The success of treatment free beekeeping seems to depend primarily on genetics. I am trying to decide which strain(s) to start with. What would you recommend? VSH? Russian? Biting breeds?
Are there studies of different varroa resistant breeds, what kind is the population curve of mites? VSH, Primorski, Purdue mite biters etc.
I mean is there somekind of period when mite numbers go up (maybe 5%?), after which the bees react and trow mites out. Or has some stock another strategy: mite level stays stable all season(maybe 1-2%)?
From Fernando de Noronja (?) there is a study, the levels have come down during several decades, but I don´t remember if that study said anything about seasonal variation.
My memory failed, they write about seasonal variation in mite population.Brettella,Martin 2107 Oldest Varroa tolerant honey bee population provides insight into the origins of the global decline of honey beeshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5385554/
Brettella,Martin 2107 Oldest Varroa tolerant honey bee population provides insight into the origins of the global decline of honey beeshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5385554/the honey bee population in Fernando de Noronha has thus far evaded the catastrophic consequences of DWV and Varroa because the incredibly small and isolated population size (ca. 20–40 colonies) has meant that there hasn’t yet been sufficient time for a virulent variant to have become established in a colony. The estimated mite populations in the colonies would no-doubt result in the rapid death of the colonies if a virulent genotype of DWV was to emerge, since up to 42% of the worker brood can be infested by Varroa, levels never observed in healthy hives of European honey bees. Moreover it is just a matter of time before an overt outbreak of a virulent variant appears that has the capability to spell disaster for the bees of Fernando de Noronha. It also explains why when in 1997 six queens were transferred from Fernando de Noronha to Germany to head colonies and study whether heritable hygienic behaviour is responsible for their Varroa tolerance31. Although no difference in hygienic abilities compared to the local population were found indicating no genetic basis for the tolerance is present. These colonies all died during the winter or early spring (Peter Rosenkranz, personal communication) since the bees and mites would for the first time be exposed to the virulent DWV strains5,32 circulating in the local bee population
Ok, lets not get stuck to words/names and take VSH for an example. Of course the original has now evolved in the hands of hundreds of breeders, but was there originally, right after in Harris and Harbos breeding work, studies how is the mite population dynamics going: up and down or stedy all year round, how high were the infestation rates etc.yes there are some II lines like the mite biters but they are not breeds per say
long and short in the US... its going to matter more on what the breeder has selected for, less on the name given it
I shook the bees off a couple open brood combs, mixed them around and got my half cup, dumped the remaining bees back in the hive and did a standard isopropanol wash. The big hives have been running a little under two deeps of brood for most of the year, and I will probably get a super or two of honey off them depending on how the next two months go. The hives that I had to split repeatedly or swarmed have been building up and have very little honey at the moment but do have an insane amount of brood currently.Mite counts like that look great! Just to confirm, those were taken from bees on brood comb, not the honey storage area, and was done with an alcohol wash? And your bees have built up to a full deep and at least half of a second?
/
I would love to start a thread when I have something more to add.it would be great to have more reporting from treatment free beekeepers located in the northeastern u.s.
if you are so inclined please consider starting a thread chronicling your experience nhbeek.
agreeded, but your not out of the woods yet, keep an eye on themyour mite counts are encouraging.
Typically I end up doing several treatments on the buckfast/italian stock I have. They always need treatment around this time of year.
The majority of my treatment free hives, have had the typical 'mite explosion' over the last month. Before I blasted them with oav this morning they averaged 3-4% mite infection. I still have a handful of colonies that are from other breeders and still have low mite counts, but I cant rate their resistance because they were previously treated colonies that were requeened this summer. The experiment with resistant stock, for this year atleast, is a failure.
how did you monitor and how often?no actually, I have not seen a single case of dwv this year. The hives seem very healthy and the population is peaking, but the mite counts indicate I was on the verge of mite outs.
Are you flipping the seasons? June is there winter/late fall. I am going to guess the drop in mites is do to a drop in brood rearing do to lack of forageInteresting to notice that mite numbers went up until June, and after that started to decline. Similar to my personal experience
I meant the Rinderer 2001a paper, about Primorski.Are you flipping the seasons? June is there winter/late fall.
no actually, I have not seen a single case of dwv this year. The hives seem very healthy and the population is peaking, but the mite counts indicate I was on the verge of mite outs.did you see any diseased brood, dwv, or crawlers in the hives that were treated?
What was your count?Recommendation is as close to 0% infection as humanly possible going into winter. These mite levels (3 -4%) is the highest recommended treatment threshold for summer.
In this case I don´t think you will ever be treatment free.The plan is to treat if mites get over 2% because a hive needs to be in excellent health to even have a chance to overwinter.
I consider this a possibility for all beekeepers if they do not fear the work.with some luck and careful selection
You have more leeway with mite counts than I do. However I think the long winter and spring splits can reset my mite counts to near zero, if only the bees can keep them down through the fall.with the handful of late season alcohol washes i have done i am seeing 8% to 14% infestation rates that do not result in collapse.
the winters here are relatively mild however. there are scattered opportunities for cleansing flights and even some early tree pollens sometimes in mid to late january.
t makes me wonder if there is something special about the nutrition here that perhaps results in particularly good fat bodies. i am going to communicate with the research community about the possibility for looking into that.
There are rumors of feral AMMs in the area. New England kind of sucks for beekeeping, we dont get the enormous nectar flows that people to the west get, but still have the terrible winter. Some people claim to get 100lbs average, so perhaps I ought to seek out better yards.jmho, but if i were looking for the best varroa resistant breed for nh, i would search those wooded lands for overwintered feral survivors.
not finding any ferals surviving winter would suggest to me that the long winters there may be a little more than the european honey bee can easily thrive through, that the short season and/or limited foraging opportunities aren't quite enough to support a typical sized colony to easily reach wintering strength, or perhaps that there aren't many large cavities in the trees having the volume necessary to support a large enough colony along with adequate honey stores for wintering there.
mites ranged from 9-15 per 300 bees in all colonies but one. The one colony actually went from 8 mites per 300 bees before the tf queen and is now down to 0, but it was started from a really small nuc in the summer...What was your count?
In this case I don´t think you will ever be treatment free.
Thanks for answering my questions above.