Not treating varroa

[For want of a better word]

So that is what you do in your spare time?
Bet you have given them all names...like Lenny the Leather etc

I wish.... beaut of a lake stocked with huge carp,,, Molly the Mirror... Colin the Crucian..... and Nelly the Native... in the grounds of one of my mating apiary sites.

In 7 years of passing the lake I have never cast a line into it.... never have time!

But there are folk who will spend a week at the B&B or in their Motorhome and do nothing else other than try to catch the fish.... night and day!!!

 

[Beefriendly]

But there are folk who will spend a week at the B&B or in their Motorhome and do nothing else other than try to catch the fish.... night and day!!!

I think it's called chilling out....usually involves BBQ and copious amounts of alcohol.
Should try it sometime....

 

[Stiffy]

So that is what you do in your spare time?
Bet you have given them all names...like Lenny the Leather etc

‘Tossey the Troll’ suddenly flashed through my head, wonder why?
S

 

[birdsandbees]

would sting people who got within 20 feet of the hive, were relatively mobile on the comb during inspection, foraged at temps as low as 6C, etc.

I would recognize AMM just from the common traits

Sounds like a lot of the BS is still being perpetuated, my Amm are pretty calm on the comb and pussy cats to handle?

a black bee doesn't mean it's Amm.

 

[oxnatbees]

Anyone engaging in this documented non-activity?

Yes. It works.

I have come to think the primary reason it works is I am not feeding the bees, so there are brood breaks. I have about 5-6 colonies at any one time. After a few years of allowing weak ones to die, I have 4 bursting with activity and one OK one.

Sure I don't get as much honey as you. Because I'm prepared to wait 2-3 years for a colony to grow at its own rate, build comb how it likes. But I get enough for my family, and it looks like I'll get a decent surplus this year.

 

[For want of a better word]

‘Tossey the Troll’ suddenly flashed through my head, wonder why?
S

We all wonder why anything should flash through your head ?

 

[Beefriendly]

We all wonder why anything should flash through your head ?

 

[Stiffy]

We all wonder why anything should flash through your head ?

Pot, kettle again?
S

 

[Fusion_power]

He just needs his morning cuppa. Not good for much without it. Know it all? Polymath? Do I know you?


birdsandbees, the AMM were endemic to this area until varroa hit. Feral bees were pretty much wiped out between 1993 and 2004. A few colonies survived. They started to re-populate the area by swarming. That is the source of the swarm I caught in 2004. They were probably origially AMM from Holland. The traits are quite a bit different than the AMM you describe.

 

[ASPIRERITE]

Ill leave this one to the experts I don't have enough knowledge to comment any further. I would like to try those resistant strains though anyone care to sell me a few?

 

[Murox]

Yes. It works.

I have come to think the primary reason it works is I am not feeding the bees, so there are brood breaks. I have about 5-6 colonies at any one time. After a few years of allowing weak ones to die, I have 4 bursting with activity and one OK one.

Sure I don't get as much honey as you. Because I'm prepared to wait 2-3 years for a colony to grow at its own rate, build comb how it likes. But I get enough for my family, and it looks like I'll get a decent surplus this year.

What led you to make that choice ?

 

[Fusion_power]

Extended brood breaks during nectar dearths is one of the documented mechanisms for natural varroa resistance.

 

[Finman]

Extended brood breaks during nectar dearths is one of the documented mechanisms for natural varroa resistance.

Documented or not, but document does not save your hives.

Brood break works, if you treat the hives, when the mites are not covered with caps. For example, a swarm is easy to treat.

 

[oxnatbees]

What led you to make that choice ?

Just seemed like the logical way to keep bees if you aren't so interested in profit / honey. I had the advantage of coming into the craft with no previous background, thus no preconceptions.

 

[oxnatbees]

Documented or not, but document does not save your hives.

Finman, you furry arctic Yeti! Just because it doesn't work in Finland doesn't mean it doesn't work anywhere. Finland is so far north even Amm never settled there. All your bees are weird imports or true local mongrels. The crosses will be aggressive, the few feral colonies stressed and poorly adapted. Very different environment here so your 40 years' experience is only obliquely applicable, though I do pay a lot of attention to your advice.

Luckily for us in the UK a lot of poorly adapted imports were killed by the Beast from the East last year.

 

[Finman]

. Finland is so far north even Amm never settled there.
All your bees are weird imports or true local mongrels. The crosses will be aggressive, the few feral colonies stressed and poorly adapted. Very different environment here so your 40 years' experience is only obliquely applicable, though I do pay a lot of attention to your advice.

Luckily for us in the UK a lot of poorly adapted imports were killed by the Beast from the East last year.

Difficult to add something to that. Our bees are miserable. Best hives bring only 300 lbs honey. I have 50 km to Russian border.

How that Beast from East can can jump to Britain into the middle of Gulf Stream, and I notice nothing.

Varroa came over Russian border 40 years ago, and after 20 years it had killed all Black Bees from Finland. I had Black Bees 25 years.

 

[madasafish]

Finman, you furry arctic Yeti! Just because it doesn't work in Finland doesn't mean it doesn't work anywhere. Finland is so far north even Amm never settled there. All your bees are weird imports or true local mongrels. The crosses will be aggressive, the few feral colonies stressed and poorly adapted. Very different environment here so your 40 years' experience is only obliquely applicable, though I do pay a lot of attention to your advice.

Luckily for us in the UK a lot of poorly adapted imports were killed by the Beast from the East last year.

Please tell us the source of that information: someone must have done a lot of research.

 

[B+.]

Luckily for us in the UK a lot of poorly adapted imports were killed by the Beast from the East last year.

Natural events, even unusually harsh ones, affect adapted and unadapted equally. It is a spurious argument to suggest that only imports were affected.

 

[Finman]

As far as I understood, British bees foraged pollen in the middle of winter. How is it then cold winter and non adapted bees. It must be that beekeepers are not adapted to keep bees in Britain.
.

 

[Anduril]

Luckily for us in the UK a lot of poorly adapted imports were killed by the Beast from the East last year.

Please explain why a bee professor in his lectures calls all of the Apis Mellifera family tropical.