Alfred
01-29-2003, 04:36 PM
Hello Dee, I have contact a bee institute in Germany where they testing and breeding bees on 4.9mm cells for some years also.
Have you studied why your hives survive even if theyre mite infected?
Do you know exact the reason why this happen or is it a result of many different ways and you find it out by a lucky chance?
Im not familiar with test on bees, queens and cells they made on the institute but there a few thinks they discovered why it can work and many times not.
One reason I heard that small bees producing much less pheromones on the 8th day than bigger bees and the Varroa goes by the smell from that pheromone on the 9th day into the cells. More pheromone, more interest to go into the cells.
On tests they neutralized the smell totally and no mite entered the cell.
A second reason the find is, that the Africanized bees breeding only 20 instead 21 days and most Varroa are not fully developed and cant reproduce again.
Im not a scientist thats why I say it simple. A combination of both is a possibility why bees live and survive with the mites.
Do you have blood from Africanized bees in your colonies? What does happen in the long run when you sell queens or colonies to someone else and they breeding with non-Africanized drones? Have you any results?
I would be interested to buy queens for myself and other beekeeper in our association. Can you give a guarantee that the bees will survive here over the years only on small cells or do I need drones from Africanized bees?
The scientists say if breeding queens and they get fertilized with drones like this it will work, but if youre a beekeeper on a different locality with other drones, it doesnt work. After a few years the effect is gone and even the bees in 4.9mm cells have a hell of trouble to survive without a treatment.
Have you studied why your hives survive even if theyre mite infected?
Do you know exact the reason why this happen or is it a result of many different ways and you find it out by a lucky chance?
Im not familiar with test on bees, queens and cells they made on the institute but there a few thinks they discovered why it can work and many times not.
One reason I heard that small bees producing much less pheromones on the 8th day than bigger bees and the Varroa goes by the smell from that pheromone on the 9th day into the cells. More pheromone, more interest to go into the cells.
On tests they neutralized the smell totally and no mite entered the cell.
A second reason the find is, that the Africanized bees breeding only 20 instead 21 days and most Varroa are not fully developed and cant reproduce again.
Im not a scientist thats why I say it simple. A combination of both is a possibility why bees live and survive with the mites.
Do you have blood from Africanized bees in your colonies? What does happen in the long run when you sell queens or colonies to someone else and they breeding with non-Africanized drones? Have you any results?
I would be interested to buy queens for myself and other beekeeper in our association. Can you give a guarantee that the bees will survive here over the years only on small cells or do I need drones from Africanized bees?
The scientists say if breeding queens and they get fertilized with drones like this it will work, but if youre a beekeeper on a different locality with other drones, it doesnt work. After a few years the effect is gone and even the bees in 4.9mm cells have a hell of trouble to survive without a treatment.