From 7 colonies to zero colonies: poor spring

[Beefriendly]

Oh dear....

In nature varroa tolerancy is much based on swarming.


.

OH deary deary me Finman, read what I wrote; not what you think I wrote.
I'll rephrase it for you.
If every bee (the host for varroa) inside a hive is dead how long can the varroa live for after all their hosts are dead?
And can we, for the sake of argument, assume no robbing by other bees to rescue them whilst still alive.

 

[Beefriendly]

if you want to follow nature, find first out, how colonies live with varroa.

I quoted a research paper a few months back that explained exactly how A. cerana dealt with varroa.
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=41459
It is potentially game-changing for anyone involved in varroa resistant bees as it involved a new mechanism of larval apoptosis.
And didn't merit a single comment......

 

[fatshark]

It's one of the many ways cerana copes with Varroa, and not one that's going to appear anytime soon in Apis mellifera. It's a nice paper, but hardly a game changer surely?

 

[Cuttingedge]

Fleas would seem a poor analogy. More like covered in virus bearing blood sucking ticks and leaches.

I'm afraid the people who refuse to treat bring a great deal of grief upon themselves sadly.

PH

And neighboring beekeepers...

 

[sipa]

Have you watch The Bee Mans, Facebook post on his take on why so many colonies have been lost this winter. He's has the opinion that its down to a lack of pollen.

Sadly pollen gathering isn't something that features highly in many breeding programs.
Speaking personally our bees had stacks of pollen remaining before pollen gathering started again so are well set to rear brood early on.

 

[Beefriendly]

It's one of the many ways cerana copes with Varroa, and not one that's going to appear anytime soon in Apis mellifera. It's a nice paper, but hardly a game changer surely?

I thought it was a novel unexpected understanding into one of the major ways cerana copes with varroa, not one of the many...surely!

 

[Finman]

OH deary deary me Finman, read what I wrote; not what you think I wrote.

If every bee (the host for varroa) inside a hive is dead how long can the varroa live for after all their hosts are dead?
.

And what was the big idea in that sentence?

I heard that idea 1979. You are inventing wheels.

 

[Finman]

.
Apis cerana and A mellifera are very different animals.
No hope that mellifera learn something from cerana.

.have you heard about genetic manipulation between these two?

Better keep hurry that it helps next autumn.
.

 

[Beefriendly]

And what was the big idea in that sentence?

It was a question not an idea!
Not sure if anyone knows the correct answer; but feel free to obfuscate further.

 

[Finman]

It was a question not an idea!
Not sure if anyone knows the correct answer; but feel free to obfuscate further.

Time to change my medication.... How many living mites in a dead beehive... I go to count just now...

 

[Beefriendly]

... How many living mites in a dead beehive... I go to count just now...

First useful thing you will have done this century!

 

[maddydog]

It is potentially game-changing for anyone involved in varroa resistant bees as it involved a new mechanism of larval apoptosis.

With all this brood suicide what's gonna be the cost to honey production? Finski's got 1.5mths to get 100kg, if half of the brood has chucked itself off a cliff I don't fancy his chances

 

[Finman]

First useful thing you will have done this century!

British intelligence at its best. The Rive of Innovations!
.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The way I see it
If you are going to treat regardless then there is no point in counting mites
If you are not then it’s useful to estimate the infestation

 

[Finman]

And neighboring beekeepers...

In migrative beekeeping half continent.
.

 

[Curly green fingers]

I had built up from 2 colonies back in 2015 to 7 colonies in 2017. But my first proper check last week surprised me! Not one colony survived. They were busy coming and going most of the winter during warm weather. They were around after the beast from the east, but I think the beast from the east 2 and the wet weather did something to them! Perhaps the snow drifts slow melting around the hives raised the humidity or something! Plenty of food left in hives, not much brood, bees all dead! Last two years I had 100% winter survival!
Now I am a beekeeper with no bees! Sh////////t!

for your loss l can't imagine losing all those hives let alone all those girls.

 

[Finman]

for your loss l can't imagine losing all those hives let alone all those girls.

Wait for swarms

 

[Podilia]

a darwinistic approach

It's a new phrase for me to remember. Thanks. A few years ago I did the same thing. I lost 16 colonies out of 29 after the third winter. I decided that my life is too short to continue this experiment.

I know a man from the northern forest region (Polissia) who keeps bees in the log hives as it was in the X century. He has several dozens of log hives (bort') fixed on trees in a forest. He never treat the bees and I suppose, it is hardly possible in his old-fashioned technology. He says that winter loses is 30-50%. Usually swarms settle in the empty logs and replace winter loses. Some swarms live more then 5 years, some die. His work is to control logs after winter, repair them if necessary and searching for the new good trees. Usually he makes a few log hives in winter and transports them to the forest. In autumn he cuts off combs with honey, I really don't know how he does it, because those feral bees are very aggressive. It's a kind of the extreme sports and the old tradition. The yield is not big - 5 kg per hive, sometimes 10 kg or nothing at all. I think this is true treatment free beekeeping and natural selection as it is.

 

[Finman]

That is not beekeeping. It is museo keeping.
.
I need such hives, which can store at same time into hive 130 kg honey. After that hives are too high to nurse. Somebody else may keep his museo.

I could keep 4 box hives, but I do nothing with 40 kg average yield. That I got 50 years ago with swarms. I do not accept that I slide to starting point and a varroa bug pressed me on my knees.... Or was it Darwin?

.

 

[Finman]

.Our big professional visited on South America mountains. There bees are Africanized. Beekeepers do not treat mites. Our man wondered, how small were colonies. Bees had so much mites, that he wondered, why heck they do not treat them somehow.

Like Russian bees, their typical colony size is so small on Winter, that they cannot survive over Winter. And then small colony has very slow build up.