VMD Approve MAQS Beehive Strip

apiarymanager Bee Health, Nosema

Press Release – February 27th 2013,

MAQS® Beehive Strip has received registration in the United Kingdom for beekeeper’s use.  It has received approval by VMD (Veterinary Medical Department). 

The beekeepers of the United Kingdom now have a new tool to combat the most serious threat to its honeybees, the Varroa destructor parasitic mite.  Left untreated, Varroa mites will transmit viruses that weaken a honeybee colony. Millions of colonies across Europe have died in recent years from this parasitic mite. 

MAQS® is a saccharide gel strip formulation of formic acid, an effective active ingredient that is naturally occurring in honey.  Because the Varroa mites reproduce on the developing baby bee, transmitting viruses that deform the bee, their control is being approached as a brood disease.  The saccharide gel formic acid vapours released from the saccharide gel strip penetrate the brood cap, stopping the mite where it reproduces.  The initial target was the male mite, which never leaves the brood cell.  However, trials show that it is also very effective on all stages of the female mite.  It is the first mite treatment to successfully target Varroa mite reproduction. 

The concept of MAQS® Beehive Strip was first developed in Canada, by NOD Apiary Products Ltd. operating in the UK as NOD Europe. NOD’s personnel worked with BASF’s scientists to overcome technical barriers, the solution to which was BASF’s biodegradable and compostable film Ecoflex®.  The resulting treatment is just 7 days.                       

The physical product will be available in the UK from early April 2013.

End of press release

Webmaster Notes:

  • MAQS® stands for Mite-Away-Quick Strips®.
  • NOD stands for Natures Own Design the developers of the product.
  • VMD is the Veterinary Medicines Directorate an executive agency of DEFRA (Note that MAQS is not appearing on their database as of 1 March 2013)

Further information

You can find out more on the NOD website here.

Randy Oliver has carried out an early summer test in 2011 and the results of this are published on his excellent Scientific Beekeeping website.

 

Are Your Bees Short of Supplies?

apiarymanager Feeding Bees and Starvation, PBKA

Remember to keep an eye on the stores in your hives by giving them a heft periodically. The queen is likely to start laying in earnest soon and the remaining winter stores can soon get used up. Late winter and early spring are the danger periods for lack of stores, so don’t risk your colonies. If you need to feed them now, use candy or fondant. You can use light syrup (1:1 by weight) in a contact feeder once the weather warms up and the signs of spring start to appear, especially if you want to build up a colony for queen rearing, or to split. Don’t use a rapid feeder, or pan feeder as NBU now suggest we should call it, though as it may be too cold for the bees to come up. For more information see BeeBase’s Best Practice Guide to Feeding Sugar.

Remember too that bees need energy food (sugars) and protein (pollen). Raising young bees takes a lot of both. So in addition to making sure that sugar is available in liquid form stored from last year (honey or fed in late summer as sugar syrup) or in fondant form make sure that pollen or a pollen substitute is available. See this Feeding Pollen and Pollen Substitutes guide on BeeBase for more details.

Neonicotinoids Pose Danger to Bees Concludes EFSA

apiarymanager Bee Health, Neonicotinoids

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), an independent body, released its report into the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on bee health on Wednesday (16 January).

The report concluded that:

  • Exposure from pollen and nectar. Only uses on crops not attractive to honey bees were considered acceptable.
  • Exposure from dust. A risk to honeybees was indicated or could not be excluded, with some exceptions, such as use on sugarbeet and crops planted in glasshouses, and for the use of some granules.
  • Exposure from guttation. The only risk assessment that could be completed was for maize treated with thiamethoxam. In this case, field studies show an acute effect on honeybees exposed to the substance through guttation fluid.

Read press release on EFSA website.

A separate report released earlier this week warned that up to £630m could be lost from the UK economy each year if neonicotinoids are withdrawn.

The study, independently commissioned by EU’s Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture (HFFA) was financed by Syngenta and Bayer CropScience,

Lords Debate Honey Bee Decline

apiarymanager Bee Health, PBKA

On January 9th the House of Lords debated the decline of honey bees. Some interesting statistics were mentioned: the number of beekeepers has doubled in the past ten years; the number of [colonies] has reduced by 75% over the past 100 years – [but this should be seen against Leslie Bailey’s conclusion in 2000 that the so called Isle of Wight disease problem was due to too many hives in any given area leading to starvation and spread of disease: ed]; and that it is significant that the UK has lost a staggering 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s.

Find out more here.