Non Treatment.

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Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
6,213
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Location
Norwich
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
3 National Hives & 1 Observation Hive.(Indoors) & lots of empty boxes..
Out of curiousity,


who isnt treating thier bees?
 
Out of curiousity,


who isnt treating thier bees?

Ive just added some Thymol to the syrup feed for the moment, however i am keeping a close eye on them and will continue to monitor

However

Preventative actions imo 'if in doubt' or you are 'unsure' is best and tbh responsible even if it means using continuous treatment then sobeit
 
I am not, I am going to give um oxlic acid in Dec and see how they come out after winter.

Guys I have quite a few hives if you only have one or two please dont follow my way I am trying something out this year to see what happens
 
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I am treating.

I came back to beekeeping after a long gap, going back to pre-varroa days. I picked up more or less where I left off, and worked them in the same way as I always had.....the result was two winters with very heavy losses. Winter 2007/08 I lost all 4 colonies. 2008/9 lost 3 out of 4. This was when I wised up to treating for varroa. Winter 2009/10 1 out of 10 colonies died, which was due to isolation starvation. I'll have 19 or 20 stocks(inc a 3 nucs and a couple that may be candidates for uniting) to winter - we'll see what happens this winter.

I would have to admit that my varroa treatment wasn't textbook, and wasn't done at exactly the right times. My stocks were slow to expand this year, but there could be many reasons for this. Hopefully future years will seem me being rather more consistent with it. Until and including this spring I was using Thymomite. Last winter saw the first Oxalic acid treatment. This year, new incoming swarms had a dose of oxalic, autumn treatment has been using home-made Thymol/rape oil mix on oasis, and winter will be oxalic...spring will be more home-made potion. I hadn't seen any evidence of varroa until last month, and then only in one hive, but they are all showing dead little critters since the treatment has started. I worry for those who have been lulled into what might be a false sense of security by apparently varroa free colonies.....but of course, they may be the lucky ones who have varroa-conquering bees...fingers crossed.

Anyway, treating for varroa has certainly coincided with a massively greater liklihood of my colonies making it through the winter. On that basis, I'll certainly continue to treat until someone has shown me a better way THAT WORKS, or until I find magic bees.

Genuinely wishing the non-treaters the best of luck, and hope that their gamble/calculated risk pays off.
 
:reddevil:

I know this is going to set the forum on fire. I don't treat because the sooner the bees learn to sort out varroa without our help the better.

I'm relying on the history lesson from the 1920's when bees survived the "isle of wight disease" in spite of our intervention.
 
Worrywort - given the number of generations that evolution uses to make change for the better, you may be in for a long wait, and a short beekeeping experience. You may be lucky though! Maybe run two apiaries - treat one and not the other, rather than sacrifice your whole operation.

I keep bees for enjoyment and honey. Without treatment I've found I have neither...nor any bees.

Any news of the bloke (birmingham way?)who believes he has hygienic bees? I very much hope he is proved right, as this if verified, must be the way forward.
 
Any news of the bloke (birmingham way?)who believes he has hygienic bees?

In my very limited experience with my observation hive, bees seems to groom each other anyway,,, or rather that they are probably licking food off each other...
 
Any news of the bloke (birmingham way?)who believes he has hygienic bees? I very much hope he is proved right, as this if verified, must be the way forward.

Well the good people of Birmingham must have had a population explosion bigger than any varroa infestation! I think the chap you are referring to is Francis Ratnieks, and I think he's based at Sussex University, now in an outlying suburb of Birmingham :biggrinjester:

Not heard anymore since the big press interest a few weeks ago. It would be great if he's onto somrthing but for it to work how would FERA achieve a controlled breeding 'spread' program so that the cleaning trait is passed on undiluted without also suffering any negative traits from in-breeding?
 
The guy with the allegedly varroa tolerant bees was not an academic, I think he's near Swindon.
 
I'm not and I never do unless you count a couple of doses of icing sugar.

No problems, no losses, no worries, no exaggeration, no getting stressed or excited.

OK, that could all change, but looking at the hives this morning I'm happy with all but one that seems to have a poor laying Queen but if that one fails to make it through that's life. I would actually be "content" with a loss rate of 10% to 15% overwinter should that occur and consider that natural.

Chris
 
I am treating.

I worry for those who have been lulled into what might be a false sense of security by apparently varroa free colonies.....but of course, they may be the lucky ones who have varroa-conquering bees...fingers crossed.

See just about everything I've posted in the last 2 months- I'm now treating and consider myself to have had a lucky escape.
 
autumn : 1/2 no treatment 1/2 thymol( apiguuard)
winter : 1/2 oxalic 1/2 nothing
some bees will have had thymol and oxalic, some just thymol, some just oxalic and some nothing at all.
I hope I dont panic and spoil my experiment by chickenning out though
 
Bee Craft Articles

October issue of Bee Craft contains 2 articles on this subject. I was dismissive of the press reports about Ron Hoskins' "superbees" but Ron's article gives it a totally different angle. It's basically a poke in the eye to those who insist the answer to all our problems is throwing tens of millions at academics and PhD students whose first priority is always going to be their own reputation and their cv's. All Ron has done is demonstate that beekeepers already have the resources to achieve at least as much as the universities, if only we could muster a bit of organisation and co-operation.

Another article by John Dews discusses non-treatment as a strategy. His summary: "The ultimate solution to varroa does not need the facilities and expertise of scientific institutions, it requires the intelligent observations of many beekeepers working in cooperation with their local colleagues."

Personally I have been putting Apiguard in hives (although I'm late in some too). So far I'm seeing a typical drop of less than 100 mites after the first fortnight of treatment. This is LOW. Last year we had some hives with 3000 mites on the floor. Either I'm not doing it properly or there are just fewer mites around this year.
 
I would like to know where the mites hide, because I cant see any in my obs hive.
 
Last year we had some hives with 3000 mites on the floor. Either I'm not doing it properly or there are just fewer mites around this year.

Interesting stuff Chris, I get the impression this is a common find across many hives this year but I do wonder why - I suspect its weather related regards last Winter and this years Spring.

Personally I find the 'no treat' crowd a high risk bunch, most have a hand off approach in general (I put money on most not being registered on beebase) and ultimately will become reservoirs of disease. Most are new to beekeeping with little training and simply ignorant to disease checks and the treatments.

I expect high losses over the next few years with this group.

There seem to be differing reasons for 'no treat', in reality most people posting on here who say they are no treat then say they are using some thymol or OA at some point - also does no treat mean do nothing? IPM is much more than just treatment anyway.

JD
 
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Personally I find the 'no treat' crowd a high risk bunch, most have a hand off approach in general (I put money on most not being registered on beebase) and ultimately will become reservoirs of disease. Most are new to beekeeping with little training and simply ignorant to disease checks and the treatments.

Nope, fully registered as a professional in France with the Min of Agriculture and all that goes with it. As I have said, no losses, no sick bees, no problems, no weird bee behaviour, no fiddling, no inspections and the only treatment a few doses of icing sugar.

Now I would say that I find the fiddlers approach to be more high risk reading the things that I do on here...

.....oh, and you've lost your money, how much was it, or doesn't being fully French registered count?

Chris
 
I Know some one who has a feral colony in their chimney for the 17 years shes lived there they have never been treated.
 

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