As you may or may not be aware it is necessary to introduce certain chemicals into the hive during the course of the year – although not when the hive is producing honey or just before (typically after the final honey harvest has been completed and just before winter sets in).

So why is it necessary to add chemicals and doesn’t that go against everything you believe in?
One of the most destructive things that can happen to a colony is the introduction of Varroa, this is a small bug/mite which is passed from bee to bee.
This is a bug that was not native to Europe and so it’s necessary to treat for them.
Recent experiments have shown that a series of bee hives left to defend themselves against varroa will eventually manage to defend themselves but by the time balance is achieved the bee colonies will have become so weak as to be unviable.

So you can probably see now that it is necessary to do something to help the colonies against this problem so how do I apply it?

There’s a piece of kit called a FAM dispenser, this is effectively a plastic frame that holds a foam panel (the foam panel is impregnated with the chemical which diffuses into the hive), this is placed in the hive.

The FAM dispenser comes in three pieces (top, bottom and foam panel).
The foam panel component has exactly 80 ml of formic acid soaked into it and is then placed between the two plastic halves of the diffuser.

As you can see from the picture there is an amount of the foam panel visible, this is because the top part of the diffuser contains a wheel and so depending upon the temperature you expose more or less of the panel – this then allows the acid to diffuse faster or slower.
So what’s this got to do with saving the plastic?

As you can see from the picture below the bees love building on stuff, in fact anything that is in the hive.

The substance that you can see is called propolis; it’s a building material come glue (and if you get it on your clothes it’s on there for good).

Propolis is a remarkable substance, it’s really strong, really sticky and completely biological – when it freezes it becomes really brittle.
So, the bees build everywhere – this means that the FAM dispenser can be completely useless after you’ve used it once.
The reason that they build on it is that the normal mode of deployment is to place the dispenser directly onto the top of the frames, this then ensures that the bees view it as being a foreign object in the hive.

Whilst I was attending the bee keeping course over at Prangin (Nyon section of the Bee keeping society) I was shown something by one of our members (Mariane Transch).

She had noted that the dispensers lasted longer if the bees didn’t build on them and so as a way to stop the bees building on them they should be in the hive but not in direct contact with the frames.
In order to achieve this she came up with the notion of adding a frame to the hive body (horizontal not vertical) and then suspending the FAM dispenser from it.
The net result being that the dispenser comes out of the hive almost untouched – thus ensuring that the same dispenser can be used several times (although some superficial cleaning is obviously required).

So having seen how Marianne did this I decided to try it myself.
As you can see from the picture below the construction is actually quite simple, it’s basically a picture frame construction:

And then two dowels are added to support the dispenser.

You’ll also note that I do not add any varnish or oils to this – there’s no need. The frame will be inside the hive whilst in use which means the bees will take care of the wood and when it’s not in use it will be in my workshop (so no damp problems).

This is what it looks like holding the fam dispensor (it's upside down, normally the yellow bits should be facing downwards).

So by putting a little effort into building the frame for each hive I’m saving both money and plastic – in theory the wood is good for ever and the plastic should be good for five years or more this way.
This then saves quite a lot of plastic – which can only be a good thing.

You should also be aware that chemical treatments are performed on a hive AFTER honey production is complete at the start of August and that only chemicals approved by the Swiss veterinary service are used (this is very important as the Swiss are very strict about what you can and can not put in a hive).