I was asked about letting my bees be surveyed 2 nights ago. There is no payment involved. They want a sample of 300 bees for an alcohol wash and a sample of 500 bees for DNA tests. If available, they would also like a pinprick brood removal test to be performed. I won't mess with the pin prick tests, but the alcohol wash and DNA test are viable. Below is most of the information I provided.
Hives to be surveyed should be treatment free for at least 2 years (mine are TF for 15 years) and should not have been split or otherwise manipulated in the current year to reduce varroa counts. Some of the questions asked are a bit ridiculous so I marked them as not relevant. Others such as number of beekeepers withing 10 km were easy to answer as I have a list. There are currently 12 beekeepers within 15 km of my bees one of which is running commercial queens and treats. He is 7 miles or 11 km from my apiaries. Other questions are a bit ambiguous such as how many colonies do I have which is currently at 20 with half a dozen nucs raising queens. The low was about 10 colonies and the high was about 30. They want to know if I migrate with my bees (no), and do I perform any tests on my bees to determine if they will live (no). I do it the simple way, either they live or they die. I lost some colonies in the 2006 to 2010 time frame to varroa with roughly 30% losses per year. From 2010 to today, I have not lost any colonies directly to varroa. I have had the usual problems with queen failure and similar issues that cause colonies to die.
I have kept bees since 1969 first catching swarms that were mostly Apis Mellifera Mellifera and requeening with Italians. After tracheal mites (acarapis woodi) decimated my bees in 1987/1988, I purchased Buckfast queens from Weaver Apiaries in Texas and rebuilt to about 30 colonies in 1993. Varroa decimated my bees in the winter of 1993/1994 leaving me with one survivor. I split the survivor in March 1994 using 3 purchased Italian queens and treated for varroa that fall with Apistan strips. From 1994 until 2004, I kept about a dozen colonies mostly with Buckfast genetics and treating yearly. In 2004, I caught a swarm of bees that showed very low mite levels when I prepared to treat that fall.
The traits of that queen’s colony were heavily influenced by A.M.M. genetics as shown by traits of low temperature foraging, overwintering so light I thought they would surely be dead by spring, aggressive stinging, and extremely rapid spring buildup. They were my strongest and most productive colony in 2005. That queen lasted until 2006 when I purchased queens from Purvis Apiaries and raised drones from them. I raised a dozen or so queens from my mite resistant queen and mated them at my land to the Purvis drones. At that time, there were almost no other bees in this area so the matings were consistent and reliable. Over the next 5 years, I induced my bees to swarm heavily in 2006 and 2008 so that the surrounding area would be saturated with varroa resistant feral colonies. I estimate between 30 and 50 swarms were pushed into the trees. From that point until today I have been able to get very good mite resistance from random mating at my land.
I lost a few colonies to varroa each year from 2006 until 2010. Each year, I split remaining colonies to replace losses. In 2012, I brought in 8 queens from Mike Carpenter (carpenter apiaries) and used them to diversify the genetics of my bees. This cross turned out to be particularly beneficial as I got better honey production and excellent mite resistance with no subsequent losses to varroa. I brought in 3 queens from Beeweaver in 2015 and culled 2 of them based on colony defensiveness. I kept one queen and raised several daughters to mate to drones from my line. Roughly 1/2 of my bees currently are descended from this cross though I have had to select heavily to reduce the stinging tendency. I should note that the reason for bringing in the Beeweaver queens was because I was having a lot of problems with hive beetles. The Beeweaver queens are highly tolerant of hive beetles.
The background genetics of my bees are a mix of Buckfast from 2004, A.M.m. from the 2004 swarm queen, Purvis (primorski), dark Italian from Carpenter, and some Scutellata from the Beeweaver queens. They are an American blend.
I am currently raising queens from a F2 Buckfast queen (mother was purchased from Ferguson Apiaries in Canada) and mating back to drones from my bees. These queens will gradually be integrated into the rest of the mix as soon as I am certain they are mite resistant enough. None of these queens are currently in the colonies that would be sampled.
Perhaps also of interest, I changed from Langstroth equipment to square Dadant in 2016. I had always been interested in trialing the hives used by Brother Adam. I have to say that they exceed any expectations I may have had. The most significant modification I made was to build 32 mm frames which permit 14 frames in each box. My reason for using 14 frames is because it significantly speeds up spring buildup. I currently have about 20 colonies and half a dozen queen nucs. With a bit of work, I expect to get up to 30 colonies in 3 apiaries next year.
