Mission completed!

 So the story is that my battery was fine and I just needed to keep the Oxalic acid wand on longer than the 2.5 minutes suggested almost everywhere.  But that is a little flexible, I've learned. 

I performed a test outside the hive to see how long it takes to emit vapor.  For me it was about 3 minutes. 

I decided I'd treat the bees while I had everything out so I did it! I left it in there for 3.5 minutes on and then another 2.5 minutes off.  Then waited about 10 minutes with it sealed up. I didn't see vapor come out of the hive but it was well sealed and the product appeared to be mostly powder when I removed it from the hive. So I'm comfortable it worked just fine. 

I'm not sure how long before I see the dead mites on the bottom board. I'm anxious to see the fruits of my labor so will check today and maybe again tomorrow.

Thanks to Nancy Frye who heads the Brattleboro Beekeepers Group for her advice and support!!

Now that I've done it a few times, the biggest issue was disturbing the bees so much. First unscrewing the mouse guard and removing the entrance reduced which is always stuck in the opening so that bothers them and riles them up.

I saw a video this week where someone used bricks or wood blocks to open/close off the entrance as needed.  Then it would be quick and simple to open the entrance without disruption.  I want a slightly larger piece of wood so I can close the entrance a little bit more but I think it will work for me, especially using the bungies to hold in place. Overnight I realized it now has no mouse guard so I slipped that in behind the brick and piece of wood and also closed up the opening a bit for these next few days that will be cold.

Note my straw is sprouting! :)

Update: Here is an image of the bottom board the day after treatment with Oxalic acid. You can see the larger ones in the image below, but there are a huge number of tiny baby mites in that brown section. I wonder if I should try another treatment in a few weeks.  Wow.  I'm impressed with how good this works...now that I'm an expert haha.

Oxalic acid vapor treatment - 12/3/20

 What a sight I was with the respirator mask and full bee outfit but I figured I would need all my protective gear since this was my first time doing Oxalic acid treatment this way.  In the past, I have soaked paper towels with glycerin and Oxalic and laid them over the bottom deep.  But it's too late for that now since I have already have covered it for the winter.

It did seem to go smoothly once I had everything out by the hive.  I did it all as instructed.

1. Remove entrance reducer and mouse guard
2. Add 1/2 tsp. Oxalic acid in wand
3. connect one side of wand cable to battery
4. slip wand into bottom board of hive
5. connect other side of wand cable to battery
6. set timer for 2 minutes 30 seconds
7. Remove cable from battery and wait another 2 minutes
8. Remove wand from hive and close it up again
9. Wait 10 minutes
10. Return entrance reducer and mouse guard (Note, I had to wait until bees calmed down before putting mouse guard back)

So it's done.  One thing I wonder about is that my wand didn't sizzle when I put it into the bucket of water.   Not sure if I got the amount of vapor I needed or not.  I'll need to check on that with some folks.d

Update 12/4 - The first time failed.  The wand didn't ever heat up so it was a wasted treatment.

The battery didn't have enough juice so I recharged it which took hours (and shouldn't have imo).  Then I performed the entire treatment again today.  It also failed.  

It failed even after I watched the Oxalic heat up in the wand before inserting into the hive.  But it must have heated only enough to melt the Oxalic but not enough to make it a vapor.  Now the battery isn't charged enough to charge the fence so I ordered a new battery to pick up tomorrow. Hope no bear comes through tonight!

I'll take a few days before trying to do this again to the bees. It's such a disturbance each time.