That's the best presentation I've seen on this subject in recent years. And I'm bewildered that the beekeeping community has largely disregarded the research and breeding work of the U.S.D.A. About a decade ago I tracked down a commercial queen breeder who was selling that specific U.S.D.A. "VSH Italian" line. In short, I don't use ANY measures to combat mites; and it's extremely rare to find any sign of mites in my apiary. And as the speaker indicates, the hygienic behavior appears to be a dominant trait. I've been breeding queens in my home yard and I've not seen any indication that their hygienic trait has diminished. Beekeeping with VSH Italians remind me very much of the 1980's and early 90's before the introduction of mites.
He's a very good speaker. The content has really made me think. I'm already concerned that I'm keeping bees that are dependent upon my miticide intervention. Im going to look further into encouraging varroa resistance.
A very eloquently presented goldmine of Varroa resistance knowledge!👌Thank you for doing so much heavy lifting for so long and for sharing all this knowledge Steve! I’m going to borrow an ember of this wisdom and try to light a fire under some asses in my own association!🤞Let’s call it Project Prometheus 😅
Funny how the onset of varroa mites corresponds nicely with the end of skep beekeeping. In skeps the bees would have to swarm and requeen as skeps can't expand, and also no honey frames were being removed during the nectar flow as skeps didn't allow for it. Instead, a portion of collonies was killed before the winter and all their honey was harvested, not forcing bees to collect more nectar when they should have been concentrated on hygiene. Yet, legal skep beekeeing is impossible due to the need to check and treat varroa which skeps don't lend themselves to.
Harbo assays are a little harder labor but very accurate at finding the vsh trait. We also need to keep our susceptible colonies away from our breeding yards. I know there's more to it than that, but i think that those two added into the suggestions made above will help. Also, if i remember correctly (i could be mistaken) but i think varroa doesnt reproduce in cerranae worker brood because their pupae stage is too short for the mite to reproduce successfully.
He is saying that varroa does not breed in the worker brood cells of Apis cerana, the eastern honey bee. This is true. Varroa is rarely found in the worker brood cells. Are you keeping A. cerana or A. Mellifera?
I've been breeding from resistant stock for several years now. It seems to me the workers are quite good at keeping varroa numbers low from internal reproduction... external neighboring "mite bombs" I suspect are still a problem for any colony with resistant stock - and the reason I continue to treat with Formic and OAV.
@Swarmstead the Ontario Beekeeper Association runs a breeding program whereby members prove their queens are of hygienic stock. Treating your bees and having hygienic mite resistant stock are not mutually exclusive
@@abeeforallseasonswhat is the point of selecting for "hygienic stock" if continued treatment is necessary? If someone still needs to treat to keep their bees alive, they have accomplished nothing but tedious, god-complex baloney.
@Swarmstead because hygienic stock actually keep the internal mite pressure below a healthy infestation threshold by keeping reproduction rate of varroa lower. Seeley and others continue to use examples of island beekeepers and forests in the middle of nowhere to "prove" evolutionary adaptation to varroa. This is not the reality anywhere in North America - external mite pressure from commercial operations and other bee keepers who attempt "treatment free" is very high. Just as I treat my livestock for worms and dog fleas, I treat my bees for mites if I see numbers are high.
I'm absolutely new to beekeeping, I bought a beehive late in july and its wintering right now, i'm in a zone 4. I've never seen a honey bee in the flowers where i live, what i assumed were honeybees were in fact solitary bees. My theory with the varroah, since its a big parasite, easy to see for the bees, was that the bees are having some sort of neurological/sensorial problems that stoppes them from being able to correctly clean themselves somehow becauee of the pesticides, insecticies or becauee of the monocrops (only growing 1 plant over dozens if not hundreds of acres). How wrong am I? I didnt do any varroah treatment in 2024 and i might do one in 2025 if i see the aigns of an infestation. Im surrounded by wild flowers, forest and i grow a wide array of different plants, even aome tropical and sub-tropical one on a small scale, also tobacco, and the previous owner lost control of the thyme and its now found everywhere on my lawn. I cant stop thinking that i might be able to dodge the varroah bullet somehow, how silly is my thinking?
It's much more than 2.8 times. A generation of honeybees is the life of the queen, so 2 to 3 years in varroa it's 21 days. That's already about 54 times faster. They also are much simpler genetically and socially, so have more successful mutations. Realistically it's more like several hundred times faster
The market dictates that their principal concern is the speed of spring buildup so that they qualify for the Californian almond pollination money, which distorts the whole North American bee genome. If the legislators had any spine, they'd ban the movement of bulk colonies across state lines, and if the almond growers want bees, they'd better start keeping bees. But money talks louder in US politics than almost anywhere else, and the almond growers have deeper pockets than the beekeepers.
Canadian here. The reason many N. American beekeepers are "scientifically ignorant" is that there is little or no support for the general run of beekeepers. Many states have defunded their state apiary departments, and no longer have advice, training or inspection services. Where Departments of Agriculture have retained some beekeeping staff, those folks are almost exclusively focused on the commercial, mobile beekeepers. So America is awash in a mobile pool of honey bees, who are essential to pollination of crops, by operators who must keep their labour costs low to remain profitable. That means cursory inspection time, outsourcing queen breeding to industrial breeders, and generally miserable nutrition levels for the bees. No matter how well you keep your own bees, many of the drones at your local Drone Congregation Area are going to be from commercial operations, which are ubiquitous. Miticides, all miticides, are gradually becoming less able to control mites. But there is no viable alternative in N. America.
That's the best presentation I've seen on this subject in recent years. And I'm bewildered that the beekeeping community has largely disregarded the research and breeding work of the U.S.D.A.
About a decade ago I tracked down a commercial queen breeder who was selling that specific U.S.D.A. "VSH Italian" line. In short, I don't use ANY measures to combat mites; and it's extremely rare to find any sign of mites in my apiary. And as the speaker indicates, the hygienic behavior appears to be a dominant trait. I've been breeding queens in my home yard and I've not seen any indication that their hygienic trait has diminished. Beekeeping with VSH Italians remind me very much of the 1980's and early 90's before the introduction of mites.
By far the best presentation on the subject that I have ever seen (and I have seen very many). Compliments.
Fantastic work. Thank you for aiding the "resistance."
Excellent speaker. I hope we will hear more from Steve and his Westerham Beekeepers and their bees.
He's a very good speaker.
The content has really made me think.
I'm already concerned that I'm keeping bees that are dependent upon my miticide intervention.
Im going to look further into encouraging varroa resistance.
A very eloquently presented goldmine of Varroa resistance knowledge!👌Thank you for doing so much heavy lifting for so long and for sharing all this knowledge Steve! I’m going to borrow an ember of this wisdom and try to light a fire under some asses in my own association!🤞Let’s call it Project Prometheus 😅
Interesting talk. Thanks to Steve.
Дякую за вашу роботу. Дуже цікаві теми і доповідачі. 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🤝🤝🤝🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🐝🐝🐝✌✌✌
Funny how the onset of varroa mites corresponds nicely with the end of skep beekeeping. In skeps the bees would have to swarm and requeen as skeps can't expand, and also no honey frames were being removed during the nectar flow as skeps didn't allow for it. Instead, a portion of collonies was killed before the winter and all their honey was harvested, not forcing bees to collect more nectar when they should have been concentrated on hygiene. Yet, legal skep beekeeing is impossible due to the need to check and treat varroa which skeps don't lend themselves to.
Nice presentation, so it looks like most of your monitoring is done with checking drops on the mite board
No mention of Veet strips to determine recapping levels or the new American Unhealthy Brood Odour (UBO) assay?
Brood odor itself was mentioned. Have not heard of Veet strips. Where could I find out more?
Harbo assays are a little harder labor but very accurate at finding the vsh trait. We also need to keep our susceptible colonies away from our breeding yards. I know there's more to it than that, but i think that those two added into the suggestions made above will help. Also, if i remember correctly (i could be mistaken) but i think varroa doesnt reproduce in cerranae worker brood because their pupae stage is too short for the mite to reproduce successfully.
I keep bees in Korea, varroa definitely infests worker brood.
He is saying that varroa does not breed in the worker brood cells of Apis cerana, the eastern honey bee. This is true. Varroa is rarely found in the worker brood cells. Are you keeping A. cerana or A. Mellifera?
@@이이-n4z8y yes I am saying what @rexroberton810 is saying. I'm referring to A. Cerranae. Do you keep A Cerranae or A Melifferae?
@@rexroberton810Apis Cerana worker brood gets varroa. Their grooming behavior for varroa is much greater because of their co evolution.
I've been breeding from resistant stock for several years now. It seems to me the workers are quite good at keeping varroa numbers low from internal reproduction... external neighboring "mite bombs" I suspect are still a problem for any colony with resistant stock - and the reason I continue to treat with Formic and OAV.
Resistant stock and "I continue to treat" do not make sense together.
@Swarmstead the Ontario Beekeeper Association runs a breeding program whereby members prove their queens are of hygienic stock. Treating your bees and having hygienic mite resistant stock are not mutually exclusive
@@abeeforallseasonswhat is the point of selecting for "hygienic stock" if continued treatment is necessary? If someone still needs to treat to keep their bees alive, they have accomplished nothing but tedious, god-complex baloney.
@Swarmstead because hygienic stock actually keep the internal mite pressure below a healthy infestation threshold by keeping reproduction rate of varroa lower. Seeley and others continue to use examples of island beekeepers and forests in the middle of nowhere to "prove" evolutionary adaptation to varroa. This is not the reality anywhere in North America - external mite pressure from commercial operations and other bee keepers who attempt "treatment free" is very high. Just as I treat my livestock for worms and dog fleas, I treat my bees for mites if I see numbers are high.
I'm absolutely new to beekeeping, I bought a beehive late in july and its wintering right now, i'm in a zone 4.
I've never seen a honey bee in the flowers where i live, what i assumed were honeybees were in fact solitary bees.
My theory with the varroah, since its a big parasite, easy to see for the bees, was that the bees are having some sort of neurological/sensorial problems that stoppes them from being able to correctly clean themselves somehow becauee of the pesticides, insecticies or becauee of the monocrops (only growing 1 plant over dozens if not hundreds of acres).
How wrong am I?
I didnt do any varroah treatment in 2024 and i might do one in 2025 if i see the aigns of an infestation.
Im surrounded by wild flowers, forest and i grow a wide array of different plants, even aome tropical and sub-tropical one on a small scale, also tobacco, and the previous owner lost control of the thyme and its now found everywhere on my lawn.
I cant stop thinking that i might be able to dodge the varroah bullet somehow, how silly is my thinking?
Given the fact that Mites can evolve faster (2.8X) than Bees we are perhaps chasing the wrong idea.....
Do you have a link for that?
@@Swarmstead I posted - seems to be deleted...
It's much more than 2.8 times. A generation of honeybees is the life of the queen, so 2 to 3 years in varroa it's 21 days. That's already about 54 times faster. They also are much simpler genetically and socially, so have more successful mutations. Realistically it's more like several hundred times faster
@@stuartmackenzie6767 what is the relevance of the length of the 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?
@@Swarmstead minor epigenetic alterations aside are you suggesting they genetically evolve significantly within each generation?
Scientifically ignorant American TH-camr commercial beekeepers will hear none of this.
The market dictates that their principal concern is the speed of spring buildup so that they qualify for the Californian almond pollination money, which distorts the whole North American bee genome. If the legislators had any spine, they'd ban the movement of bulk colonies across state lines, and if the almond growers want bees, they'd better start keeping bees. But money talks louder in US politics than almost anywhere else, and the almond growers have deeper pockets than the beekeepers.
Canadian here. The reason many N. American beekeepers are "scientifically ignorant" is that there is little or no support for the general run of beekeepers. Many states have defunded their state apiary departments, and no longer have advice, training or inspection services. Where Departments of Agriculture have retained some beekeeping staff, those folks are almost exclusively focused on the commercial, mobile beekeepers. So America is awash in a mobile pool of honey bees, who are essential to pollination of crops, by operators who must keep their labour costs low to remain profitable. That means cursory inspection time, outsourcing queen breeding to industrial breeders, and generally miserable nutrition levels for the bees. No matter how well you keep your own bees, many of the drones at your local Drone Congregation Area are going to be from commercial operations, which are ubiquitous. Miticides, all miticides, are gradually becoming less able to control mites. But there is no viable alternative in N. America.
Like who?
@@MinnesotaBeekeeperlol
Thank you!
And abot recapping...
th-cam.com/video/amgxwLAfCfk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=NFxJom5gYAvrX8sC