I have a previous post in regards to trials we have made in dissolving thymol crystals in alcohol at concentrations of .25 grams per gallon of syrup and feeding to bees during the course of supplemental feeding to maintain sufficient stores to prevent starvation and to stimulate the hive/queen.
Here is a research paper that shows promise that small concentrations of thymol in the larvae can prevent tracheal and varroa mites from damage.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
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Hey Kirk it was great chatting with you and Sharron this AM. I got in touch with Wes and we were able to determine what went wrong with his thymol treatment. For starters He did get the recipe wrong, this always gets things off on the wrong foot, on top of that he put it on his hives without firing a shot over their bow first (testing it on just a few hives to get started and make sure it wouldn't do more harm than good).
ReplyDeleteAs you and I have discussed, we share our experiments out in the open in forums like this for the benefit of ,and sometimes entertainment of others, but we don't encourage duplicating our efforts without great care and caution. Wes learned this the hard way with the loss of about 11 hives when he put a soupy mess of strong smelling thymol goulash on his unsuspecting hives and stood back to watch the carnage that ensewed. So, here's a caution to all your readers to proceed with extreme care when you're in the unfamiliar and often uncharted waters of aroma therapy in a beehive, bees are really sensitive to smells.
Yours in the Bees,
Chris