7 days after adding Mite Away Quick Strips to my hives at home, I decided to check on them. Seven days is the amount of time the directions recommend waiting before checking on the hives, even though the treatment is technically over (the fumes have nearly completely dissipated) after the third day.

It was hard waiting the 7 days before checking on them, but I had a white sandy beach to help pass the time. :)

Garrison (4yrs) has been asking for his very own bee suit so he can check the bees with me. I haven't gotten around to getting him his own suit yet, but I did let him wear my jacket and veil to help with today's inspection.



Below are pictures of what two of my "sticky boards" or boards that can be used to close off the screened bottom boards looked like after I removed them.

They both had a lot of the MAQs patty and wax paper pieces that the bees had been chewing and removing. They also had lots of dead mites, which was pretty exciting that that MAQs were working.



Interesting on the make-shift board (card board) below, you can see two distinct piles on either side where they were chewing away on the MAQs patties.



Of the three hives, one hive totally ignored the MAQs strips. The other two hives were working hard to remove them from the hive. In the pictures below you can see how of the two strips, only a partial strip remained. The other strip was completely removed and they were working on the remaining strip.



Here's a picture after a small puff of smoke to make the bees go down. The picture has got a bit of smoke in it so it appears washed out.



The one thing that surprised me was the amount of "gel" left behind in each strip. I expected the entire gel strip to evaporate, but apparently the gel was just a medium to deliver the medication and after the medication evaporated the gel dried and hardened. I simply scraped it up and threw the remaining strip(s) away.

I also checked each of the 3 hives at home to see if the queens survived, and I found eggs in each of the three hives, indicating all 3 queens had survived.

To summarize:
I used a full dose (two strips) of MAQs in each hive.
The weather was low to mid 80's.
I closed the screened bottom boards.
I did NOT offset the hive bodies.
I had 1 hive with 3 supers.
I had 1 hive with 1 super.
I had 1 hive with 0 super.
Queens survived in all 3.
Bee/brood mortality was much lower than I expected.

So far I like this treatment and will do it again next year!