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The Honey Bee Solution to Varroa

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31K views 388 replies 30 participants last post by  squarepeg  
#218 ·
back to topic:

anecdotally, i see signs of local adaptation with my colonies. an example of this is the modulation of brooding in anticipation of changes in forage availability, i.e. we see the spring build up and the summer brood down appearing to commence about a brood cycle or two before we changes in the field. it is as if the bees are somehow programmed to make these adjustments weeks beforehand and not just in response to changes in the environment.

the other point i feel is worth making is that local bee populations around the world are demonstrating resistance to varroa particularly in places when miticides are not used. this suggests that natural selection is allowing resistant traits to come to the forefront. however, here in the u.s. the dynamics of the beekeeping industry and the economic impacts thereof will never allow for the cold turkey cessation of miticide usage.

to compound the issue, getting consensus among beekeepers has been pretty much impossible for as long as there have been beekeepers. getting the majority of beekeepers in a given area to cooperate on shifting the local genetics en masse remains a pretty lofty goal. that, and the fact that the vast majority (95% or so) of colonies here in the u.s. are operated by our brethern on the commercial/migratory side of the industry tends to keep the genetic football getting tossed to and fro.

nothing new said here that hasn't already been said, but to russ's opening premise i think it's safe to say that after several decades of failed attempts at moving the ball the only examples so far we have of a varroa solution are those in which the honeybees have found it on their own.
 
#221 ·
Kellyb said:
Your bees were started from local feral swarms weren't they?
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the bees that our stock is derived from trace back to 5 colonies that were cut out of trees back in the mid 90's by an astute beekeeper in an adjoining county. this was shortly after varroa arrived here. colonies were dying, and no one knew why at first. this beekeeper noticed there were still bees surviving in the nearby bee trees that his father had shown him during his youth. he harvested those colonies and began queen rearing and nuc production from them.

@Fusion_power on the other hand, traces his stock back to a (most likely) feral swarm he captured just a few miles from where i now live.

our general area has quite a bit of wooded lands, with about 2/3rds of the county in trees and the remaining 1/3 agricultural (mostly pastureland with a little cotton, soybean, and corn grown). the tennessee river runs through here flanked on both sides by the southernmost extent of the appalachians. because of this unique geography we have a lot of floral diversity.

with the somewhat mild winters, favorable forage, and plentiful habitat the stage is set here for a thriving feral population. i believe having them nearby and contributing to the drone congregation areas to be a big part of the natural resistance equation.

plus, the state of alabama has what is know as the 'comb law', which basically prohibits the bringing into and parking of migratory bees within the state. packages however are allowed. in recent years the demand by new beekeepers for colonies has resulted in the importation of countless commercially produced packages. so our gene pool isn't totally immune to that infuence.
 
#224 ·
Kellyb said:
i'm curious how your bees tend to winter? I know you said they are prone to take a long 2 month brood break in the summer. Do they tend to stay small in the winter?
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our typical winter clusters tend to be around 3-4 deep frames or 5-6 medium frames of bees, sometimes a little larger and sometimes a little smaller.

our first manipulation once we are a round or two into the build up is to shake some nurse bees from the larger colonies into the smaller ones to equalize.
 
#233 ·
Kellyb said:
Have you done any tests on them to try and identify the source of their resistance?
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a few.

not long after starting the 'experience' thread stickied in this subforum i performed alcohol washes on a few colonies. the results were above what most folks would have considered threshold for treating, suggesting perhaps our colonies were more 'tolerant' than 'resistant'.

some time after that we sent samples to the university of arkansas for mitochondrial dna testing. the results came back c1, indicating the maternal line is italian/carniolan.

a year or so ago, @GregB was kind enough to analyze the wing morphmetrics on samples i sent up to him. he found a shift toward amm similar to what he found with the bees @Litsinger is working with.

anecdotally: i observe dark phenotypes, brood breaking, allogrooming, hygienic removal, recapping, frugality, and low propensity for robbing.

i have been less focused in recent years about determining the specific reasons for their high survival off treatments, and more focused on honey production and now the mead making. this spring we will probably put a little more effort into increasing the hive count.
 
#239 ·
crofter said:
They will be sacrificed if the workers and nurses have more brood than they can temperature control.
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i seen this a couple of times. both times were associated with a late hard freeze that wiped out the field pollen for a week or two. the colonies canabalized the developing drones, presumably to use them as a back up protein source to feed the more important worker brood.
 
#279 ·
drummerboy said:
"Humans seek to satisfy their desires with the least exertion" - Henry George (Americas Greatest 'forgotten" economist)
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as do bees and pretty much all life forms. biologists refer to this as 'parsimonious'. natural selection appears to select for this.
 
#290 ·
Kellyb said:
Not sure how much the book varies from that, but basically a combo of monitoring mite drops on bottom boards through the season and looking for signs of VSH behavior on the brood.
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well, at least i've been doing it half right... not employing the first but definitely paying attention to the latter, especially recapping behavior.
 
#348 ·
clay, are you doing any management for the drone side of the equation?

not sure if this applies up north or not, but we get away with placing foundationless frames very early in the build up, just about the time the colonies start making drone comb in between boxes.

they draw these out pretty quickly not with new white wax, but rather a light muddy brown colored wax.

we gave every colony an empty medium foundationless frame placed on the side of the broodnest in about mid february or so. they all got drawn and filled with 100% drone comb.

since our model is controlled swarm splitting, we left about half of those drone frames with the parent colonies while moving the other half of the frames off to new yeards with the splits.

i wondering if pushing drones from your more resistant colonies would help to move the needle in the direction you are working toward.
 
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