Not treating varroa

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Your right I have serve wiring problem but Ill die happy and laughing. don't take life so seriously its supposed to be fun and you only get one
 
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He said mellifera mellifera....so, he was probably correct.
Interesting because the first queen I found with significant varroa resistance showed many of the traits common to A.M. mellifera. They wintered with only a few pounds of honey, came on gang busters for the spring flow, 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.
 
Sorry to wade in on this one but I have seen a few things that make me think that some of the harsh varroa treatments are bad for the queens. I want to minimise use of apiguard strips etc so that my combs dont soak up too much of the treatment and some have suggested this is better for the virility of drones and queens.

I will still be using oxalic acid and thymol treatments but if you can get a bee with some natural resistance, it seems like a good thing.

I know where there is a wild colony that has been there for about 10 years and so it must be quite resilient. I was thinking of taking some daughters from my AMM queen to mate with drones from there for a couple of generations to see if i can build some disease resistance into my own stock.

Reasonable idea or not?

Thanks, John
 
Sorry to wade in on this one but I have seen a few things that make me think that some of the harsh varroa treatments are bad for the queens. I want to minimise use of apiguard strips etc so that my combs dont soak up too much of the treatment and some have suggested this is better for the virility of drones and queens.

I will still be using oxalic acid and thymol treatments but if you can get a bee with some natural resistance, it seems like a good thing.

I know where there is a wild colony that has been there for about 10 years and so it must be quite resilient. I was thinking of taking some daughters from my AMM queen to mate with drones from there for a couple of generations to see if i can build some disease resistance into my own stock.

Reasonable idea or not?

Thanks, John

Hi John , just because there a wild colony's it doesn't necessarily mean there disease resistant/ have trates that would make them better at copping with varroa have you accessed the wild colony in any way ? . I would think they swarm every season?
I would want to no more about a colony before I wanted to breed from it .
2007 my grandad passed away and his colony's got left . 2016/17 I access three colony's left out of 17 and they were in a state from varroa .
I'm all for none treatment but it needs to be done via bee's that show all the given traits not just a case of breading from a wild colony .
Thanks mark
 
Interesting because the first queen I found with significant varroa resistance showed many of the traits common to A.M. mellifera. They wintered with only a few pounds of honey, came on gang busters for the spring flow, 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.

Hybrid with the American newbees,,, AFRICANISED... although the definsiveness could be from a Carniolian influence...
Just to add some balance to the argument!

Chons da
 
Sorry to wade in on this one but I have seen a few things that make me think that some of the harsh varroa treatments are bad for the queens. I want to minimise use of apiguard strips etc so that my combs dont soak up too much of the treatment and some have suggested this is better for the virility of drones and queens.

I will still be using oxalic acid and thymol treatments but if you can get a bee with some natural resistance, it seems like a good thing.

I know where there is a wild colony that has been there for about 10 years and so it must be quite resilient. I was thinking of taking some daughters from my AMM queen to mate with drones from there for a couple of generations to see if i can build some disease resistance into my own stock.

Reasonable idea or not?

Thanks, John

Wade away...

I thought that APIGUARD was a thymol based treatment.... do you mean Apistan or Apivar?.... confusing it is!
https://beekeepclub.com/apistan-vs-apivar-review/

My thoughts on "wild colonies" is that there are wild ( feral) colony sites that get occupied by serial colonies of bees... from local beekeepers lost swarms.
Colonies die out possibly due to infestation and infection.... Varroa.. AFB..EFB.

I believe some on here seek these colony sites out and fill in the entrances with builder's foam.
 
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I know where there is a wild colony that has been there for about 10 years and so it must be quite resilient. I was thinking of taking some daughters from my AMM queen to mate with drones from there for a couple of generations to see if i can build some disease resistance into my own stock.

Reasonable idea or not?

I see a couple of problems with your plan.
Leaving aside whether they are Amm or not, do you have the means to control mate any drones you capture with your queens (i.e. II)?
Drones are also notorious drifters and will be accepted into any colony during the active season. Breeders have to take special precautions to ensure the drones they use for II are actually from the queen they appear to be from (i.e. marking or caging (which brings its own problems)).
 
Hybrid with the American newbees
I've been a beekeeper since 1969 so this is the 50th year. I caught swarms of black bees and requeened with Italian queens. I would recognize AMM just from the common traits. The queen with varroa resistance was not africanized. She showed many of the traits of the AMM bees I caught as swarms in the 1970's and 1980's. Just how long have you kept bees anyway? You come across as an amateur.

B+, Foraging at low temps is useful in my climate. In the case of the hive I described, it was a huge positive. They were very light going into winter and I did not feed them. They found enough aster in bloom to pack honey for winter. I watched dozens of foragers flying into the hive on a bright sunny November day as the sun set with temps at 6C. None of the Italian colonies in that apiary were foraging. Only the AMM colony was out and hustling for winter food.

gp125John, I advise catching a swarm from the colony and do some due diligence to see if they exhibit varroa resistance.
 
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I've been a beekeeper since 1969 so this is the 50th year. I caught swarms of black bees and requeened with Italian queens. I would recognize AMM just from the common traits. The queen with varroa resistance was not africanized. She showed many of the traits of the AMM bees I caught as swarms in the 1970's and 1980's. Just how long have you kept bees anyway? You come across as an amateur.

In 1969 I was working in Sweden... had to throw away my denim jeans as the Stockholmers thought I was an American draft dodger!!

My Grandfather roped me into keeping bees in the mid fifties ....

You come across as a incompetent and somewhat ignorant "Know it All" ..... obviously have not learned a lot from your 2 hive experience in the last half century... perhaps you should take up carp fishing!

Yeghes da
 
B+, Foraging at low temps is useful in my climate. In the case of the hive I described, it was a huge positive. They were very light going into winter and I did not feed them. They found enough aster in bloom to pack honey for winter. I watched dozens of foragers flying into the hive on a bright sunny November day as the sun set with temps at 6C. None of the Italian colonies in that apiary were foraging. Only the AMM colony was out and hustling for winter food.

You saved sugar money at least 5$ /hive. ... Hmmm... It was one hive.
.
 
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