Honey vs syrup & over wintering

[ericbeaumont]

read in on the Renson system and improved Renson

Not much info. online, BB. Would you post links, please?

 

[Dods bisyssla]

An endless discusion i guess,put them on Renson and the urge to swarm disappears after good 9 days,one more q-bubble check up on the lower level and done for the season,we never found out any negative aspect on it,has nothing to do with domesticating or not,it's a system and one that works and time after time has proven it works,but it's clear to me you don't know it and have never used it or decently read in on it,way more production,never too big "flocks",nice handeble bees,zero swarming.We select our breeding stuff on production,hygene,caracter and varoa resistance,but also found out that the slightier more defensive once have a slightly higher productivity.

I have now but to me it seems a bit overworked with the checking every 10th day and cutting out queen cells regularly- we try to make things as easy as possible and less complicated. Also, in our limited experience a colony that lay queen cells are very poor foragers so for us it is important to detect the ones that really are in swarming mood and carry out an artifical swarm.
We use a system based on check every 7 day (one advantage with 7 days is that its always the same day of the week so less risk to forget) - maybe we should call it Bjusen/Nordin system, that only takes 2 m per hive in case no swarming is due including the varroa management. Top it with our honey removal strategy and it takes 5 m per hive. Our system detect the ones that want to swarm but also detect the ones that do not want to swarm and so we only have to take actions on the swarmy ones. We never had a swarm in our 12 year of beekeeping (yes I know you have probably kept bees for 50 years and we are just newbeginners). And hey, if it works for you then congrats. On the other hand, our system works pretty good for us although we are still fine tuning it - for example this year we learned that the bees lay brood also in the winter and that it is even crucial for them to do so. Consequently, we need to adjust and ensure they have pollen in the cluster. But that is, as they say, another story.
My humble suggestion - write an article of the system and enlighten all and then you probably win over loads of beekeepers

Cheers

Mikael

 

[Dods bisyssla]

hi
here is the strategy we use to prevent the swarming from happen, as explained we have no wish to breed away the instinct to swarm but we do not want them to swarm uncontrollably. In a perfect world with no Varroa and plenty of good behouses (hollow trees) we wouldnt mind that a few swarms went away but this is not how the situation is today.
Our main strategy to fight off Varroa is the cut-out of drone broods, which I will cover another time. However, the drone comb is a three way comb (see images below) with no wax sheets (left hand image) which the bees uses to build natural sized drone cells, but it can also be used as a tool to "read the hives". During the drone brood season, in our area that is maj-june, we ensure we have drone brood in three stages in the comb (covered cells, open cells and newly laid eggs) by removing 1/3 every week. A quick look on the comb will consequently tell us the status of the colony; if it looks like the image with plenty of brood including newly laid eggs then we know the hive is fully functional and no swarming or queen change is planned in near future. We know this since the bees need to reduce the queens weight before she can fly and swarm and this process takes about a week so if we see newly laid eggs then there is no need for any actions except ensure the bees have plenty of space for brrood and honey. This is two minutes job to open the hive, cutout the brood and check for eggs in the comb.
If we on the other hand don't see eggs we know they are up to something and we need to take a closer look on the rest of the combs to detemine if a swarm is due soon or if the queen is now infertile or missing. If there are plenty of covered worker broods but no eggs then most likely a swarm is due and then we probably will find several queen cells. In this case we carry out a queen split where we remove all of the combs with open cells but one with queen cells. If it is a super good colony then we might try to make several hives from the queen cells - usually ther are plenty of queen cells present.
We let the original hive keep most of the bees and all covered broods. Obviously the new hive(s) need to have enough workers to tend to the open brood as well as honey and pollen since they will be too few to forage. We ensure we fill up with workers so it covers the brood (this time of year we can usually take bees from any hive with no issues to avoid weaken the original hive too much).
Now we have created a strong forage hive (original hive) that can focus on producing honey since they now will have a brood less period and a new hive with the old queen. This situation is also an opportunity to treat against Varroa but, as said, that article will be for another day.
If there are few worker broods as well as no eggs then its probably time to switch the queen or she might be dead. If we find some good queen cells, we spare 2 max 3, and let them carry on and make the new queen, we prefer the bees to make the queens themselves as well as let them mate naturally.

View attachment 34458View attachment 34457

Typically I forgot the most important thing which is to ensure that the queen have enough room to lay eggs - it is also one of the advantagous of winter in on two boxes minimum. If the queen do not have sufficient room to lay eggs then that will, in our experience, trigger the swarming behaviour. With two brood boxes there will always be room enough and that by itself make the colonies less eager to swarm.

 

[Belgianbeekeeper]

I have now but to me it seems a bit overworked with the checking every 10th day and cutting out queen cells regularly- we try to make things as easy as possible and less complicated. Also, in our limited experience a colony that lay queen cells are very poor foragers so for us it is important to detect the ones that really are in swarming mood and carry out an artifical swarm.
We use a system based on check every 7 day (one advantage with 7 days is that its always the same day of the week so less risk to forget) - maybe we should call it Bjusen/Nordin system, that only takes 2 m per hive in case no swarming is due including the varroa management. Top it with our honey removal strategy and it takes 5 m per hive. Our system detect the ones that want to swarm but also detect the ones that do not want to swarm and so we only have to take actions on the swarmy ones. We never had a swarm in our 12 year of beekeeping (yes I know you have probably kept bees for 50 years and we are just newbeginners). And hey, if it works for you then congrats. On the other hand, our system works pretty good for us although we are still fine tuning it - for example this year we learned that the bees lay brood also in the winter and that it is even crucial for them to do so. Consequently, we need to adjust and ensure they have pollen in the cluster. But that is, as they say, another story.
My humble suggestion - write an article of the system and enlighten all and then you probably win over loads of beekeepers

Cheers

Mikael

Nice answer,but i think you misinderstood something,cause that's excactly the advantage of Renson,after it's installed(on second lvl),we only need to check the lower lvl once and the renson another two or maibe 3 times(just 6 frames,frame 7 is a drone frame) and then the swarm urge is gone and no more q-cells appear,done checking for the rest of the season.It's a bit of a shame,my mentor just gave lessons on Renson/improved Renson and you could follow up online as well.But ok,i accept the challenge,end March-end April,depending on the temperatures,i will take all needed picks to give an as good explenation about it as possible and publish them here somewhere.

 

[Dods bisyssla]

I look forward to your information on varroa control, it is interesting to learn how others approach the problem and I am always looking for methods I can implement in my own apiary.

hi as requested our Varroa management. BUt I will split it into two sections where the varroa is presented first and later I go through our managment systrm

Varroa - know your enemy​

Part 1: The problem – Varroa's explosive reproduction

Already Alexander the Great is said to have coined the expression "to defeat your enemy you must get to know him". Whether Alexander really said that is unclear, but it is definitely necessary to understand the life cycle of the varroa mite in order to defeat the mite, or at least keep it at bay.
Varroa destructor originally came from the Asian bee (Apis Cerana) and jumped over to our European bee (Apis Mellifera) in the middle of the 20th century. The Asian bee is able to handle the mite which Mellifera does not and therefore the varroa has become the dominant cause, directly and indirectly, of the high winter losses we see. Without any form of treatment, most Colonies usually perish after 2-3 years (10).

The varroa has 2 different phases in its life, first phase when they sit on adult bees and eat from the fat body (Phoretic phase) (1) and the reproduction phase which only takes place inside the brood cells, preferably in the drone cells (2).
When the mites parasitize the adult bees, it is partly for the newly mated female to "mature" and partly to be transported to a new cell. This phase can last up to a week before they find a new suitable cell to initiate a new reproductive cycle.
When the varroa mite has found a suitable cell, it crawls in just before the bees cap it and hides at the bottom of the cell in what is left of the larval sap. Three days after the cell is sealed, the female lays the first haploid egg that develops into a male (3). Then 4 (in a worker cell) or 5 (in a drone cell) diploid eggs are laid which develop into new females, see fig below. Just before the new bee crawls out of the cell, the male mates with his sisters. The male does not survive outside the cell and neither does the un-matured female mites, but the mother mite crawls out with one or two mated daughters (in a drone cell, up to three new mites can be fertilized).
Fig 4 (10).


About 11 days after the cell is sealed, the varroa family looks like this.
Upper row mites in different stages.
Bottom row, newly molted female, the mother mite and the male.

The varroa prefers to crawl into drone cells, the ratio is approximately 8:1 which is probably due to the fact that the drones have a longer spawning phase which increases reproduction as more daughters can be born, about 1.3-1.45 in worker cells versus 2.2-2.6 in a drone cell (4 ). Because the rate of reproduction is exponential – for every female that enters a drone cell, an average of 3.5 come out – in combination with the short reproductive cycle (takes about 30 days for two cycles), the development becomes explosive, especially in the spring when there are drone cells in abundance. With these facts, it is easy to understand that 50 mites at the beginning of May can turn into several thousand in two months, but luckily there are some slowing factors.
I see I will ran out of charachters so I continue in next post

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

well I never knew that

 

[Dods bisyssla]

Typically I forgot the most important thing which is to ensure that the queen have enough room to lay eggs - it is also one of the advantagous of winter in on two boxes minimum. If the queen do not have sufficient room to lay eggs then that will, in our experience, trigger the swarming behaviour. With two brood boxes there will always be room enough and that by itself make the colonies less eager to swarm.

hi as requested our Varroa management. But I will split it into two sections where the varroa is presented first and later I go through our managment system

Varroa - know your enemy​

Part 1: The problem – Varroa's explosive reproduction

Already Alexander the Great is said to have coined the expression "to defeat your enemy you must get to know him". Whether Alexander really said that is unclear, but it is definitely necessary to understand the life cycle of the varroa mite in order to defeat the mite, or at least keep it at bay.
Varroa destructor originally came from the Asian bee (Apis Cerana) and jumped over to our European bee (Apis Mellifera) in the middle of the 20th century. The Asian bee is able to handle the mite which Mellifera does not and therefore the varroa has become the dominant cause, directly and indirectly, of the high winter losses we see. Without any form of treatment, most Colonies usually perish after 2-3 years (10).

The varroa has 2 different phases in its life, first phase when they sit on adult bees and eat from the fat body (Phoretic phase) (1) and the reproduction phase which only takes place inside the brood cells, preferably in the drone cells (2).
When the mites parasitize the adult bees, it is partly for the newly mated female to "mature" and partly to be transported to a new cell. This phase can last up to a week before they find a new suitable cell to initiate a new reproductive cycle.
When the varroa mite has found a suitable cell, it crawls in just before the bees cap it and hides at the bottom of the cell in what is left of the larval sap. Three days after the cell is sealed, the female lays the first haploid egg that develops into a male (3). Then 4 (in a worker cell) or 5 (in a drone cell) diploid eggs are laid which develop into new females, see fig below. Just before the new bee crawls out of the cell, the male mates with his sisters. The male does not survive outside the cell and neither does the un-matured female mites, but the mother mite crawls out with one or two mated daughters (in a drone cell, up to three new mites can be fertilized).
Fig 4 (10).
View attachment 34505
View attachment 34506
About 11 days after the cell is sealed, the varroa family looks like this.
Upper row mites in different stages.
Bottom row, newly molted female, the mother mite and the male.

The varroa prefers to crawl into drone cells, the ratio is approximately 8:1 which is probably due to the fact that the drones have a longer spawning phase which increases reproduction as more daughters can be born, about 1.3-1.45 in worker cells versus 2.2-2.6 in a drone cell (4 ). Because the rate of reproduction is exponential – for every female that enters a drone cell, an average of 3.5 come out – in combination with the short reproductive cycle (takes about 30 days for two cycles), the development becomes explosive, especially in the spring when there are drone cells in abundance. With these facts, it is easy to understand that 50 mites at the beginning of May can turn into several thousand in two months, but luckily there are some slowing factors.
I see I will ran out of charachters so I continue in next post

continued

The figure shows that the varroa lags behind the bees and where the maximum number of bees occurs at the beginning of June, the varroa reaches its maximum at the beginning of August. 2-3000 mites are not life threatening when the number of bees is 50000 or more. But when all these mites will be split on only 10-20,000 bees in the fall, the mite level becomes far too high and the community quickly succumbs.

Practical application: The mite level is often low in the spring and explodes during May-June without measures. When the bee population goes down to 10-20,000 individuals, the mite population must be distributed among fewer bees, causing colonies to crash.
As mentioned earlier, there are a couple of limiting factors for the mite reproduction; one is infertility in the mites and the other is that the number of cycles the female mite can carry out seems to be limited to 2-3 cycles (5). What causes infertility in varroa is not completely clear, but one reason may be the absence of a male. Since usually only one male is born, it becomes impossible to carry out the mating if he dies before impregnating his sisters. It turns out that it's relatively common for that to occur, meaning unfertilized females come out of the cell. These can complete a phoretic phase and then invade a cell where they can lay a haploid egg which then develops into a male. In this case, the son can fertilize his mother in a so-called Oedipal fertilization, this mating is usually not as successful than when young females are fertilized and the number of new mites that are created via Oidiapal fertilization is limited (6).

As stated, the rate of increase is exponential with the exponent 3.5 in the drone cell, causing the mite level to explode in May-June.
If we have, for example, 10 mother mites that enter mature drone cells, approximately 35 female mites come out after about 14 days. The males and immature mites remain in the cells, and die, because they cannot feed themselves. After a phoretic phase of approximately 5-7 days, 35 mites are now ready to invade, which then gives 122 mites after the next reproduction cycle. The rate of increase is thus up to 12x per month as long as drone brood is present, but when only worker brood is present it is reduced to a maximum of 6x, in reality the rate is slightly less because not all mites are fertile (4) and that some are lost with foraging bees that die in the field.
In untreated communities, the colonies die after a few years as the Varroa weakens the communities both at the individual level and at the colony level. The individual bees that have been parasitized as larvae lose weight, get more viral diseases (eg DWS) and have a shorter lifespan (7).
At colony level they are affected in at least 2 ways; The drones decrease in weight and have a clearly poorer chance of mating (8) and the ability of the colonies to swarm decreases (9).

Practical application: The rate of increase is at least twice as high when drone cells are available, which is the reason for the explosive rate of increase in May-June.

In the next section, we go through our Varroa management and what can be done to reduce the impact from Varroa.

references
(1) Kuenen, L.P.S., Calderone, N.W., 1997. Transfers of Varroa mites from newly emerged bees: preferences for age- and function-specific adult bees. J. Insect Behav. 10, 213–228.
(2) Boot, W.J., Schoenmaker, J., Calis, J.N.M., Beetsma, J., 1995b. Invasion of Varroa jacobsoni into drone brood cells of the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Apidologie 26, 109–118.
(3) http://www.ask-force.org/web/Bees/Rosenkranz-Biology-Control-Varroa-2010.pdf
(4) Martin, S.J., 1995b. Reproduction of Varroa jacobsoni in cells of Apis mellifera containing one or more mother mites and the distribution of these cells. J. Apicult. Res. 34, 187–196.
(5) Fries, I., Rosenkranz, P., 1996. Number of reproductive cycles of Varroa jacobsoni in honey-bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. Exp. Appl. Acarol. 20, 103–112.
(6) Reproductive parameters of female Varroa destructor and the impact of mating in worker brood of Apis mellifera - Apidologie
(7) Amdam, G.V., Hartfelder, K., Norberg, K., Hagen, A., Omholt, S.W., 2004. Altered physiology in worker honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) infested with the mite Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae): a factor in colony loss during overwintering? J. Econ. Entomol. 97 (3), 741–747.
(8) Duay, P., de Jong, D., Engels, W., 2002. Decreased flight performance and sperm production in drones of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) slightly infested by Varroa destructor mites during pupal development. Genet. Mol. Res. 1, 227–232.
(9) Fries, I., Hansen, H., Imdorf, A., Rosenkranz, P., 2003. Swarming in honey bees (Apis mellifera) and Varroa destructor population development in Sweden. Apidologie 34, 389–398.
(10) http://www.ask-force.org/web/Bees/Rosenkranz-Biology-Control-Varroa-2010.pdf

 

[Dods bisyssla]

continued
View attachment 34507
The figure shows that the varroa lags behind the bees and where the maximum number of bees occurs at the beginning of June, the varroa reaches its maximum at the beginning of August. 2-3000 mites are not life threatening when the number of bees is 50000 or more. But when all these mites will be split on only 10-20,000 bees in the fall, the mite level becomes far too high and the community quickly succumbs.

Practical application: The mite level is often low in the spring and explodes during May-June without measures. When the bee population goes down to 10-20,000 individuals, the mite population must be distributed among fewer bees, causing colonies to crash.
As mentioned earlier, there are a couple of limiting factors for the mite reproduction; one is infertility in the mites and the other is that the number of cycles the female mite can carry out seems to be limited to 2-3 cycles (5). What causes infertility in varroa is not completely clear, but one reason may be the absence of a male. Since usually only one male is born, it becomes impossible to carry out the mating if he dies before impregnating his sisters. It turns out that it's relatively common for that to occur, meaning unfertilized females come out of the cell. These can complete a phoretic phase and then invade a cell where they can lay a haploid egg which then develops into a male. In this case, the son can fertilize his mother in a so-called Oedipal fertilization, this mating is usually not as successful than when young females are fertilized and the number of new mites that are created via Oidiapal fertilization is limited (6).

As stated, the rate of increase is exponential with the exponent 3.5 in the drone cell, causing the mite level to explode in May-June.
If we have, for example, 10 mother mites that enter mature drone cells, approximately 35 female mites come out after about 14 days. The males and immature mites remain in the cells, and die, because they cannot feed themselves. After a phoretic phase of approximately 5-7 days, 35 mites are now ready to invade, which then gives 122 mites after the next reproduction cycle. The rate of increase is thus up to 12x per month as long as drone brood is present, but when only worker brood is present it is reduced to a maximum of 6x, in reality the rate is slightly less because not all mites are fertile (4) and that some are lost with foraging bees that die in the field.
In untreated communities, the colonies die after a few years as the Varroa weakens the communities both at the individual level and at the colony level. The individual bees that have been parasitized as larvae lose weight, get more viral diseases (eg DWS) and have a shorter lifespan (7).
At colony level they are affected in at least 2 ways; The drones decrease in weight and have a clearly poorer chance of mating (8) and the ability of the colonies to swarm decreases (9).

Practical application: The rate of increase is at least twice as high when drone cells are available, which is the reason for the explosive rate of increase in May-June.

In the next section, we go through our Varroa management and what can be done to reduce the impact from Varroa.

references
(1) Kuenen, L.P.S., Calderone, N.W., 1997. Transfers of Varroa mites from newly emerged bees: preferences for age- and function-specific adult bees. J. Insect Behav. 10, 213–228.
(2) Boot, W.J., Schoenmaker, J., Calis, J.N.M., Beetsma, J., 1995b. Invasion of Varroa jacobsoni into drone brood cells of the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Apidologie 26, 109–118.
(3) http://www.ask-force.org/web/Bees/Rosenkranz-Biology-Control-Varroa-2010.pdf
(4) Martin, S.J., 1995b. Reproduction of Varroa jacobsoni in cells of Apis mellifera containing one or more mother mites and the distribution of these cells. J. Apicult. Res. 34, 187–196.
(5) Fries, I., Rosenkranz, P., 1996. Number of reproductive cycles of Varroa jacobsoni in honey-bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. Exp. Appl. Acarol. 20, 103–112.
(6) Reproductive parameters of female Varroa destructor and the impact of mating in worker brood of Apis mellifera - Apidologie
(7) Amdam, G.V., Hartfelder, K., Norberg, K., Hagen, A., Omholt, S.W., 2004. Altered physiology in worker honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) infested with the mite Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae): a factor in colony loss during overwintering? J. Econ. Entomol. 97 (3), 741–747.
(8) Duay, P., de Jong, D., Engels, W., 2002. Decreased flight performance and sperm production in drones of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) slightly infested by Varroa destructor mites during pupal development. Genet. Mol. Res. 1, 227–232.
(9) Fries, I., Hansen, H., Imdorf, A., Rosenkranz, P., 2003. Swarming in honey bees (Apis mellifera) and Varroa destructor population development in Sweden. Apidologie 34, 389–398.
(10) http://www.ask-force.org/web/Bees/Rosenkranz-Biology-Control-Varroa-2010.pdf

just to clarify; what is, and will be, presented is valid for condition in Nordic area where the bee brooding explode in Maj-June and drones are more or less exclusively produced during this period. In more sothern areas it might be different.
cheers

Mikael

 

[Dods bisyssla]

Nice answer,but i think you misinderstood something,cause that's excactly the advantage of Renson,after it's installed(on second lvl),we only need to check the lower lvl once and the renson another two or maibe 3 times(just 6 frames,frame 7 is a drone frame) and then the swarm urge is gone and no more q-cells appear,done checking for the rest of the season.It's a bit of a shame,my mentor just gave lessons on Renson/improved Renson and you could follow up online as well.But ok,i accept the challenge,end March-end April,depending on the temperatures,i will take all needed picks to give an as good explenation about it as possible and publish them here somewhere.

hi looking forward a thorough article, perhaps I have missed the point. However, based on our limited experience the queen needs plenty of space to lay the eggs and if the space is to limited that itself will trigger the swarming and endless cutout of queen cells start. And once the swarming behaviour is triggered they do not forage well unless the hive is splitted, and that is why the basic for our system is to ensure that they always have enough space to never trigger the swarming in the first place. Also, how big colony do you get with your system with only 6 brood combs? In order to have really good crop we want our hives to reach minimum 50k bees and preferable up to 70k bees early enough for the nectar flow in late may. If not we dont see the 100kg minimum of honey that we expect from a really good colony.
cheers
Mikael

 

[Antipodes]

Nice answer,but i think you misinderstood something,cause that's excactly the advantage of Renson,after it's installed(on second lvl),we only need to check the lower lvl once and the renson another two or maibe 3 times(just 6 frames,frame 7 is a drone frame) and then the swarm urge is gone and no more q-cells appear,done checking for the rest of the season.It's a bit of a shame,my mentor just gave lessons on Renson/improved Renson and you could follow up online as well.But ok,i accept the challenge,end March-end April,depending on the temperatures,i will take all needed picks to give an as good explenation about it as possible and publish them here somewhere.

Looking forward to your further information on the Renson/Improved Renson in due course. We generally use 144mm boxes here (one size box for both brood and honey supers) so I'm guessing they might be suitable?

 

[ericbeaumont]

Looking forward to your further information on the Renson/Improved Renson

Me, too.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

search the forum and you shall find!
Basically it's a method that traps the queen in a shallow of comb between two QX's
so reducing the brood and allowing bees to forage
They don't swarm because they can't!

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threa...est-method-known-in-english.27653/post-388879

 

[Antipodes]

search the forum and you shall find!
Basically it's a method that traps the queen in a shallow of comb between two QX's
so reducing the brood and allowing bees to forage
They don't swarm because they can't!

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threa...est-method-known-in-english.27653/post-388879

Yes, and a little more as per links below. It seems with the "improved" version (which I think is what can be seen in the second link), the lower excluder does not cover the entire width of the box to allow more movement of bees I guess. Edit: further information in last link.

https://www.gardenstew.com/threads/renson-limited-brood-method.36978/
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/367324913341711881/
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/new-bee-or-newbie-what-ever.32649/#post-461694

 

[Dods bisyssla]

continued
View attachment 34507
The figure shows that the varroa lags behind the bees and where the maximum number of bees occurs at the beginning of June, the varroa reaches its maximum at the beginning of August. 2-3000 mites are not life threatening when the number of bees is 50000 or more. But when all these mites will be split on only 10-20,000 bees in the fall, the mite level becomes far too high and the community quickly succumbs.

Practical application: The mite level is often low in the spring and explodes during May-June without measures. When the bee population goes down to 10-20,000 individuals, the mite population must be distributed among fewer bees, causing colonies to crash.
As mentioned earlier, there are a couple of limiting factors for the mite reproduction; one is infertility in the mites and the other is that the number of cycles the female mite can carry out seems to be limited to 2-3 cycles (5). What causes infertility in varroa is not completely clear, but one reason may be the absence of a male. Since usually only one male is born, it becomes impossible to carry out the mating if he dies before impregnating his sisters. It turns out that it's relatively common for that to occur, meaning unfertilized females come out of the cell. These can complete a phoretic phase and then invade a cell where they can lay a haploid egg which then develops into a male. In this case, the son can fertilize his mother in a so-called Oedipal fertilization, this mating is usually not as successful than when young females are fertilized and the number of new mites that are created via Oidiapal fertilization is limited (6).

As stated, the rate of increase is exponential with the exponent 3.5 in the drone cell, causing the mite level to explode in May-June.
If we have, for example, 10 mother mites that enter mature drone cells, approximately 35 female mites come out after about 14 days. The males and immature mites remain in the cells, and die, because they cannot feed themselves. After a phoretic phase of approximately 5-7 days, 35 mites are now ready to invade, which then gives 122 mites after the next reproduction cycle. The rate of increase is thus up to 12x per month as long as drone brood is present, but when only worker brood is present it is reduced to a maximum of 6x, in reality the rate is slightly less because not all mites are fertile (4) and that some are lost with foraging bees that die in the field.
In untreated communities, the colonies die after a few years as the Varroa weakens the communities both at the individual level and at the colony level. The individual bees that have been parasitized as larvae lose weight, get more viral diseases (eg DWS) and have a shorter lifespan (7).
At colony level they are affected in at least 2 ways; The drones decrease in weight and have a clearly poorer chance of mating (8) and the ability of the colonies to swarm decreases (9).

Practical application: The rate of increase is at least twice as high when drone cells are available, which is the reason for the explosive rate of increase in May-June.

In the next section, we go through our Varroa management and what can be done to reduce the impact from Varroa.

references
(1) Kuenen, L.P.S., Calderone, N.W., 1997. Transfers of Varroa mites from newly emerged bees: preferences for age- and function-specific adult bees. J. Insect Behav. 10, 213–228.
(2) Boot, W.J., Schoenmaker, J., Calis, J.N.M., Beetsma, J., 1995b. Invasion of Varroa jacobsoni into drone brood cells of the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Apidologie 26, 109–118.
(3) http://www.ask-force.org/web/Bees/Rosenkranz-Biology-Control-Varroa-2010.pdf
(4) Martin, S.J., 1995b. Reproduction of Varroa jacobsoni in cells of Apis mellifera containing one or more mother mites and the distribution of these cells. J. Apicult. Res. 34, 187–196.
(5) Fries, I., Rosenkranz, P., 1996. Number of reproductive cycles of Varroa jacobsoni in honey-bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. Exp. Appl. Acarol. 20, 103–112.
(6) Reproductive parameters of female Varroa destructor and the impact of mating in worker brood of Apis mellifera - Apidologie
(7) Amdam, G.V., Hartfelder, K., Norberg, K., Hagen, A., Omholt, S.W., 2004. Altered physiology in worker honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) infested with the mite Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae): a factor in colony loss during overwintering? J. Econ. Entomol. 97 (3), 741–747.
(8) Duay, P., de Jong, D., Engels, W., 2002. Decreased flight performance and sperm production in drones of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) slightly infested by Varroa destructor mites during pupal development. Genet. Mol. Res. 1, 227–232.
(9) Fries, I., Hansen, H., Imdorf, A., Rosenkranz, P., 2003. Swarming in honey bees (Apis mellifera) and Varroa destructor population development in Sweden. Apidologie 34, 389–398.
(10) http://www.ask-force.org/web/Bees/Rosenkranz-Biology-Control-Varroa-2010.pdf

so 2nd part of our Varroa strategy

In the previous part, we went through how Varroa reproduction takes place and the reasons for the explosive development, which is the reason why untreated communities usually perish within 2-3 years. Here we will go through what our strategy looks like.

Traditional treatment with formic acid in august and oxalic acid in december
When I first saw the above figure, I spontaneously thought that something was wrong - why wait to treat until the Varroa is at its strongest? Since a "stitch in time saves nine" a better approach would be to treat the varroa before they had time to explode and grow strong (see the dashed line in fig 1.)? That idea became the starting point for our strategy, which is based on never allowing the Varroa to reach levels where they affect the colony to any great degree. In principle, it is a method that follows the IPM strategy (Integrated Pest Management) where we avoid using strong pesticides and chemicals as far as possible and where the basis of our treatment is drone brood cutout.

Three way drone frame with wax and cells i different stages


Drone cutting takes place in a three-part frame that is inserted at the end of April – the first week we cut out two parts and the second week one part. Then we have wax and cells in three different stages and can start cutting out one third of the frame with covered drone cells every week. After 6 weeks we have removed a large portion of all mites, a theoretical calculation (1) shows that two weeks of excision can reduce the amount by 50%, a practical study showed similar results (2 ). We can do up to 6 cutouts until the drone period is over and theorethically reduce the amount up to 85%. This means that we usually have less than 50 mites left, which is also supported by the mite fall being close to zero at the end of June.

Practical application: 2-3 cutouts reduce the amount of Varroa by up to 50%. With 6 excisions over 6 weeks, the Varroa level can be pushed down to harmless levels.

TBC

 

[Dods bisyssla]

so 2nd part of our Varroa strategy

In the previous part, we went through how Varroa reproduction takes place and the reasons for the explosive development, which is the reason why untreated communities usually perish within 2-3 years. Here we will go through what our strategy looks like.

Traditional treatment with formic acid in august and oxalic acid in december
When I first saw the above figure, I spontaneously thought that something was wrong - why wait to treat until the Varroa is at its strongest? Since a "stitch in time saves nine" a better approach would be to treat the varroa before they had time to explode and grow strong (see the dashed line in fig 1.)? That idea became the starting point for our strategy, which is based on never allowing the Varroa to reach levels where they affect the colony to any great degree. In principle, it is a method that follows the IPM strategy (Integrated Pest Management) where we avoid using strong pesticides and chemicals as far as possible and where the basis of our treatment is drone brood cutout.

Three way drone frame with wax and cells i different stages


Drone cutting takes place in a three-part frame that is inserted at the end of April – the first week we cut out two parts and the second week one part. Then we have wax and cells in three different stages and can start cutting out one third of the frame with covered drone cells every week. After 6 weeks we have removed a large portion of all mites, a theoretical calculation (1) shows that two weeks of excision can reduce the amount by 50%, a practical study showed similar results (2 ). We can do up to 6 cutouts until the drone period is over and theorethically reduce the amount up to 85%. This means that we usually have less than 50 mites left, which is also supported by the mite fall being close to zero at the end of June.

Practical application: 2-3 cutouts reduce the amount of Varroa by up to 50%. With 6 excisions over 6 weeks, the Varroa level can be pushed down to harmless levels.

TBC

the rest
After the drone period is over, we continue to keep track of the mite fall and in many cases the it remains at such low levels that no other treatments are needed - our threshold value is about 15 mites a week, which corresponds to a couple of hundred mites. Should the level increase and exceed 25 mites a week, then we resort to the mildest acid in our arsenal, i.e. lactic acid. The advantage of lactic acid is that it is uncontroversial with food and gives no aftertaste to the honey, only a slight sourness. Since the honey is acidic in itself, this is not a problem, and the bees are minimally affected by the lactic acid. The disadvantage is of course that you only get to the bees that are outside the cells, 30-40% of the mites are outside the cells and these are the ones we can kill. It may seem like a small percentage, but since the goal is not necessarily to eradicate the mites but only to ensure that they never become too numerous, lactic acid works just fine. We take an example; assume that the mite fall has increased so that we begin to approach 500 mites (5% if we have 10,000 bees) and then we do a lactic acid treatment and get rid of approx. 30%, i.e. 100-150 mites. Then we have 350-400 left, which is still too much. Then, if the mite fall is, indeed, too high, we repeat the treatment after one week and access another 100-150 mites and then the number is down to a harmless level. In practice, we do any lactic acid treatment much earlier (over 25 mites/week) so usually one treatment is enough to get below the threshold. Someone might remark that the method seems tedious, but we always have a spray bottle with lactic acid with us and if treatment is needed, we do it at the same time as we do the weekly review, which means about 1m of extra time.
Our experience is that with this strategy (green and yellow level in the IPM pyramid) we can keep the varroa level below our threshold throughout the season and thus avoid all other acids and chemicals. Only exceptionally do we end up with such high levels in August that formic acid has to be used (1 colony out of 13 this year received formic acid, no colonies needed oxalic acid). In the 8 seasons we have developed and used our method, we have never experienced any winter losses (colonies that did an early queen change not included).
Practical application: Drone cutout + lactic acid treatment when necessary drastically reduces the need for stronger acids and other chemicals.

TBC

 

[Dods bisyssla]

the rest
After the drone period is over, we continue to keep track of the mite fall and in many cases the it remains at such low levels that no other treatments are needed - our threshold value is about 15 mites a week, which corresponds to a couple of hundred mites. Should the level increase and exceed 25 mites a week, then we resort to the mildest acid in our arsenal, i.e. lactic acid. The advantage of lactic acid is that it is uncontroversial with food and gives no aftertaste to the honey, only a slight sourness. Since the honey is acidic in itself, this is not a problem, and the bees are minimally affected by the lactic acid. The disadvantage is of course that you only get to the bees that are outside the cells, 30-40% of the mites are outside the cells and these are the ones we can kill. It may seem like a small percentage, but since the goal is not necessarily to eradicate the mites but only to ensure that they never become too numerous, lactic acid works just fine. We take an example; assume that the mite fall has increased so that we begin to approach 500 mites (5% if we have 10,000 bees) and then we do a lactic acid treatment and get rid of approx. 30%, i.e. 100-150 mites. Then we have 350-400 left, which is still too much. Then, if the mite fall is, indeed, too high, we repeat the treatment after one week and access another 100-150 mites and then the number is down to a harmless level. In practice, we do any lactic acid treatment much earlier (over 25 mites/week) so usually one treatment is enough to get below the threshold. Someone might remark that the method seems tedious, but we always have a spray bottle with lactic acid with us and if treatment is needed, we do it at the same time as we do the weekly review, which means about 1m of extra time.
Our experience is that with this strategy (green and yellow level in the IPM pyramid) we can keep the varroa level below our threshold throughout the season and thus avoid all other acids and chemicals. Only exceptionally do we end up with such high levels in August that formic acid has to be used (1 colony out of 13 this year received formic acid, no colonies needed oxalic acid). In the 8 seasons we have developed and used our method, we have never experienced any winter losses (colonies that did an early queen change not included).
Practical application: Drone cutout + lactic acid treatment when necessary drastically reduces the need for stronger acids and other chemicals.

TBC

and final portion
This year we also did a follow-up test to confirm the results; a colony that was found to be brood-free received an oxalic acid treatment (we used the drip method, which is highly effective on brood-free colonies) on November 15, and we measured the mite fall to confirm how many mites the hive really have. We counted about 50 during one week and in a control colony (untreated) in same location we saw during the same week about 5 mites, which indicate that the strategy gives the desired result.
In conclusion, some advantages of our strategy:
1. All chemicals affect the bees negatively - the stronger the acids, the more side effects in the form of dead bees, less brood and a higher risk of the queen being balled up and dying. 2. The mites tend to become resistant to pesticides and increasingly stronger agents must be used. We do not contribute to the negative spiral with our strategy.
3. With our method, you get minimal impact on the colony because the number of mites is always low, it maximizes the number of foragers bees and provides a prerequisite for a larger honey harvest.
4. You avoid spilling with strong acids, that require protective equipment, which most of us are not trained to handle.
5. You don't have to disturb the bees in the middle of winter because oxalic acid is not needed.
6. You have full control of the colonies and treat when necessary and not casually because "you have to do it that way". In this way, we minimize the stress on the bees and get stronger bees that overwinter better.
references:
(1). https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/r...ession=osu1481534982440449&disposition=inline
(2). Stratégie de lutte alternative contre Varroa destructor en Europe centrale

 

[elainemary]

and final portion
This year we also did a follow-up test to confirm the results; a colony that was found to be brood-free received an oxalic acid treatment (we used the drip method, which is highly effective on brood-free colonies) on November 15, and we measured the mite fall to confirm how many mites the hive really have. We counted about 50 during one week and in a control colony (untreated) in same location we saw during the same week about 5 mites, which indicate that the strategy gives the desired result.
In conclusion, some advantages of our strategy:
1. All chemicals affect the bees negatively - the stronger the acids, the more side effects in the form of dead bees, less brood and a higher risk of the queen being balled up and dying. 2. The mites tend to become resistant to pesticides and increasingly stronger agents must be used. We do not contribute to the negative spiral with our strategy.
3. With our method, you get minimal impact on the colony because the number of mites is always low, it maximizes the number of foragers bees and provides a prerequisite for a larger honey harvest.
4. You avoid spilling with strong acids, that require protective equipment, which most of us are not trained to handle.
5. You don't have to disturb the bees in the middle of winter because oxalic acid is not needed.
6. You have full control of the colonies and treat when necessary and not casually because "you have to do it that way". In this way, we minimize the stress on the bees and get stronger bees that overwinter better.
references:
(1). https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/r...ession=osu1481534982440449&disposition=inline
(2). Stratégie de lutte alternative contre Varroa destructor en Europe centrale

Thanks for your comprehensive article on varroa management. Good revision
/ reminder.
Re drone cut out, in an earlier post you said you only remove 1/3rd of drone brood so there were plenty of drones left in the colony (in reply to my concern about depleting the colony of drones and impact on queen mating).

From reading the detail you’ve posted it seems that over the 6 week period you remove all the sealed drone brood, leaving the unsealed and eggs, but these in turn are removed in later weeks when they become sealed. So, over this period, you remove all drones (when at the sealed stage) not just a third, if I’ve understood correctly? I can see this will be very effective at keeping varroa to manageable levels, but wonder about the impact overall to the colony?

I’ve heard other experienced bee farmers talk about ‘morale’ ie colony harmony, expressed by defensiveness and willingness to work - as well as impact on queen mating if all beekeepers adopted this in May and June - if too many drones are removed. What is the impact of the colony repeatedly making drone brood and wax in an effort to produce the drones they want and need?
What are your thoughts on this / any science to show whether the colony as a whole is impacted in other ways ?

 

[Dods bisyssla]

Thanks for your comprehensive article on varroa management. Good revision
/ reminder.
Re drone cut out, in an earlier post you said you only remove 1/3rd of drone brood so there were plenty of drones left in the colony (in reply to my concern about depleting the colony of drones and impact on queen mating).

From reading the detail you’ve posted it seems that over the 6 week period you remove all the sealed drone brood, leaving the unsealed and eggs, but these in turn are removed in later weeks when they become sealed. So, over this period, you remove all drones (when at the sealed stage) not just a third, if I’ve understood correctly? I can see this will be very effective at keeping varroa to manageable levels, but wonder about the impact overall to the colony?

I’ve heard other experienced bee farmers talk about ‘morale’ ie colony harmony, expressed by defensiveness and willingness to work - as well as impact on queen mating if all beekeepers adopted this in May and June - if too many drones are removed. What is the impact of the colony repeatedly making drone brood and wax in an effort to produce the drones they want and need?
What are your thoughts on this / any science to show whether the colony as a whole is impacted in other ways ?

HI the bees make plenty of drone cells elsewhere (usually on the outer of worker brood combs). As calculated we remove max 5000 drones and in one article I read it stated that 10-15% of the yearly amount of bees are in fact drones and the figure 19k as total drones for a big hive which produces 150k or more bees approximately. So, there are plenty left and this we see in our hives as well - loads of drones regardles that we cutout for 6 weeks. And also we can see it since worker combs are very even with few diploid drone holes. Too many Diploid drone holes is a sign of poor mating where the gene variations are poor with risk of in breeding so you want to see even worker combs with just a few holes (theorethically 5% minimum holes).

 

[Dods bisyssla]

HI the bees make plenty of drone cells elsewhere (usually on the outer of worker brood combs). As calculated we remove max 5000 drones and in one article I read it stated that 10-15% of the yearly amount of bees are in fact drones and the figure 19k as total drones for a big hive which produces 150k or more bees approximately. So, there are plenty left and this we see in our hives as well - loads of drones regardles that we cutout for 6 weeks. And also we can see it since worker combs are very even with few diploid drone holes. Too many Diploid drone holes is a sign of poor mating where the gene variations are poor with risk of in breeding so you want to see even worker combs with just a few holes (theorethically 5% minimum holes).

ps if there would be a general lack of drones then the number of diploid drone holes would probably increase especially in our forest apiary where there are few apiaries beside our.

 

[Dods bisyssla]

Hello
Can anyone share any scientific papers or research studies, which prove / disprove the benefits or otherwise, of bees feeding on their own honey over winter vs being fed syrup?
I know some beekeepers feel strongly one way or the other and intuitively it feels honey is best. I’m really keen to understand the facts though as a result of scientific studies, if they exist!?
Elaine

Hello,
perhaps a bit late to answer this question correctly but I have now read many reports that touches this point. There are still no comparasive field tests (sugar vs honey as winter store) that I have seen but there are many studies that, when put together, gives a good answer. I have written an article where I have put all this together but it is too long to publish here so I will just make a short summary, and those who are interested can read the whole article with all referencies here:
https://wordpress.com/page/dodsbisyssla.com/2705So, its clear that bees can survive on sugar syrup but the real question is how good they survive.
If you ask non beekeepers or children most agree that bees eat honey so why is it that so many beekeepers beleive that sugar is equally good as winter food? Some claim the bees only sit idle and therefore need nothing but carb's, some claim that honey is bad for the bees and even toxic - most have probably heard or read that heather and honew dew is dangerous.
The fact that brood setting requires proetein, minerals and vitamins is probably not questioned. So the money question is: do the bees need anything but carb's during the winter?
Lets start by splitting the question in two parts: 1) does bee make brood in the winter?, 2. Does older bees need maintenance of the bodies?
1. I always beleived that brood making during winter was bad since it increased the risk for dysentery due to higher food consumption - that was what we were taught during our introduction course. Randy Oliver debunked that myth completely on his article series (see Randy, Author at Scientific Beekeeping for all the articles) and the true reason for dysentery is exess water coming from the metabolism of the carbs. If the bees cant get rid of the water then dysentery occurrs (Ref Alfonsus 1935). If indeed the bees cant fly and defecate sooner or later the rectum is filled with water but then they have one more trick and that is to make brood (Ref Mobus 1987). But in order to do so the bees need protein and hence pollen in the food box.
2. That does not mean that older bees need anything but carbs, right? True, but DeGroot made tests over several years in late 40's and presented his study in 1953 where he showed that younger bees need loads of pollen to increase the weight and develop into nursing bees. The high weight of the fat body gave the long life span. But, in addition he also found that older bees increased their lifespan if they ate protein equivalent with what is found in pollen. But they needed less amount and in fact the amount needed is what is found in honey (0,5-2% pollen). Older bees was also not keen on eating protein bars but they did eat bee bread.
So in summary: Older bees need small amount protein and vitamins equivalent to what is found in honey to increase life span. On carbs alone they live about 30 days but protein increases the life span considerably. If Honey is to be substituted with sugar syrup then protein in correct portions (all essential amino acids needs to be there), vitamins and minerals must be added. This sits well with our own results where colonies on pure sugar is weak in the spring but colonies given honey are able to give surplus already in may.
Finally, one study showed that honey dew did not cause dysentery but in fact it was found that 10% or more honeydew significantly reduced the amount of Nosema spores in the colonies, if this is true only for honey dew or if all honey have this effect is unclear.
Cheers

Mikael