When I first started beekeeping I read a bunch of stuff about how bad treating mites was and that it was actually causing hive collapse so I didn't do it. I lost every hive the first 3 years and when I would pick through the frames in the spring the hive would be absolutely infested with mites. The first year I treated for mites I hired someone to fumigate with oxalic acid and 3/4 hives made it through the winter. I went from 0/4 hives to 3/4 with no other changes to beekeeping technique other than treating for mites. I know this is anecdotal but I am going to keep treating for mites.
I’m glad you found a way to keep your bees. That is the #1 priority. I’m not saying not to treat for mites as with where our genetics currently stand it’s a necessity. But what I am saying is we still need to keep pushing forward in finding new ways to control for varroa. OA is my go to as it seems to effect the bees health the least vs other treatments
@@beefitbeekeeping I respect that you actually presented data and peer reviewed articles. Not many people go to that length to learn or inform people. It is important to know what and why for every bee keeping treatment/method so you can make the most educated choice for your bees. I think a lot of the information out there is coming from commercial beekeeping which isn't necessarily bad but it is just not always applicable to hobbyists/small apiaries. For example if you have 1000 hives then you have much more room for error because statistically even if you mess up, enough hives should survive to regrow your apiary. But if you only have a few hives 100% loss is much more likely if you make an error. I also learned to pay more attention to where a beekeeper educator is located because bee management changes a ton based on location. What works in Michigan might not work in Oregon for example(where I am). Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
Emily, read the article "Amitraz and its metabolite modulate honey bee cardiac function and tolerance to viral infection" more closely. Note that they applied amitraz orally in sugar syrup. That confounded their results which therefore could have little correlation to the approved contact use of Apivar. Amitraz in syrup is hardly an approved method of application. Apivar (amitraz) is intended to be used as a contact acaricide only -- not a poison to be taken internally. The article entitled "Effect of Concentration and Exposure Time on Treatment Efficacy Against Varroa Mites (Acari: Varroidae) During Indoor Winter Fumigation of Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) with Formic Acid" also describes an off-label (not approved) use of an approved product. Many of the products listed in this study (eg, Taktic) were used in the early years of Varroa infestation in the US because we had nothing else but such unapproved products. Again, the researchers applied the products in manners (eg, orally) which beekeepers never have used. Now, thanks to patience and science, we have products which work very well when used as directed. The same must be said of the other studies you cited -- unapproved products and unapproved methods of application. Failure to follow the label is fraught with problems -- especially, as with these studies, the failure to follow the label is willful. Failures of unapproved products/methods of application should never be used to condemn approved products/methods. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -- attributed to Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli.
I’m sorry Blaine you must have misread. Please go back and read the section about the results from the acaracide (amitraz) strip survival experiment. Here is what it found.. 3.4 Acaricide strip survival experiment Exposure to amitraz-impregnated plastic strips decreased the survival of bees challenged with virus and vehicle injections alike, relative to the respective control groups (Figure 4). Infected bees exposed to amitraz experienced 85% mortality just 1 d after infection, compared to only 10% for the infected control group. Bees injected with vehicle and exposed to amitraz experienced 32% mortality after just 1 d, compared to only 1% mortality for the uninfected control group. Infected bees exposed to amitraz experienced 100% mortality by 3 d after injection, whereas the curve leveled off for bees injected with vehicle and exposed to amitraz starting at 2 d after injection and their survival remained consistent at approximately 40% mortality for the remainder of the study. As for the article about Formic…they also stated that the did another trial with fumigation which is in fact how we apply Formic today via pads that release gasses into the hive to fumigate the hive…. Fumigation. Fumigation tests were conducted in four 3.0 by 1.7 by 2.5-m treatment rooms in the win- tering building at the University of Manitoba (Win- nipeg, Manitoba, Canada) (N 49 48 32, W 97 07 37). Each room simulated the airßow conditions of a standard commercial wintering building with a fan jet air distribution system (Gruszka 1998), but ßow was modiÞed to allow formic acid fumigation (see Under- wood and Currie 2004 for details and schematic dia- grams). To distribute the formic acid throughout the treatment rooms, a fan and pan system was set up in an air mixing chamber according to the methods of Underwood and Currie (2004). THANK YOU for digging deeper and challenging what was said in this video and in the articles. It is the only way we will learn, grow, and dig for more answers. The more questions we ask and the more skeptical we are the farther along we get towards finding a solution ☺️♥️
The reason why they use very small concentrations in syrup for the bees to eat it to simulate what the bees might ingest while cleaning comb/brood cells, cleaning mold spores off the surface of the comb, propolizing the hive interior and in auto and social grooming behaviors. Not to mention... while you might take the supers off... the bee bread, being fed to the brood is still in the brood chamber. And how safe can it be if you have to take supers off? Even the ones they say can't permeate wax cappings? Why would you have to remove fully capped frames? And if it's perfectly safe for the bees? Why would miniscule insignificant PPM traces NOT be safe for humans, which are like orders of magnitude greater in aize and mass than a tiny bee? Things that make you go. "Hmmm?" Insects tend to be much more hygenic than we give them credit for. In a wacky but quite humorous study, scientists found that EVERY cockroach neurotically cleans themselves for about 15 minutes after touching a human. But not every human that touched a cockroach immediately washed their hands. In fact, a number of them went to lunch at the cafeteria and didn't think anything of it while eating their sandwich. By the end of the week long study, the number of humans that were grossed out, immediately washed their hands, etc went down, the amount of human participants that didn't wash their hands went up; and the number of neurotic cockroaches stayed about the same.lol I love it because everyone is like "ew gross a bug" and the bug is like "hey man, you kinda left some crumbs from your potato chips on the sofa. Don't worry, I cleaned it up and turned it into soil for you." Amitraz is a neuroconvulsant/neurostimulant. Similar to hemlock, cedar, wirmwood, rosemary, and a bunch if others. It messes with their brains. And this CCD has been related to alzheimers "it's as if tends of thousands of bees leave home and forget how to make it back"... nah. No way there could be any correlations, it's gotta be coincidence.
Don't forget that essential oils also kill hive and gut bacteria and can cause problems. Give the bees a sealed hive atmosphere in a well insulated hive. They'll get the organic compounds from the nectar sources, those more volatile organic compounds, that break free from the nectar during ripening, are circulate through the brood chamber while the bees circulate air via the entrance. The bees naturakky put the brood closest to the entrance to help regulate temoersture. So these compounds are going through the brood nest and helping the bees. But, we're talking nanograms per mL of nectar. Not or grams per mL or liter. Thymol is an alcohol molecule thst comes from Thyme plants and a handful of other mint family plants such as sage and Oregano. You've gor Rosemaranic acid from rosemary and a few other, that's why these new "orvanic" pesticides show rosemary oil and geranium (geraniol) on the labels. There's also many other compounds bees get from nectar sources. IIRC queen pheremone and nazonov oheremone contains citrol, norli, limonene, citronellol, linalool, geraniol and rosemaranic acid, among many other compounds. Coincidentally, many of these compounds act as pesticides or pest deterrents. Which is interesting how bees favor plants that include these compounds. Linalool is typically sourced from lavender. If you look at crops that bees love to forage, When you start looking at the plants that bees favor. Then look at the medicinal or pharmacological properties of those plants.... it seems to be kinda obvious that they've been at this longer than us, they know what's good for them. Here's a Ling for some of the highest honey producing crops that bees tend to love. Take note that they love mint family and "Canola" which is where we get Oxalic Acid from. carolinahoneybees.com/top-honey-plants/
Firstly I'm a wood worker and wood turner, and accidental beekeeper. My beehives haven't had mites or anything else so I don't treat them. The bees seem to tolerate pseudoscorpions. The pseudoscorpions are in every hive, as its quite damp where I live and they live in the wood piles.
@@parkinsonga3092yep. A hive is an almost closed ecosystem of hundreds, if not thousands of species. Kind of like my theory of the symbiotic relationship between bees and bats in the natural ecosystem of a forest. Bees are diurnal insects. Bats are nocturnal omnivores/insecticivores. Bats eat flying insects by the thousands (between 800 and 2,000 per night) and are also most active at the times that wax moths and hive beetles are. Hive beetles and wax moths fly ti where the bees are and are attracted by the scent of the hive. All mentioned species live in forests. But where are the bats these days? But they tell you not to have a solid bottom board, and have a screened one instead. But that layer of "ick" in the bottom of a hive is natural to the bees, and where many species, such as pseudoscorpions, like to hang out and munch on any tiny bugs they can get. This is why I'm gonna be making solid bottoms with at least 5" of space under the frames.
One option is to do nothing. Go the natural beekeeping route. Wild bees don't need chemicals. The strong survive and the weak die. A really good book I would recommend is Keeping Bees with a Smile. It is a great book on natural beekeeping with no chemicals.
Thanks for your research and explanation. Its a real challenge since not managing mites is not an option. Even if you are able to raise bees with genetics that make them non-susceptible to mites they are still at risk thru other bees from outside the colonies. Bees from other colonies will enter other colonies and with them they could bring mites. For me, its a matter of treating responsibly.
Thanks for your video, I am trying to figure out a better way to raise my bees , but its a hard task , beekeeping is not just as simple as most people would like you to think. We need all the research we can get our hands on, but I think one thing you said is key and that's breeding from a good genetic stock. I lost 10 out of 30 hives and plan on raising queens and drones from the best looking colony. Hope it works out we'll see, God Bless❤
During the brood break hit your bees with oxalic acid to kill the mites the bees. That way you have less mites when the queen starts to lay; split your bees but instead of making just one new hive make several new hives; you can also put tea tree oil, spearmint oil or peppermint, and winter green oil or peppermint oil, and lemongrass oil it will make the queen lay more but the mites don’t lay in the cells as good.
I use it but have not really checked it out. It just seems to have good results for me. Also do oa with johno vape during dec. And Jan. .I'm in Darlington S.C.
@@BucksBeesS.C. the point in using the oil is to get the mites to not jay as many eggs so that when you kill them during the time that there brood less you have less mites to kill.
Emily, keep up the good work! Be careful trying to go treatment free! I could be wrong but I think location has a lot to do with mites maybe because of other infestations in the foraging area!
From what I’ve heard I think location can play a role for sure. Especially in rather isolated areas. I’ve noticed that the mite pops were rather low in my previous location but there weren’t a lot of resources in the area so no honey bees colonies except for mine. My new location has huge wildflower fields so will most likely have a higher mite problem. We’ll see!
I agree with most of what you said. However I remember you proclaiming to be going treatment free this past year and then reversing course. BTW, reversing course was the smart decision. But you are suffering the consequences now because of the time you didn't treat combined with over aggressive splitting. I applaud you for the learning and the goal of getting to more resistant and hygienic bees. Doing that AND the explosive growth you are pursuing is going to be a challenge. I'd suggest you get some queens from Cory Stevens as a start. I'll finish by saying anyone who says they are treatment free and is not willing to pinch queens at the first sign of moderate mite loads or euthanize entire colonies with high mite loads is not genuinely concerned about bee health.
I kind of tend to agree with pinch queens or euthanizing ones that get completely over run and display clear susceptibility to a disease. But then again... how she's that potentially impact natural selection and adaptation in a negative way? If this generation and the next generation and the following generation has no exposure to a hardship; there won't be any adaptation to be able to overcome said hardship. So while I agree that queens and drones that are from susceptible genetics shouldn't be allowed to run rampant, which drone is going to hold the genetic mutation that allows the next generation to have better resistance, due to the plight of this generation. Let's take beefsteak tomatoes fo a second. They're highly susceptible to a couple different plant diseases, you basically have to treat constantly or keep them in a bubble. They're also inbred to keep the hybrid line pure. Or potatoes. Potatoes aren't even inbred, we just take a potato, sprout it and plant it, it's the same genetic line as the last and no significant mutations or adaptations take place. Where growing a potato from seed would would take a couple years. But would have a better chance of developing a genetic mutation to resist the blight that effected the mother plant. It's tricky when "doing what's best" for another organism. Because we have no way of absolutely knowing what's actually best for it. What's best for me, may not be entirely what's best for you.
Smoker at 50 seconds +. As the bee inspector for southern Utah for about ten years, I have never seen a colony die due to pesticides or any approved mite treatment. On inspection, EVERY dead-out has had extremely high might counts -- some greater than 30% infestation. Yup, Varroa mite kills consistently add up to 50% of managed colonies in my end of the state. Honey bees and their brood can do well with ApiVar, formic acid, oxalic acid, and thymol when the directions are followed. Yes, there sometimes can be measurable, but minor adverse effects. But, the losses when beekeepers don't adequately manage the mites is VERY measurable -- 100% death of 50% of colonies every year. It is impossible to breed mite-resistant bees when beekeepers allow the mites to take over. VSH, Russian, Purdue, etc. genetics help a bit. But those precious varroa-resistance genes are lost when your bees supersede the queen or she swarms. Her daughters mate with whatever genes are in the area -- almost never an improvement. There is absolutely no strain of European honey bee than can survive the Varroa mite without meaningful, scientific help from the beekeeper. There are plenty of "treatment-free" gurus on TH-cam. They want everyone to think they have all the answers. But, if you pay close attention, you find that they have 50% losses -- just like every other beekeeper who doesn't follow the science-- every year. They even claim that honey production isn't important to them. They have to. With sufficient brood-breaks and splits to have a measurable impact on mites, there is nothing left to produce a honey surplus. I don't feed sugar or pollen substitutes. I don't insulate hives, even at nearly 6000' in the Rockies. Instead, I keep mite levels below 2% ALL season long with a rotation of Apivar, thymol, and formic acid. I don't treat by the calendar. I treat only when a mite count hits 2%. My wintering success is consistently 90-100%. Science works.
excellent response. I agree with you 99.99% . 43 years with bees here . Pre varroa. ( those were the days) Over 30 years with over 1000 hives. ( between 1 and 5 k. )
@JamesLeesBees notice they never want to admit that there's no significant statistical difference between colony die out in treated and untreated colonies. I've seen the videos and the people trying to say "see, there IS a difference. But it all comes down to SIGNIFICANT different. A 50-60% survival rate isn't much different between a 45-47% survival rate. And they only "trust the science" until the science says something that conflicts with their indoctrination and cultists belief system. If the treatments are perfectly safe and effective? Why can't one treat with supers on unless it's this or this? Type in "sublethal effects if" insert whichever chemical. That's the stuff they choose to pretend doesn't exist. Meanwhile "they say honey doesn't matter to them, it can't with making splits every year"... things dying is not onky natural, but inevitable. Someday I will die, and hopefully I'll have had at least 3 or 4 children before then, and they will also have children. Splits and swarms aren't just a colonies way of dealing with a pest problem, but also the colonies means of reproduction. And it's always the ones obsessed with swarm prevention for maximum honey yields that have the most mites. Almost as though unnatural micromismanagement only begets more troubles. "I had this super organism that only lives a few years that I prevented from reproducing and turned their home into a gas chamber every couple months. And they all died. What happened" "The nazis were bad, they put people in gas chambers." "Schrödinger was bad. He put cats in a box and filled the boxes with poison gas to prove a crackpot theory" "if you don't 'treat' your bees. You're a horrible person" Chemical life support is no way to live. And only unravels natural selection to create an organism that CAN'T survive on it's own. Asia got hit with varroa, they still have varroa, and don't have to treat. Look at how they do it. They literally use boxes made of 2×10 with no frames, jack it up, put a couple on the bottom, cut a box off the top and walk away. How? They didn't treat; and as a result, the ones that survived, did so via natural selection and adaptation. Honey bees are estimated to be around 80 million years old. You think they haven't adapted to pest and diseases that we'll never know about; because said organisms we're left by the evolutionary wayside? "Climate change is killing the bees" lmao okay, if you want to believe that, being small minded must be your thing. How many ice ages, comets, pest, diseases, droughts, famines, mass extinction events, cataclysmic events, great floods, volcanos, tsunamis,literal dark ages from volcanic ash high in the atmosohere blotting out the sun? We'll never be able to know. The greatest threat to bees is not varroa or Afb. It's humans. Beekeepers, micromismanagement, unnatural conditions, monocrops, chemicals, habitat loss. I know a guy that started with 1 caught swarm. Only ever treated once, has kept 8 colonies for 8 years; in a good year he might lose 1. His worst year he lost 5 or 6, keeps tight records and his average survival over 8 years is just under 60%. If beekeepers had to legally count every combined colony, queen replacement, queenless or laying workersituation, abscont, feeding to prevent stsrvation, etc as a loss: we'd have more accurate statistics. Easy to boast "100% survival" while jumping through hoops so you dont have to admit a loss.
thanks heaps honey for the information about amitraz as my boss wants to treat them with such and then leave them till mid summer, soooo do you think I should push for a earlier oxilic acid strip treatment to stop the mites while the bees have weaker immunity and if so how long after we pull the apivar strips? leaning to straight away!
I appreciate your input and honesty. I don't keep bees (yet, starting this spring 2023) but I do think about the chemicals and more 'natural' products that are used to treat. I would like to be treatment free but worry I may be forced to treat due to provincial regulations here in Canada
Who could Possibly hate U?😔Yikes that sounds like a Very complicated situation its like one step forward two steps back🤔I wondered if u do decide to treat very frequently with a low does, do the mites themselves build up a resistance? U need to build a shrinking machine so u can shrink urslef, ride on a bees back and wage war on All the mites😁Blockbuster movie right there, "Emily vs. the Scourge of the Mites" I'd Definitely go see that!☺️🍿👏Those side effects lists reminded me of those infomercials u always see, take This pill and if it doesn't kill u with the side effects its gonna do wonders for your skin💀Brood Break really does seem like the Best out of all those to me👍Well Thank U for another Great video and Hope Ur keeping Warm and u take care of ur winged friends as Always and Good luck with the rest of #beewinter my Favorite Keeper😊See U in the next one👏🐝👏 #emilyisthebeesknees #beefitbeekeeping #beefithoney #beefitbeeyard #beekind #broodbreak #beewinter #amurderofcrows
Go on girl! Love your videos. The sad truth is that beekeepers themselves are causing the majority of the problems for the bees. They are poisoning the bees with all kinds of chemicals. Big fan of your channel. Can you please make a video about what keeps you in beekeeping? After so many problems, it is amazing that a young girl like you is still passionate about it. Good work though. Keep going.
Well your videos are great and look professional yet simple. And God knows I need simple lol. Thanks, I will give it a try. I did a recent video shortly after you did on the afb vax with some other points of view also if you get a chance. Thanks for your constant research, it really makes a difference for people.!
Glad it was helpful! This information was new to me too! Just trying to share what I’m learning with you all so we can all learn about bees in different ways together ♥️
Awesome info. Looking forward to learning more about Post Solstice queens. Just hate the idea of killing my queens. Is there a different way to do brood breaks? Thanks! Also if you wanted hygienic bees how would a person begin? I have colonies collected from swarms. Most likely Italian mixed
There is. They make queen cages specifically for keeping the queen confined ao she can't lay. I don't know ALL the particulars of it. From my minimal understanding, you find the queen, cage here, check back in 7 days to make sure they haven't made a queen cell to try and requeen, and then leave her in the cage for a total of around 30 days. Most people use it in conjunction with OA or something that only kills the mites on the bees, that way there's no capped cells. Not sure what the success it. Finding any information with anything relating to TF is difficult, because mites and treatments are all anybody ever talks about. Might as well call themselves mite exterminators rather than bee keepers.
Thank Em for your information. I need your help. I was noticing your hive data sheet where you are logging all your varroa info. Where did you get that? I have been looking all over on line and cannot find the simple sheet you use. I w outdoor like to keep better records this year so any help would much be appreciated😊 Anita in Wisconsin
Hello, I really like your videos, but after this one I thought, all is lost for the beekeepers in treating for mites. But I have recently researched other treatments and found one that has the least adverse effect on bees , powdered sugar. Have you considered the treatment of powdered sugar? Is there any data out there? I have tried it myself and thought it to be very invasive, and it also attracts ants. What are your thoughts? Thanks
I saw/read somthing about dusting with powdered sugar! Seems it stated that the cleaning of the sugar dislodged mites that then fell to the bottom of the hive and died!! What do you think???
This last year I decided to experiment with not treating my colonies. I saw one nucleus colony that had discarded twenty five dead mites into the entrance feeder I use one each colony year round. So far last season I had four colonies to collapse. The other thirteen seem to be doing well . I have hive alive fondant in each colony and I use Honey Bee healthy in all my sugar syrup feedings. I treated the colonies with fumadyl B last October. So far so good . My bees do exhibit a lot of hygienic behavior, cleaning each other at the entrance and on the comb . I have not seen one bee with deformed wing virus yet . The fellow I buy bees from never treats his colonies. This year I will take my chances and only treat a colony if I have to .
I also made four splits last year and used one colony as an egg donor colony. That egg donor colony has an excellent laying queen and built up fast . So I would place a frame with 100%beeswax foundation directly in the middle of where the queen is laying, this forces the bees to draw out fresh wax and once the queen has laid eggs into that drawn comb I would pull that frame with the eggs and place it into one of the queenless splits I made . Freshly drawn wax foundation is free of all pesticides and is detrimental in allowing the bees to raise a very healthy queen. This is also like a brood break in those healthy colonies since it slows down the queen from laying up the whole box with brood . I keep placing frames of wax foundation into those power house hives and giving the capped brood to the weaker colonies. This gradually spreads the best genetics into all my colonies. I also did this to a colony that had a sacbrood issue . I removed the frames of infected brood and gave that colony four frames of capped brood from those powerhouse colonies. The sacbrood went away. Brood manipulation may be key to help controlling varoa mites.
The tree of life. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If a wolf kills a deer to eat? Is that evil? If the deer kicks the wolf, takes off running, and lives to bear offspring, who will do the same, is that evil? Nature does what it does. Sure, a cat "torturing" a mouse, or an orca trying to upgrade a sealing to an astronaut may seem evil and malicious to us. But there could be things we don't understand about it. I think cats play with mice to ensure they're healthy and don't have lung worm. Or to fill the blood and meat with adrenalin. We don't know. People act like one isn't evil for not filling a hive full of poison gas. But then say that the nazis were evil. Nature does what it does. The strong survive. The weak die out. How are we creating stronger mites and weaker bees via treatments? In the beginning, we chose poorly. And the inevitable end will be a long progression if poor choices. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And the "good" intentions are born from the knowledge of good and evil. Without it, there would be no good, nor evil; just nature. Funny how that is.
@@bernardardis8796 Feelings have zip to do with facts. I could easily pick a half dozen items that are pretty shady at best. I honestly appreciate the enthusiasm behins thos but enthusiasm does little to curb inaccuracies or misleading statements.
@@wishicouldspel Everyone is entitled to their opinion honestly but if you dont have much nice to say then why even comment? Personally i am a treatment free beekeeper and all of the products discussed are only hurting the bees and helping the mites in my opinion. If noone had developed or used any of these mite treatments to make money the mites would have lost by now and we wouldnt have anything to discuss
@@bernardardis8796 Ever go to the doctor? Take medicine? Ever get a single vax shots? I'm sure 100% of.the treatment free crowd are 100% on board with living their philosophy out in their own lives to avoid any appearence of hypocracy. . all the time. Btw. OA is dirt cheap.
1. Do you known the difference between Hygeinic bees and bees that expreas a strong VSH/ SMR trait. It's not the same. 2. Is CCD caused by Noaema Cerana or the viruses vectored by varroa? FYI the big ccd crashs of 05 to 07 was the time cerana arrived. Also when cumophos quit working.. mites or stomach bugs? 3. I got $100 for you if you can PM me via what mode of action Oxalic kills varroa. 4. Going an alternative route than the current ones isnt as easy as you might think.
@wishicouldspel is there a study that actually tells us what the mode of action is on how Oxalic kills varroa? There is only one to my knowledge and that what ends with a "presumption" of it's mode. Most research agrees that they "don't know" the mode of action.
You know wild bees keep on living despite those factors. Maybe it's the human interference that's the problem. In nature there are more queen brakes, which means less mites. Higher off the ground harder for hive beetles. Better insulation than most hives. And more natural stores of honey. 5 ways bee keepers fail and 5 ways wild honey bees survive.
You make some good observations but colonies in the wild, on average, have a much shorter life span than managed colonies. Also, I cringe a little when some thanks me for saving the bees because I don't think I am saving anything but the bees I am giving a home to. Swarms in the wild have 20-30% survival rate. The real benefit beekeepers provide is increasing the numbers of pollinators which in turn increases the reproduction of flowers, trees, fruits, and vegetables. That helps local pollinators and all living things.
I've done lots of cut-outs for decades. (I give the bees and comb to 4-H beekeepers. When safe to do so, they help with the job.) Since Varroa hit the US, I have not done even one cutout of a feral colony with dark comb. That tells me they die in two years or less -- the average for hobbyist-managed colonies. There is an exception for feral colonies in remote areas. They survive much better than managed colonies. Dr. Thomas Seeley has done work on this. In the Arnot Forest, New York, feral colonies are naturally spaced at least a mile a part. That spacing substantially reduces mite and disease spread. Very, very few beekeepers have the luxury of no nearby colonies -- especially diseased and/or mite-infested colonies.
@@JamesLeesBeesI was going to say. There's an essay from 2013 by Raplh Büchler in which the majority of "established" (2nd year) colonies tended to like 7.6 years with the longest one tracked was 15 years. This was with the presence of varria as confirmed by samples of bees ejected from the colonies. They caught a swarm with a mated queen off one of these surviving colonies, put it in a standard hive, fed it, split, fed some more to build up numbers, took the colonies out to an island for the Bond Test and they all died. Including the colony with the original mated queen. What does that tell you? What changed? The genetics didn't. The smoking and disturbing them frequently was a shock/stressor, the lack of insukatiin was a stressor, the hive configuration given the volume was a new twist and likely a stressor (a angle deep has a 40L volume. But it's horizontal), the syrup feeding was different. A constantly disturbed hive atmosphere was different. The top ventilation rather than having a single entrance was different. And there hives out on Unije Island, all of which had varroa when placed, no treatments, most haven't even been opened since the experiment began, Unije Island, Croatia was selected because it was too far for any bees to make it on or off (thus ruling out the "there are no feral colonies. They're all dying out every year and being restocked with swarms from from treated colonies" narrative)... year. Should be around 13 years now. And those hives weren't even insulated or set up to be ideal replication if a tree hollow. I can almost guarantee you that the bees have sealed up that inner cover though.
Varroa mites can spread Kakugo virus which is simular to deformed wing virus but it doesn't effect their wings but brains,Kakugo Virus from Brains of Aggressive Worker Honeybees
you have a lot of colonies in a small area...that is not seen in the natural world as far as i gather...since when do bee colonies herd together in such a compressed area...i stand to be corrected but i've never seen it on a video of bees in the wild....what i'm saying is once you start down that road no one knows where it will end up...but nobody is recommending not having bee yards.
Maybe Try using Peppermint Oil in a Couple of hives applying it on top of the Brood frames below the Queen excluder once a week, STARTING the day you add the Queen excluder & First Honey Box in the Spring. Also have a screen bottom with a catching base board covered with vegetable oil to drown any fallen mites that have descended or been pushed down by the Bees. Mites hate Peppermint Oil & Menth crystals it does not kill them but chases them away down. It is also the treatment for KillingTracheal Mites which very harmful to bees anyway, possibly as harmful as Varroa mites. Count fallen Mites, clean and re-oil the base board every 3 or 4 days to see the results mite decline by this method. Other oils that clear out mites are Tea Tree oil, Thyme Oil and Tiger Balm wax; How much and how often is still to be determined. Do not use in the Honey Boxes or during the main Harvest as they will taint the Honey. I have had some good results with these methods so would appreciate your feedback.
Where is your information coming from. Your info on oxalic acid is the opposite of all formal research by multiple universities and labs all around the world
Google "aubletha effects of oxalic acid" there's like 5 different studies. And while vapor may not be a dribble, the bees are constantly ingesting is while cleaning themselves, hive mates, comb, cells, transporting bee bread and feeding it to brood, etc. That's why they use measured micro doses in syrup. And even if they aren't directly eating it... how does it effect the respiratory systems? If you sniff a jug of vinegar, do you cough? Vinegar is a concentrated organic acid. What about sniffing a jug of rancid milk that's separated into curds and whey (lactic acid)? You see it all the time "I treated my bees and no my hive is empty" and of course the answer is always "mite/Parasitic mite syndrome. The treatment was just too little too late" lmao okay, an obvious abscond, but okay.
She sounded like she had her facts from proper research , I'm just guessing the research was done by a qualified person, I always like to hear from all beekeepers and take a little from all and gonna start applying it to my bees and try to prevent losses.
@billc3405, ANYBODY is qualified to talk on this. She is just sharing her knowledge and journey. I don't agree with all of it, but that doesn't make her non-qualified.
Go on girl! Love your videos. The sad truth is that beekeepers themselves are causing the majority of the problems for the bees. They are poisoning the bees with all kinds of chemicals. Big fan of your channel. Can you please make a video about what keeps you in beekeeping? After so many problems, it is amazing that a young girl like you is still passionate about it. Good work though. Keep going.
You're not getting any hate from me, I like your passion to study bees, doing your own research. Very smart beekeeper you are.
When I first started beekeeping I read a bunch of stuff about how bad treating mites was and that it was actually causing hive collapse so I didn't do it. I lost every hive the first 3 years and when I would pick through the frames in the spring the hive would be absolutely infested with mites. The first year I treated for mites I hired someone to fumigate with oxalic acid and 3/4 hives made it through the winter. I went from 0/4 hives to 3/4 with no other changes to beekeeping technique other than treating for mites. I know this is anecdotal but I am going to keep treating for mites.
I’m glad you found a way to keep your bees. That is the #1 priority. I’m not saying not to treat for mites as with where our genetics currently stand it’s a necessity. But what I am saying is we still need to keep pushing forward in finding new ways to control for varroa. OA is my go to as it seems to effect the bees health the least vs other treatments
@@beefitbeekeeping I respect that you actually presented data and peer reviewed articles. Not many people go to that length to learn or inform people. It is important to know what and why for every bee keeping treatment/method so you can make the most educated choice for your bees. I think a lot of the information out there is coming from commercial beekeeping which isn't necessarily bad but it is just not always applicable to hobbyists/small apiaries. For example if you have 1000 hives then you have much more room for error because statistically even if you mess up, enough hives should survive to regrow your apiary. But if you only have a few hives 100% loss is much more likely if you make an error. I also learned to pay more attention to where a beekeeper educator is located because bee management changes a ton based on location. What works in Michigan might not work in Oregon for example(where I am). Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
Every keeper should develop a full understanding of the products they use in their plans.
Hey happy to hear from ya!! I agree with you ☺️♥️ hope you’re doing well
Emily, read the article "Amitraz and its metabolite modulate honey bee cardiac function and tolerance to viral infection" more closely. Note that they applied amitraz orally in sugar syrup. That confounded their results which therefore could have little correlation to the approved contact use of Apivar. Amitraz in syrup is hardly an approved method of application. Apivar (amitraz) is intended to be used as a contact acaricide only -- not a poison to be taken internally.
The article entitled "Effect of Concentration and Exposure Time on Treatment Efficacy Against Varroa Mites (Acari: Varroidae) During Indoor Winter Fumigation of Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) with Formic Acid" also describes an off-label (not approved) use of an approved product. Many of the products listed in this study (eg, Taktic) were used in the early years of Varroa infestation in the US because we had nothing else but such unapproved products. Again, the researchers applied the products in manners (eg, orally) which beekeepers never have used. Now, thanks to patience and science, we have products which work very well when used as directed.
The same must be said of the other studies you cited -- unapproved products and unapproved methods of application. Failure to follow the label is fraught with problems -- especially, as with these studies, the failure to follow the label is willful.
Failures of unapproved products/methods of application should never be used to condemn approved products/methods.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -- attributed to Mark Twain and Benjamin Disraeli.
I’m sorry Blaine you must have misread. Please go back and read the section about the results from the acaracide (amitraz) strip survival experiment. Here is what it found..
3.4 Acaricide strip survival experiment
Exposure to amitraz-impregnated plastic strips decreased the survival of bees challenged with virus and vehicle injections alike, relative to the respective control groups (Figure 4). Infected bees exposed to amitraz experienced 85% mortality just 1 d after infection, compared to only 10% for the infected control group. Bees injected with vehicle and exposed to amitraz experienced 32% mortality after just 1 d, compared to only 1% mortality for the uninfected control group. Infected bees exposed to amitraz
experienced 100% mortality by 3 d after injection, whereas the curve leveled off for bees injected with vehicle and exposed to amitraz starting at 2 d after injection and their survival remained consistent at approximately 40% mortality for the remainder of the study.
As for the article about Formic…they also stated that the did another trial with fumigation which is in fact how we apply Formic today via pads that release gasses into the hive to fumigate the hive….
Fumigation. Fumigation tests were conducted in four 3.0 by 1.7 by 2.5-m treatment rooms in the win- tering building at the University of Manitoba (Win- nipeg, Manitoba, Canada) (N 49 48 32, W 97 07 37). Each room simulated the airßow conditions of a standard commercial wintering building with a fan jet air distribution system (Gruszka 1998), but ßow was modiÞed to allow formic acid fumigation (see Under- wood and Currie 2004 for details and schematic dia- grams). To distribute the formic acid throughout the treatment rooms, a fan and pan system was set up in an air mixing chamber according to the methods of Underwood and Currie (2004).
THANK YOU for digging deeper and challenging what was said in this video and in the articles. It is the only way we will learn, grow, and dig for more answers. The more questions we ask and the more skeptical we are the farther along we get towards finding a solution ☺️♥️
The reason why they use very small concentrations in syrup for the bees to eat it to simulate what the bees might ingest while cleaning comb/brood cells, cleaning mold spores off the surface of the comb, propolizing the hive interior and in auto and social grooming behaviors. Not to mention... while you might take the supers off... the bee bread, being fed to the brood is still in the brood chamber.
And how safe can it be if you have to take supers off? Even the ones they say can't permeate wax cappings? Why would you have to remove fully capped frames? And if it's perfectly safe for the bees? Why would miniscule insignificant PPM traces NOT be safe for humans, which are like orders of magnitude greater in aize and mass than a tiny bee?
Things that make you go. "Hmmm?"
Insects tend to be much more hygenic than we give them credit for. In a wacky but quite humorous study, scientists found that EVERY cockroach neurotically cleans themselves for about 15 minutes after touching a human. But not every human that touched a cockroach immediately washed their hands. In fact, a number of them went to lunch at the cafeteria and didn't think anything of it while eating their sandwich. By the end of the week long study, the number of humans that were grossed out, immediately washed their hands, etc went down, the amount of human participants that didn't wash their hands went up; and the number of neurotic cockroaches stayed about the same.lol
I love it because everyone is like "ew gross a bug" and the bug is like "hey man, you kinda left some crumbs from your potato chips on the sofa. Don't worry, I cleaned it up and turned it into soil for you."
Amitraz is a neuroconvulsant/neurostimulant. Similar to hemlock, cedar, wirmwood, rosemary, and a bunch if others. It messes with their brains. And this CCD has been related to alzheimers "it's as if tends of thousands of bees leave home and forget how to make it back"... nah. No way there could be any correlations, it's gotta be coincidence.
Disagree does not equal hate.
No it does not, but it is a touchy subject 🤷🏼♀️
Good presentation and important information!
I’ve done essential oils and have seen a good result out of that . Seems to make them healthier.
Tea tree and wintergreen on my mixture of sugar water. Mixture
Don't forget that essential oils also kill hive and gut bacteria and can cause problems.
Give the bees a sealed hive atmosphere in a well insulated hive. They'll get the organic compounds from the nectar sources, those more volatile organic compounds, that break free from the nectar during ripening, are circulate through the brood chamber while the bees circulate air via the entrance. The bees naturakky put the brood closest to the entrance to help regulate temoersture. So these compounds are going through the brood nest and helping the bees. But, we're talking nanograms per mL of nectar. Not or grams per mL or liter.
Thymol is an alcohol molecule thst comes from Thyme plants and a handful of other mint family plants such as sage and Oregano. You've gor Rosemaranic acid from rosemary and a few other, that's why these new "orvanic" pesticides show rosemary oil and geranium (geraniol) on the labels. There's also many other compounds bees get from nectar sources. IIRC queen pheremone and nazonov oheremone contains citrol, norli, limonene, citronellol, linalool, geraniol and rosemaranic acid, among many other compounds. Coincidentally, many of these compounds act as pesticides or pest deterrents. Which is interesting how bees favor plants that include these compounds. Linalool is typically sourced from lavender. If you look at crops that bees love to forage,
When you start looking at the plants that bees favor. Then look at the medicinal or pharmacological properties of those plants.... it seems to be kinda obvious that they've been at this longer than us, they know what's good for them.
Here's a Ling for some of the highest honey producing crops that bees tend to love.
Take note that they love mint family and "Canola" which is where we get Oxalic Acid from.
carolinahoneybees.com/top-honey-plants/
Firstly I'm a wood worker and wood turner, and accidental beekeeper.
My beehives haven't had mites or anything else so I don't treat them. The bees seem to tolerate pseudoscorpions. The pseudoscorpions are in every hive, as its quite damp where I live and they live in the wood piles.
That is interesting! I wonder if they bring something of value to the hive. Maybe they kill off pests?
Apparently they like eating mites, small beetles and ants.
@@parkinsonga3092yep. A hive is an almost closed ecosystem of hundreds, if not thousands of species.
Kind of like my theory of the symbiotic relationship between bees and bats in the natural ecosystem of a forest. Bees are diurnal insects. Bats are nocturnal omnivores/insecticivores. Bats eat flying insects by the thousands (between 800 and 2,000 per night) and are also most active at the times that wax moths and hive beetles are. Hive beetles and wax moths fly ti where the bees are and are attracted by the scent of the hive. All mentioned species live in forests.
But where are the bats these days?
But they tell you not to have a solid bottom board, and have a screened one instead. But that layer of "ick" in the bottom of a hive is natural to the bees, and where many species, such as pseudoscorpions, like to hang out and munch on any tiny bugs they can get.
This is why I'm gonna be making solid bottoms with at least 5" of space under the frames.
So would you remove the queen in July for the brood break and then request in 2 weeks?
One option is to do nothing. Go the natural beekeeping route. Wild bees don't need chemicals. The strong survive and the weak die. A really good book I would recommend is Keeping Bees with a Smile. It is a great book on natural beekeeping with no chemicals.
Thanks for your research and explanation. Its a real challenge since not managing mites is not an option. Even if you are able to raise bees with genetics that make them non-susceptible to mites they are still at risk thru other bees from outside the colonies. Bees from other colonies will enter other colonies and with them they could bring mites. For me, its a matter of treating responsibly.
I agree with you! Hopefully we see a day where the bees can still manage varroa even if brought into the colony in mass numbers 🤞🏼
Thanks for your video, I am trying to figure out a better way to raise my bees , but its a hard task , beekeeping is not just as simple as most people would like you to think. We need all the research we can get our hands on, but I think one thing you said is key and that's breeding from a good genetic stock. I lost 10 out of 30 hives and plan on raising queens and drones from the best looking colony. Hope it works out we'll see, God Bless❤
During the brood break hit your bees with oxalic acid to kill the mites the bees. That way you have less mites when the queen starts to lay; split your bees but instead of making just one new hive make several new hives; you can also put tea tree oil, spearmint oil or peppermint, and winter green oil or peppermint oil, and lemongrass oil it will make the queen lay more but the mites don’t lay in the cells as good.
I've heard that winter green is good for mites and tea tree good for gut
I use it but have not really checked it out. It just seems to have good results for me. Also do oa with johno vape during dec. And Jan. .I'm in Darlington S.C.
I also use peperment candy for the hive beetles which are a problem in the south
@@BucksBeesS.C. the point in using the oil is to get the mites to not jay as many eggs so that when you kill them during the time that there brood less you have less mites to kill.
Emily, keep up the good work! Be careful trying to go treatment free! I could be wrong but I think location has a lot to do with mites maybe because of other infestations in the foraging area!
From what I’ve heard I think location can play a role for sure. Especially in rather isolated areas. I’ve noticed that the mite pops were rather low in my previous location but there weren’t a lot of resources in the area so no honey bees colonies except for mine. My new location has huge wildflower fields so will most likely have a higher mite problem. We’ll see!
I agree with most of what you said. However I remember you proclaiming to be going treatment free this past year and then reversing course. BTW, reversing course was the smart decision. But you are suffering the consequences now because of the time you didn't treat combined with over aggressive splitting. I applaud you for the learning and the goal of getting to more resistant and hygienic bees. Doing that AND the explosive growth you are pursuing is going to be a challenge. I'd suggest you get some queens from Cory Stevens as a start. I'll finish by saying anyone who says they are treatment free and is not willing to pinch queens at the first sign of moderate mite loads or euthanize entire colonies with high mite loads is not genuinely concerned about bee health.
I kind of tend to agree with pinch queens or euthanizing ones that get completely over run and display clear susceptibility to a disease.
But then again... how she's that potentially impact natural selection and adaptation in a negative way?
If this generation and the next generation and the following generation has no exposure to a hardship; there won't be any adaptation to be able to overcome said hardship. So while I agree that queens and drones that are from susceptible genetics shouldn't be allowed to run rampant, which drone is going to hold the genetic mutation that allows the next generation to have better resistance, due to the plight of this generation.
Let's take beefsteak tomatoes fo a second. They're highly susceptible to a couple different plant diseases, you basically have to treat constantly or keep them in a bubble. They're also inbred to keep the hybrid line pure.
Or potatoes. Potatoes aren't even inbred, we just take a potato, sprout it and plant it, it's the same genetic line as the last and no significant mutations or adaptations take place. Where growing a potato from seed would would take a couple years. But would have a better chance of developing a genetic mutation to resist the blight that effected the mother plant.
It's tricky when "doing what's best" for another organism. Because we have no way of absolutely knowing what's actually best for it. What's best for me, may not be entirely what's best for you.
Smoker at 50 seconds +.
As the bee inspector for southern Utah for about ten years, I have never seen a colony die due to pesticides or any approved mite treatment. On inspection, EVERY dead-out has had extremely high might counts -- some greater than 30% infestation. Yup, Varroa mite kills consistently add up to 50% of managed colonies in my end of the state.
Honey bees and their brood can do well with ApiVar, formic acid, oxalic acid, and thymol when the directions are followed. Yes, there sometimes can be measurable, but minor adverse effects. But, the losses when beekeepers don't adequately manage the mites is VERY measurable -- 100% death of 50% of colonies every year.
It is impossible to breed mite-resistant bees when beekeepers allow the mites to take over. VSH, Russian, Purdue, etc. genetics help a bit. But those precious varroa-resistance genes are lost when your bees supersede the queen or she swarms. Her daughters mate with whatever genes are in the area -- almost never an improvement. There is absolutely no strain of European honey bee than can survive the Varroa mite without meaningful, scientific help from the beekeeper.
There are plenty of "treatment-free" gurus on TH-cam. They want everyone to think they have all the answers. But, if you pay close attention, you find that they have 50% losses -- just like every other beekeeper who doesn't follow the science-- every year. They even claim that honey production isn't important to them. They have to. With sufficient brood-breaks and splits to have a measurable impact on mites, there is nothing left to produce a honey surplus.
I don't feed sugar or pollen substitutes. I don't insulate hives, even at nearly 6000' in the Rockies. Instead, I keep mite levels below 2% ALL season long with a rotation of Apivar, thymol, and formic acid. I don't treat by the calendar. I treat only when a mite count hits 2%. My wintering success is consistently 90-100%. Science works.
excellent response. I agree with you 99.99% . 43 years with bees here . Pre varroa. ( those were the days) Over 30 years with over 1000 hives. ( between 1 and 5 k. )
@blaine nay What are the national averages for honeybee colony losses?
@@wishicouldspel I'm a rookie at 10 colonies (peaked out at 40 colonies when in college in the early '70s). Got started as a 4-H project in '62.
@JamesLeesBees notice they never want to admit that there's no significant statistical difference between colony die out in treated and untreated colonies. I've seen the videos and the people trying to say "see, there IS a difference. But it all comes down to SIGNIFICANT different. A 50-60% survival rate isn't much different between a 45-47% survival rate.
And they only "trust the science" until the science says something that conflicts with their indoctrination and cultists belief system.
If the treatments are perfectly safe and effective? Why can't one treat with supers on unless it's this or this?
Type in "sublethal effects if" insert whichever chemical. That's the stuff they choose to pretend doesn't exist.
Meanwhile "they say honey doesn't matter to them, it can't with making splits every year"... things dying is not onky natural, but inevitable. Someday I will die, and hopefully I'll have had at least 3 or 4 children before then, and they will also have children. Splits and swarms aren't just a colonies way of dealing with a pest problem, but also the colonies means of reproduction. And it's always the ones obsessed with swarm prevention for maximum honey yields that have the most mites. Almost as though unnatural micromismanagement only begets more troubles. "I had this super organism that only lives a few years that I prevented from reproducing and turned their home into a gas chamber every couple months. And they all died. What happened"
"The nazis were bad, they put people in gas chambers." "Schrödinger was bad. He put cats in a box and filled the boxes with poison gas to prove a crackpot theory" "if you don't 'treat' your bees. You're a horrible person"
Chemical life support is no way to live. And only unravels natural selection to create an organism that CAN'T survive on it's own.
Asia got hit with varroa, they still have varroa, and don't have to treat. Look at how they do it. They literally use boxes made of 2×10 with no frames, jack it up, put a couple on the bottom, cut a box off the top and walk away.
How? They didn't treat; and as a result, the ones that survived, did so via natural selection and adaptation.
Honey bees are estimated to be around 80 million years old. You think they haven't adapted to pest and diseases that we'll never know about; because said organisms we're left by the evolutionary wayside? "Climate change is killing the bees" lmao okay, if you want to believe that, being small minded must be your thing. How many ice ages, comets, pest, diseases, droughts, famines, mass extinction events, cataclysmic events, great floods, volcanos, tsunamis,literal dark ages from volcanic ash high in the atmosohere blotting out the sun?
We'll never be able to know.
The greatest threat to bees is not varroa or Afb. It's humans. Beekeepers, micromismanagement, unnatural conditions, monocrops, chemicals, habitat loss.
I know a guy that started with 1 caught swarm. Only ever treated once, has kept 8 colonies for 8 years; in a good year he might lose 1. His worst year he lost 5 or 6, keeps tight records and his average survival over 8 years is just under 60%.
If beekeepers had to legally count every combined colony, queen replacement, queenless or laying workersituation, abscont, feeding to prevent stsrvation, etc as a loss: we'd have more accurate statistics. Easy to boast "100% survival" while jumping through hoops so you dont have to admit a loss.
thanks heaps honey for the information about amitraz as my boss wants to treat them with such and then leave them till mid summer, soooo do you think I should push for a earlier oxilic acid strip treatment to stop the mites while the bees have weaker immunity and if so how long after we pull the apivar strips? leaning to straight away!
Thank you for breaking this down scientifically 🤗
I appreciate your input and honesty. I don't keep bees (yet, starting this spring 2023) but I do think about the chemicals and more 'natural' products that are used to treat. I would like to be treatment free but worry I may be forced to treat due to provincial regulations here in Canada
check out using heat treatment for verroa control
Who could Possibly hate U?😔Yikes that sounds like a Very complicated situation its like one step forward two steps back🤔I wondered if u do decide to treat very frequently with a low does, do the mites themselves build up a resistance? U need to build a shrinking machine so u can shrink urslef, ride on a bees back and wage war on All the mites😁Blockbuster movie right there, "Emily vs. the Scourge of the Mites" I'd Definitely go see that!☺️🍿👏Those side effects lists reminded me of those infomercials u always see, take This pill and if it doesn't kill u with the side effects its gonna do wonders for your skin💀Brood Break really does seem like the Best out of all those to me👍Well Thank U for another Great video and Hope Ur keeping Warm and u take care of ur winged friends as Always and Good luck with the rest of #beewinter my Favorite Keeper😊See U in the next one👏🐝👏 #emilyisthebeesknees #beefitbeekeeping #beefithoney #beefitbeeyard #beekind #broodbreak #beewinter #amurderofcrows
Thanks for this, as well as the links to the research. So much to learn in beekeeping.
Glad it was helpful! ☺️♥️
Go on girl! Love your videos. The sad truth is that beekeepers themselves are causing the majority of the problems for the bees. They are poisoning the bees with all kinds of chemicals. Big fan of your channel. Can you please make a video about what keeps you in beekeeping? After so many problems, it is amazing that a young girl like you is still passionate about it. Good work though. Keep going.
Such great information. I’d love to hear your analysis on Hoppguard 3.
Hiya,,what are you using for your video software..
Just regular ole adobe premier pro! And all video shot with my iPhone! Hoping to upgrade my camera equipment soon
Well your videos are great and look professional yet simple. And God knows I need simple lol. Thanks, I will give it a try. I did a recent video shortly after you did on the afb vax with some other points of view also if you get a chance. Thanks for your constant research, it really makes a difference for people.!
Thanks for all the hard work you put in on this video.Much of this information was new to me.
Glad it was helpful! This information was new to me too! Just trying to share what I’m learning with you all so we can all learn about bees in different ways together ♥️
Awesome info. Looking forward to learning more about Post Solstice queens. Just hate the idea of killing my queens. Is there a different way to do brood breaks? Thanks! Also if you wanted hygienic bees how would a person begin? I have colonies collected from swarms. Most likely Italian mixed
There is. They make queen cages specifically for keeping the queen confined ao she can't lay. I don't know ALL the particulars of it. From my minimal understanding, you find the queen, cage here, check back in 7 days to make sure they haven't made a queen cell to try and requeen, and then leave her in the cage for a total of around 30 days. Most people use it in conjunction with OA or something that only kills the mites on the bees, that way there's no capped cells. Not sure what the success it. Finding any information with anything relating to TF is difficult, because mites and treatments are all anybody ever talks about. Might as well call themselves mite exterminators rather than bee keepers.
Thank Em for your information. I need your help. I was noticing your hive data sheet where you are logging all your varroa info. Where did you get that? I have been looking all over on line and cannot find the simple sheet you use. I w outdoor like to keep better records this year so any help would much be appreciated😊 Anita in Wisconsin
My advise for a near zero mite problem is treat for them way before you split . You multiply your problems if you don’t treat first .
Hello, I really like your videos, but after this one I thought, all is lost for the beekeepers in treating for mites. But I have recently researched other treatments and found one that has the least adverse effect on bees , powdered sugar. Have you considered the treatment of powdered sugar? Is there any data out there? I have tried it myself and thought it to be very invasive, and it also attracts ants. What are your thoughts? Thanks
I saw/read somthing about dusting with powdered sugar! Seems it stated that the cleaning of the sugar dislodged mites that then fell to the bottom of the hive and died!! What do you think???
This last year I decided to experiment with not treating my colonies. I saw one nucleus colony that had discarded twenty five dead mites into the entrance feeder I use one each colony year round. So far last season I had four colonies to collapse. The other thirteen seem to be doing well . I have hive alive fondant in each colony and I use Honey Bee healthy in all my sugar syrup feedings. I treated the colonies with fumadyl B last October. So far so good . My bees do exhibit a lot of hygienic behavior, cleaning each other at the entrance and on the comb . I have not seen one bee with deformed wing virus yet . The fellow I buy bees from never treats his colonies. This year I will take my chances and only treat a colony if I have to .
I also made four splits last year and used one colony as an egg donor colony. That egg donor colony has an excellent laying queen and built up fast . So I would place a frame with 100%beeswax foundation directly in the middle of where the queen is laying, this forces the bees to draw out fresh wax and once the queen has laid eggs into that drawn comb I would pull that frame with the eggs and place it into one of the queenless splits I made . Freshly drawn wax foundation is free of all pesticides and is detrimental in allowing the bees to raise a very healthy queen. This is also like a brood break in those healthy colonies since it slows down the queen from laying up the whole box with brood . I keep placing frames of wax foundation into those power house hives and giving the capped brood to the weaker colonies. This gradually spreads the best genetics into all my colonies. I also did this to a colony that had a sacbrood issue . I removed the frames of infected brood and gave that colony four frames of capped brood from those powerhouse colonies. The sacbrood went away. Brood manipulation may be key to help controlling varoa mites.
I’m a new bee keeper and I just checked my 2 hives 1 dead one alive 😕got so much to learn
Thanks! very informative..
Thank YOU ☺️♥️
very good observation working with bees is constant choosing between two evils...
The tree of life. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
If a wolf kills a deer to eat? Is that evil? If the deer kicks the wolf, takes off running, and lives to bear offspring, who will do the same, is that evil?
Nature does what it does. Sure, a cat "torturing" a mouse, or an orca trying to upgrade a sealing to an astronaut may seem evil and malicious to us. But there could be things we don't understand about it. I think cats play with mice to ensure they're healthy and don't have lung worm. Or to fill the blood and meat with adrenalin. We don't know.
People act like one isn't evil for not filling a hive full of poison gas. But then say that the nazis were evil. Nature does what it does. The strong survive. The weak die out. How are we creating stronger mites and weaker bees via treatments?
In the beginning, we chose poorly. And the inevitable end will be a long progression if poor choices. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And the "good" intentions are born from the knowledge of good and evil. Without it, there would be no good, nor evil; just nature. Funny how that is.
Smoker is to your right bottom of the tree.
I was just going to say that!
😘♥️😁 looks like I need to start getting more creative 😉
This was such an awesome video! Very good and accurate info!
um.......really?
@@wishicouldspel i feel it was pretty accurate info
@@bernardardis8796 Feelings have zip to do with facts. I could easily pick a half dozen items that are pretty shady at best. I honestly appreciate the enthusiasm behins thos but enthusiasm does little to curb inaccuracies or misleading statements.
@@wishicouldspel Everyone is entitled to their opinion honestly but if you dont have much nice to say then why even comment? Personally i am a treatment free beekeeper and all of the products discussed are only hurting the bees and helping the mites in my opinion. If noone had developed or used any of these mite treatments to make money the mites would have lost by now and we wouldnt have anything to discuss
@@bernardardis8796 Ever go to the doctor? Take medicine? Ever get a single vax shots?
I'm sure 100% of.the treatment free crowd are 100% on board with living their philosophy out in their own lives to avoid any appearence of hypocracy. . all the time.
Btw. OA is dirt cheap.
1. Do you known the difference between Hygeinic bees and bees that expreas a strong VSH/ SMR trait. It's not the same.
2. Is CCD caused by Noaema Cerana or the viruses vectored by varroa? FYI the big ccd crashs of 05 to 07 was the time cerana arrived. Also when cumophos quit working.. mites or stomach bugs?
3. I got $100 for you if you can PM me via what mode of action Oxalic kills varroa.
4. Going an alternative route than the current ones isnt as easy as you might think.
@wishicouldspel is there a study that actually tells us what the mode of action is on how Oxalic kills varroa? There is only one to my knowledge and that what ends with a "presumption" of it's mode. Most research agrees that they "don't know" the mode of action.
@@JamesLeesBees As far as I am familiar with that has yet to be discovered. At least its not been published.
So...then how could you pay anyone $100?
@@JamesLeesBees When they discover such and tell me.
@@wishicouldspel making zero sense ...
I saw the mini smoker at the base of the tree !
I see your little yellow smoker behind you beside the tree!😉
That's right! Woot woot ya found it! 🎉 gotta start making em a little harder now 😉
I wish I saw this video before buying apivar strips. I haven't used them, but now they feel useless.
You know wild bees keep on living despite those factors. Maybe it's the human interference that's the problem. In nature there are more queen brakes, which means less mites. Higher off the ground harder for hive beetles. Better insulation than most hives. And more natural stores of honey. 5 ways bee keepers fail and 5 ways wild honey bees survive.
You make some good observations but colonies in the wild, on average, have a much shorter life span than managed colonies. Also, I cringe a little when some thanks me for saving the bees because I don't think I am saving anything but the bees I am giving a home to. Swarms in the wild have 20-30% survival rate. The real benefit beekeepers provide is increasing the numbers of pollinators which in turn increases the reproduction of flowers, trees, fruits, and vegetables. That helps local pollinators and all living things.
@@rtxhoneybees study? Wheres this data from? Thats a bold claim?
I've done lots of cut-outs for decades. (I give the bees and comb to 4-H beekeepers. When safe to do so, they help with the job.) Since Varroa hit the US, I have not done even one cutout of a feral colony with dark comb. That tells me they die in two years or less -- the average for hobbyist-managed colonies.
There is an exception for feral colonies in remote areas. They survive much better than managed colonies. Dr. Thomas Seeley has done work on this. In the Arnot Forest, New York, feral colonies are naturally spaced at least a mile a part. That spacing substantially reduces mite and disease spread. Very, very few beekeepers have the luxury of no nearby colonies -- especially diseased and/or mite-infested colonies.
@@JamesLeesBeesI was going to say. There's an essay from 2013 by Raplh Büchler in which the majority of "established" (2nd year) colonies tended to like 7.6 years with the longest one tracked was 15 years. This was with the presence of varria as confirmed by samples of bees ejected from the colonies. They caught a swarm with a mated queen off one of these surviving colonies, put it in a standard hive, fed it, split, fed some more to build up numbers, took the colonies out to an island for the Bond Test and they all died. Including the colony with the original mated queen. What does that tell you? What changed? The genetics didn't. The smoking and disturbing them frequently was a shock/stressor, the lack of insukatiin was a stressor, the hive configuration given the volume was a new twist and likely a stressor (a angle deep has a 40L volume. But it's horizontal), the syrup feeding was different. A constantly disturbed hive atmosphere was different. The top ventilation rather than having a single entrance was different.
And there hives out on Unije Island, all of which had varroa when placed, no treatments, most haven't even been opened since the experiment began, Unije Island, Croatia was selected because it was too far for any bees to make it on or off (thus ruling out the "there are no feral colonies. They're all dying out every year and being restocked with swarms from from treated colonies" narrative)... year. Should be around 13 years now.
And those hives weren't even insulated or set up to be ideal replication if a tree hollow. I can almost guarantee you that the bees have sealed up that inner cover though.
Varroa mites can spread Kakugo virus which is simular to deformed wing virus but it doesn't effect their wings but brains,Kakugo Virus from Brains of Aggressive Worker Honeybees
Need to make a video on how you do this brood break in July now.
I like those crows 🤣
They were very aggressive 🤣🤣🤣
Great video girl 👍😁
Thank you!! 😁♥️
Well I found it this time at 58 seconds into the video on your right side by the little tree behind you😉😂
Woot woot! You found it! ☺️♥️😁
Your awesome I posted a couple picks of my girls on discord.I’m actually proud I have managed to get something right so far🥳
I believe that good job
you have a lot of colonies in a small area...that is not seen in the natural world as far as i gather...since when do bee colonies herd together in such a compressed area...i stand to be corrected but i've never seen it on a video of bees in the wild....what i'm saying is once you start down that road no one knows where it will end up...but nobody is recommending not having bee yards.
Maybe Try using Peppermint Oil in a Couple of hives applying it on top of the Brood frames below the Queen excluder once a week, STARTING the day you add the Queen excluder & First Honey Box in the Spring. Also have a screen bottom with a catching base board covered with vegetable oil to drown any fallen mites that have descended or been pushed down by the Bees. Mites hate Peppermint Oil & Menth crystals it does not kill them but chases them away down. It is also the treatment for KillingTracheal Mites which very harmful to bees anyway, possibly as harmful as Varroa mites. Count fallen Mites, clean and re-oil the base board every 3 or 4 days to see the results mite decline by this method. Other oils that clear out mites are Tea Tree oil, Thyme Oil and Tiger Balm wax; How much and how often is still to be determined. Do not use in the Honey Boxes or during the main Harvest as they will taint the Honey. I have had some good results with these methods so would appreciate your feedback.
Where is your information coming from. Your info on oxalic acid is the opposite of all formal research by multiple universities and labs all around the world
She only covered OA via drip, not sublimation.
Google "aubletha effects of oxalic acid" there's like 5 different studies.
And while vapor may not be a dribble, the bees are constantly ingesting is while cleaning themselves, hive mates, comb, cells, transporting bee bread and feeding it to brood, etc.
That's why they use measured micro doses in syrup.
And even if they aren't directly eating it... how does it effect the respiratory systems?
If you sniff a jug of vinegar, do you cough? Vinegar is a concentrated organic acid. What about sniffing a jug of rancid milk that's separated into curds and whey (lactic acid)?
You see it all the time "I treated my bees and no my hive is empty" and of course the answer is always "mite/Parasitic mite syndrome. The treatment was just too little too late" lmao okay, an obvious abscond, but okay.
NEXT TO THETREE
Yes yes yes ♥️☺️
You are not qualified to talk on this
She sounded like she had her facts from proper research , I'm just guessing the research was done by a qualified person, I always like to hear from all beekeepers and take a little from all and gonna start applying it to my bees and try to prevent losses.
@@KajunHomestead get someone with experience that has years of proven performance.
@billc3405, ANYBODY is qualified to talk on this. She is just sharing her knowledge and journey. I don't agree with all of it, but that doesn't make her non-qualified.
@@rtxhoneybees yes we have the 1st Amendment
Go on girl! Love your videos. The sad truth is that beekeepers themselves are causing the majority of the problems for the bees. They are poisoning the bees with all kinds of chemicals. Big fan of your channel. Can you please make a video about what keeps you in beekeeping? After so many problems, it is amazing that a young girl like you is still passionate about it. Good work though. Keep going.
Yes! Thank you for the video idea! I will!