Bees on Radio 4, today

[tonybloke]

P.M. program today is to have a report from the BBC Hive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qskw

 

[thorn]

It was about a beekeeper in this country who's supposedly bred a strain of varroa resistant bees. Could it be our dream or is there a price to be paid? Does anyone know anything about him and his bees?

 

[drstitson]

varroa resistance

the americans are breeding them aren't they but now we can't import from them.

 

[Firegazer]

They might be varroa adapted as a group of colonies in a contained area, but this will be hard to maintain (and probably impossible to make use of elsewhere in the country) until all bees, and importantly their drones, are kept in the same way.

If most beeks, and bee farmers, import new queens/genes from elsewhere regularly and treat their bees to keep them alive (as I'm doing at the moment with Apiguard) this small island off adapted stock will quickly get diluted and overcome by the stronger mites we are 'selecting for' with our treatments elsewhere . . .

Good first step though - now we just need legislation to make everyone do the same thing - likely? I doubt it.

Just my thoughts.

FG

 

[Tim1606]

Had this sent to me today. Somebody found this in a newspaper, so don't know if this is of any interest.

View attachment 2278

 

[The Riviera Kid]

the bit about bees is right at the end of the programme. I read about it online in the Daily Heil...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...s-breeds-indestructible-bee-protect-mite.html

 

[drstitson]

on ITV news this morning too.

nice work - he looked at 50k mites over 2 years and found bite marks on those from one (or a few) hive(s). Now busy breeding these groomers.
had prof reitniks from west sussex on too who confirmed that they too are selecting not for groomers per se but hygenic bees.

 

[BKF Admin]

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6732