pictures of some varroa resistant bees

Fusion_power · Feb 20, 2017

Here are some pics to give perspective. These bees are all highly mite resistant. Look carefully and you will see zero mites. My bees were last treated in fall 2004 spring 2005. Bands of pollen are around the brood areas. These pics were taken today during the 3rd brood cycle. Most of my colonies have 4 frames of brood. These are Dadant frames so 4 frames is roughly the equivalent of 5 Langstroth frames.

This is a picture of a BWeaver line queen mated to drones from my line. She is outstanding in honey production, gentleness, and has excellent performance against hive beetles.

Here are two of her brood frames.

This is a colony with a carpenter line queen. Note the brood pattern. The second pic shows a couple of workers with bright red/orange pollen from the same colony.

This is a queen from my line. She is set for breeding this year. Her only weakness is that her colony is not as good against hive beetles as the BWeaver hive.

This pic is of a frame of eggs and young larvae from a Carpenter line queen.

And this is a very out of focus photo of the Carpenter queen that produced the larvae. I was holding the frame with one hand and snapping the pic with the other. I moved the camera too much resulting in this poor photo.

Finman · Feb 20, 2017

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And these are AMM origin?

Fusion_power · Feb 20, 2017

The dark queen with white mark is from my line and yes, she has a very strong A.M.m. heritage. Her colony grooms off mites more aggressively than the Carpenter line. That is why I suggest looking closely at A.M.m. bees. They are mostly mite susceptible, but here and there one shows up with the grooming traits.

I should add that I found drones in 2 colonies today. They are about a week old.

SDM · Feb 20, 2017

Your feral population is basically purvis gold line isn't it ?
Your own are beeweaver x with something you found
Purvis line genetics are pretty much a mystery
Beeweaver are 10%africanised according to weaver others suggest it's more like 50/50 with ligustica.
How are you establishing "very strong Amm heritage" ?

Fusion_power · Feb 20, 2017

Purvis developed the gold line from Italian crosses made with his basic Russian stock. It is correct to say that Purvis gold line queens are at least 50% derived from Russian stock.

BWeaver bees have significant Africanization. I purchased 3 BWeaver queens in 2015 and evaluated their performance. Long story short, I culled 2 of the queens and raised a few from the 3rd. The queen in the picture is the only queen I have left from BWeaver stock. She was raised in 2015 - hence the blue dot - produced an exceptionally good colony in 2016, is very gentle, and most important to me, shows no sign of usurpation swarms. Working her colony is roughly comparable to most pure Buckfast I've owned. I will raise a few from her because she is the best I have for managing hive beetles.

My line of queens were produced from a single queen I found in a swarm in 2004. That swarm showed A.M.m. traits such as stinging, swarming, and nervousness on the combs. They were extremely frugal overwintering on about 10 or 15 pounds of honey and coming out of winter as the strongest colony I had. Most important, they showed very strong mite resistance. I did not have to treat that colony for mites even though the rest of my bees were heavily infested. I have worked A.M.m. bees extensively in the past and recognize the traits when I see them.

I purchased 10 gold line queens from Purvis and used them to produce a huge population of drones. Then I raised queens from my queen and mated them with the Purvis drones. That the matings were successful can be shown from the mite resistance of the colonies headed by the daughter queens. In 2006, I deliberately pushed my colonies to swarm and did it again in 2008. My best estimate is that 50 or so swarms hit the trees which saturated this area with mite resistant genetics.

I maintain a relatively isolated breeding area on my land 7 miles from here. There are no beekeepers within 4 miles and the only drones available are either from my colonies placed there or from ferals in the woods. The feral bees are all mite resistant. It is not as good as an isolated mating station, but it is good enough that I can make a bit of progress with selecting for other traits. I currently have 4 colonies there and 2 of them have drones. I have 4 more colonies to carry there when I get ready to set up queen nucs. Eight colonies should produce enough drones to give some decent early queens. Each colony has at least 1 frame of drone comb.

I have bees in 3 other apiaries. Queens I plan to use as breeders are here at my house along with a few colonies I am feeding to prepare to raise queens.

Several beekeepers in this area have my stock. None of them treat for mites. I don't bother counting mites any more. Someone challenged me on this in 2014 so I put a board under a colony and collected mites. I found 15 in 48 days. Last year, someone wanted to know how bad mites were in my bees. I opened 127 drone cells in a colony before finding one. There are not enough mites in my bees to cause economic problems.

We could have a better conversation about hive beetles.

domino · Feb 21, 2017

I'm disappointed.

I want resistant bees to be dressed up as little bee sized rambos - with bandannas holding a knife in its teeth.

Just kidding, lovely bees.