Recent content by Steve at Westerham Beeks

All of the traits to look for of bees managing their own varroa populations are covered on the website: www.varroaresistant.uk together with the scientific research papers and illustrative images. If you have used your own bees over the years, the hygienic traits should be observable.

Hi Elaine, There may well be an "environmental effect" of colonies nearby which have low mite defences and/or different mix of drone input in the queens. I can have 2 colonies next to each other with markedly different mite levels. The key is the bees' level of hygienic behaviour against the...

The evidence of long standing varroa resistant colonies in the UK and elsewhere shows that some honeybees have adapted their hygienic behaviours to cope with mites in the c30 years since they arrived. Only bees that are locally adapted to their environment, without too much disturbance from...

@polomadh Do you see any signs of your bees interrupting varroa reproduction? Eg; Uncapping brood at the pink-purple eyed stage or chewed-out infected pupae exoskeleton (white) on the insert board?

Research on honey bee colonies that are naturally resistant to varroa (ie: no beekeeper intervention) is more instructive to learn from IMHO. The traits of these bees against varroa are the same in different parts of the UK, Europe, sub saharan Africa and South & Central America. It’s hygienic...

Treated colonies also have these traits. It is an extension of hygienic behaviour already seen against other brood related issues eg; wax moth and chalkbrood. As beekeepers identify these traits, their bees will benefit from lower varroa. As is seen in long standing, free-living colonies.

The easiest resistance trait to spot is uncapping at the pink to purple eyed stage. One of these cells also has a pupae which has been chewed down. This is where the bees have detected an infested cell and the pupae is infected. The result is that the mother mite loses one of her 2-3...

We know the traits and mechanisms of how resistant bees manage their mite loads, as illustrated on the website. Which sub specie of Apis mellifera would appear irrelevant, as they all have the potential. Up to the beekeeper to identify the traits. Many of the beekeeper case studies (in the...

The traits to look for are illustrated at www.varroaresistant.uk Together with the research papers, curated by Prof Stephen Martin. Many of the illustrated case studies of varroa resistant colonies in the uk are based from catching swarms from unmanaged colonies where adaption to mites has...

Yes that’s one way. We used mossing pins, then added a frame of stores and built out from there. The bees add comb to the mini nuc frames and they can be overwintered in place. Useful towards the end of the queen rearing season when the mini nuc and bees arent going to be used again...

Well played Chris. Sounds like you have access to varroa resistant genetics in those tree bees. That has been a good starting point for other TF beekeepers in the UK. Best of luck for the season ahead. Steve

Hi Chris Congratulations on your success. Where did you source your starter colonies - are there unmanaged / wild bees in the area? And how did you increase up to 28? Steve

Sorry Chris. You are most welcome. Please try and ignore the toxic commentator. Come on Mods, sort that out!

Resistance has taken longer in the UK and Europe as beekeepers have treated, understandably, and not selected for Varroa resistant traits, which is education and training

The resistant traits are the same in the other subspecies; Amm, Aml etc.... After 30+ years of Varroa in the UK, we see the same resistance traits here.