Welsh B.A 2010 convention

[MrB]

Anyone here going ?

 

[VEG]

I am

 

[MrB]

Hi Veg,
This will be the first convention i have attended so not sure what to expect.
is it all indoors ?

 

[VEG]

I hope so as will prob be wazzing down

 

[VEG]

Well had a great day some very interesting talks on varroa, from DR JOHN KEFUSS. He gave up treating for varroa in 1999, and still doesnt treat. Some very interesting results.
On another note Thornes were there selling some equipment for less than their sale prices, so some bargains to be had. Nat brood boxes for £15.

 

[Mike101]

I thought Dr Kefuss's talk was was good news overall for the bee fraternity in so far that he has good evidence that selecting and then breeding for varroa resistance works!

He now has many thousands of colonys around the world which has no treatment for varroa and are thriving.

In a nutshell
1. Select 100 of your most productive hives

2 Select from those the 20 most "hygenicly minded Colonys"


2. Dont treat these and breed from those most resistent to varroa.

He gave loads more detail on the scientific aspects of the process and how to go about it, but the bottom line is it worked!

Not practical for small scale beeks unless we group together to get workable numbers and that will always be a problem!

Food for thought though!

 

[MrB]

Yep, great day, as said already facinating talk by Dr Kefuss.
just shows what can be done if you have many hives and can afford the early losses.

 

[VEG]

I have e-mailed him for the information on his talk and will post it here when I get it for others to see.

 

[oliver90owner]

Veg,

I am all for that.

Unfortunately those that are like-minded are in the definite minority at the present time.

Most want the maximum honey crop (regardless of suitability of the queen for other traits) or want to market their queens for anything but varroa resistance at this present time.

Things may (hopefully) change in the future, but that is the bottom line at the present time.

Mike101,

Unfortunately it may not be that the best colonies to breed from for resistance to varroa is in that top 100 hives. As you point out, for most on here, that would be all of them and then some! Even selecting 20 is beyond most on the forum.

Did he use II for transfer of this good trait?

List,

Simply better that everyone tries to find at least one colony and try to improve on it. then we might need to put any promising colonies together on a site for more improvement. Thoughts?

Regards, RAB

 

[VEG]

I forgot to say that he now has to buy in varroa lol.