try to supersede her.
Technical details
| Material | Food-grade Polypropylene |
|---|---|
| Side openings | 4.2mm, same as a queen excluder |
| Outside dimensions | 240mm x 29mm x 34mm high |
| Pack size | Packed 100 per carton |
Releasing the queen
To release the queen, slide open a door on the cage and she will come out as soon as the hive is closed back up.
Product video
Fitting into a brood frame
It is recommended to cut a window out of a brood frame and fit the cage into the window. The bees will secure it in place.
The frame can live permanently in the hive. Position it as an outer frame in the brood box when it has no queen enclosed. When the queen is inside, keep it near the middle of the brood box so she keeps warm and fed.
Using a ¾ depth frame
It is recommended to use a ¾ depth frame in a full depth brood box. The bees will build drone comb underneath it.
If there are any mites in the hive, they will tend to go to these drone cells. When they are all capped, they can be easily scraped from the bottom of the frame and disposed of, mites and all.
Alternative cage position
Some beekeepers fit the cage between 2 frames in a horizontal position instead of vertical. The comb is scraped back to the foundation. There is a question whether this way allows enough pheromone to be released, but it seems to be okay.
Applications
- Varroa control by creating a brood break, then vaporising with Oxalic Acid.
- Swarm control.
- To maximise a honey crop.
- When requeening with cells.
- For overwintering.
The InstantVap Vaporizer is very quick and efficient for brood break and Oxalic Acid applications.
1. Varroa control
From mid-Spring to mid-Summer, 75% of the varroa mites in a hive can be breeding inside the capped brood cells and are protected from most varroa treatments.
By creating a brood break, all the varroa mites are exposed and can be killed with 1–3 cents worth of Oxalic Acid by vaporisation.
Procedure
- Cage the queen for 18 days.
- Release her and wait 6 days.
- Then you will have 2 days where there will be no capped brood.
- Vaporise the beehive with Oxalic Acid and kill almost every varroa mite inside.
Most commercial queen breeders will mark queens for no extra charge. That makes them very easy to find to allow for quick caging and very low cost varroa control.
2. Swarm control
Cage the queen in Spring to control swarming and varroa mite populations.
There are 3 stages that usually precede swarming:
- Build excess amounts of drone brood.
- Build queen cell cups.
- Add eggs to cell cups to produce new queens.
The procedure is best performed during the first or second stage.
Procedure
- Cage the queen for 18 days.
- Release her and wait 6 days.
- Then you will have 2 days where there will be no capped brood. Vaporise the beehive with Oxalic Acid and kill almost every varroa mite inside.
- 18 days with no eggs makes the bees forget about swarming for a while.
It is important to time this procedure to maximise field bee numbers at the start of the honey flow.
3. To maximise a honey crop
Some honey flows can be very valuable but occur for an intense and brief period of only 2 or 3 weeks.
To maximise the crop, cage the queen 2 or 3 days before the start of the expected honey flow. This allows for the following:
- The queen excluder can be removed.
- 8 days after caging, there will be no brood to feed.
- More bees get involved in field duties to maximise the crop.
- Less food and pollen required in the brood nest.
- Very few foragers collect pollen. They focus on the honey crop.
- No chance of getting brood in the honey supers.
The honey crop can then be removed, queen released, and the hive can be vaporised with Oxalic Acid to kill virtually all the varroa mites in the hive.
4. Requeening with cells
Put the old queen into the cage when adding a queen cell. Check the hive 24 days later to see if there is a new laying queen.
If not, the old queen can be let out to continue laying. If there is a good new queen, the old queen can be removed.
There is likely to be no capped brood, so the hive can be vaporised with Oxalic Acid to kill virtually every varroa mite in the hive.
5. Over winter
Beehives in good condition in Autumn will greatly benefit from a brood break in the winter.
If you have hives in a location where this doesn’t happen, you can do it with an isolation cage.
The bees that hatch out after you cage the queen will live happily until the next batch of brood arrives several months later, after the brood break period.
This is all conditional to the bees being healthy and having enough of them at the time of caging.
The queen can be caged for 3 to 4 months without any detrimental effects to her health or performance.
24 days after caging, there will be no capped brood and the hive can be vaporised with Oxalic Acid.
If done with the correct technique, it will kill virtually every varroa mite in the beehive. There is no capped brood for them to shelter in.
Another treatment one week later is recommended to wipe out any possible varroa mite remnants.
Varroa mites can potentially turn up from stray bees from other colonies, but they cannot breed when there is no brood.
Winter brood break advantages
The temperature in the cluster will drop from 34°C to around 22°C to 28°C. With the lower temperature and no brood, there are significant advantages such as:
- A lot less honey required in the winter.
- A lot less pollen is required.
- The worker bees and the queen live a lot longer because they have very little work to do.
- There is less condensation in the beehive.
- The timber stays dryer and lasts longer.
- Only one box of bees is required over winter.
- Easier to keep secure in case of storms or floods.
No varroa strips will be required in the beehive unless you have massive varroa mite re-invasion issues from nearby colonies.
Caging the queens in the first week of April and releasing in the last week of July worked very well on some trial beehives in the Nelson region in 2023.
The queens went crazy and laid a lot of eggs very fast. A month later, there were lots of beautiful big frames of very healthy brood.
When the queens are released, the hive can be vaporised with Oxalic Acid so that if there are any varroa mites present, they are virtually all killed.
Example of a cage in a plastic frame secured with SIKA MS bond.
Related option
Another Queen Isolation Cage option is the Technoset Queen Cage Frame. It takes the place of a frame and works on all the same principles listed above.
InstantVap COMPACT 18 volt
760-0050-Ma
Price excludes GST
Regular price
$870.00
2nd Gen InstantVap
InstantVap COMPACT 18 Volt
The latest 2nd Gen version of the popular InstantVap has arrived. The InstantVap COMPACT makes vaporising oxalic acid in beehives simple, fast and practical in the field.
Similar to the previous generation, this unit makes OA treatment an absolute breeze — now in a smaller, lighter and stronger design with simplified LED operation.
Smaller & lighter Easier to handle across multiple hives.
Simple LED control Watch the light to know exactly what the unit is doing.
Field-ready design Strong stainless, acid-resistant frame and dispenser.
Low cost per hive Treat 1000 beehives from approximately $15.00 + GST in materials.
Important: The device is compatible with only one type of battery fitting. Please select your battery style carefully. Price does not include batteries.
Video of the original InstantVap model showing application procedures is also available here. This applies to all InstantVap models.
New compact design
This updated model has had a radical overhaul. It is smaller, lighter and stronger than the previous unit, while focusing on the essentials needed for practical treatment in the field.
The unit sits better with most standard batteries and is controlled by one switch with a clear LED indicator.
LED status guide
The InstantVap COMPACT is preset to the right parameters. Simply watch the LED to understand the current status.
- •Slow flashing: Heating up
- •Solid light: Ready
- •Fast flashing: Treating
- •Intermittent flashing: Flat battery
Applications & suggested dose rates
1
Beehives with solid bases
Apply 2g of OA vapour at the bottom entry. Block the entry with a wet towel for 5–7 minutes to trap vapour in the beehive while treating other beehives.
2
Beehives with vented bases
Use a vent blocker sheet and carry out the same process as above. Vent blockers can be removed after 5–7 minutes.
3
Difficult-to-block vented bases
Use a 3g dose from the top of the hive. A small notch in the hive mat, or in the rim of the queen excluder, can provide good access for the vaporiser.
4
Front-plate application
Apply vapour through a hole in the front plate of the brood box. Drill a 6.5mm hole if using the bare brass nozzle, or a 9.5mm hole if using the silicone sleeve. Block the hole with a golf tee after treatment.
Included with each vaporiser
- ✓1 x Vaporiser
- ✓1 x Plunger
- ✓1 x 500g of OA
- ✓2 x Silicone caps
- ✓2 x Silicone sleeves
- ✓2 x Spare O-rings
- ✓2 x Cleaning caps
Useful accessories
- → 6Ah 18V Makita LXT batteries
- → Respirators — must be worn when vaporising.
- → Cleaning video
- → InstantVap Support Stand
Technical details
| Power | 18V–20V; 250W; 14A |
|---|---|
| Power use | Approx. 1Ah for heating up, then 1Ah provides enough power for 9–10 two gram doses. |
| Dose timing | Each 2g dose takes approximately 18 seconds to vaporise. |
| Build material | Stainless, acid-resistant steel frame and dispenser. |
| Operating temperature | Pre-set at 230℃ / 445F. Not adjustable. |
| Dispenser | Fast, tool-free, roll-on adjustment with 1–4 gram scale. |
| Nozzle | 6mm strong brass outlet pipe, designed to reduce clogging and allow easy cleaning. |
| Clearance | Minimum 100mm free space in front of the nozzle is recommended. |
| Weather performance | Double-wall furnace works well in cold, windy weather. |
Battery compatibility
The InstantVap COMPACT is powered by common power tool batteries. Select the correct battery fitting before ordering.
Makita LXT 18V Milwaukee M18 Bosch Blue / ProCore 18V Dewalt XR18/20V Metabo 18V Ozito PXC 18V AEG Pro 18V HiKOKI / Hitachi 18V
Battery note: Dewalt Power Stack batteries are incompatible. Batteries are not included.
