Wild/Feral Survivor-Thrivers: Naturally Selected Resistant Bees.

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This is for discussion of bees that have acquired the ability to cope with varroa without any help. The core assumption is that in the UK and Ireland this has occurred through natural selection for the fittest strain, and any subsequent selection has built on that. The idea is to learn from each-other, what works, and why, in the realm of no-treatment beekeeping. Testimonies, questions, explanations and links to relevant scientific studies are all welcome.

I'd like the thread to be a place where the mechanisms that wild populations employ to locate and maintain resistance can be explored, in the belief that that topic holds the key to understanding why no-treatment beekeeping works in some circumstances and not in others.

 

[JohnRB]

Interesting paper by Prof Stephen Martin and team on cuban resistant bees and uncapping behaviour here:

https://www.researchgate.net/public...lation_of_Varroa-resistant_European_honeybees
Published in September

 

[Beesnaturally]

Interesting paper by Prof Stephen Martin and team on cuban resistant bees and uncapping behaviour here:

https://www.researchgate.net/public...lation_of_Varroa-resistant_European_honeybees
Published in September

Thanks John. From the abstract:

" in many Southern hemisphere countries widespread treatment did not occur since miticides were prohibitively expensive, or a centralised choice was made not to treat, both allowing natural selection to act. "

That's the interesting bit. IMHO. If you (can) make like natural selection you too can help NVR bees to increase, thrive and spread.

 

[Steve at Westerham Beeks]

It’s a really interesting paper. Beekeepers want to understand the mechanisms that honeybees are deploying to control their mite populations. Once understood, they can be embedded into education and selection practices.

Without treating, there will be natural selection.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Without treating, there will be natural selection. a lot of dead colonies

There, fixed it for you

 

[Erichalfbee]

There, fixed it for you

Some will survive; but enough?

 

[Beesnaturally]

Some will survive; but enough?

You two are soo far behind the curve on this....

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

better than being around the bend

 

[Erichalfbee]

You two are soo far behind the curve on this....

" in many Southern hemisphere countries widespread treatment did not occur since miticides were prohibitively expensive, or a centralised choice was made not to treat, both allowing natural selection to act. "

I meant these

 

[Beesnaturally]

I meant these

What can I say? Everywhere it has been allowed to happen it has happened. It is/was/always will be confidently predicted to happen on the basis of basic evolutionary biology.

Any kind of narrative to the contrary is/was/always will be false.

The theory is endlessly tested, the evidence is widespread.

Those with skin in the game continue to promote ignorance and falsity; there is no shortage of takers.

None of which is to say that going cold turkey is a grand idea for anyone who make a living from selling honey. But; you don't need to. You can, if have, or can find, or make, the genetic space, tickle up NVR bees of your own without loss of colony numbers or yield.

These are the facts. The scientific literature bears them out.

 

[Beesnaturally]

glitched again

 

[user 20297]

This is a link to a US. You Tube beekeeper; thus invalidated on at least two counts by some people (not me). He deals with a hive that has apparently been a long time neglected. Opening up, the bees are in great shape and with lots of honey in December. After telling us that he's going to get the bees treated, he rightly applauds their resilience and suggests that they represent good breeding stock with their obvious ability to handle the mite problem.

The final insult for these bees...they will be amalagamated with his other stocks and sent south on pollination duties.

 

[Beesnaturally]

The USDA has approved a vaccine against foul brood. Question: What will be the effect on wild bees?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/...ail&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-8b9cc51957-45686274

 

[Erichalfbee]

The queen is immunised via her food and passes the immunity to her offspring.

Does a virgin queen pass it into her offspring after mating?

 

[Mint Bee]

old news, do keep up. Its also a conditional approval.

 

[fian]

The queen is immunised via her food and passes the immunity to her offspring.

Does a virgin queen pass it into her offspring after mating?

I don't think so, either the vaccine includes genetic editing or the transmission of immunity will not be possible. In the case of mammals, if there is transfer due to sharing space (pregnancy) and during lactation.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well what danger is it to wild bees?

 

[Ian123]

Well what danger is it to wild bees?

Ohhhhhhhh why did you have to go and ask

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ohhhhhhhh why did you have to go and ask

I presumed BN’s was a rhetorical question and he had the answer.

 

[Beesnaturally]

I presumed BN’s was a rhetorical question and he had the answer.

I am presuming (not for the first time) that your question was rhetorical

Surely you know the answer to that by now?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I am presuming (not for the first time) that your question was rhetorical

Surely you know the answer to that by now?

I sent my daughter a clip from Frozen Planet 2 of two polar bears playing. She said it was just gorgeous then added, "I stopped watching Attenborough because of the moments he points to the collapse of so many of Earth's ecosystems. I don't need a reminder of the eco-grief I feel so much"
I feel a bit like that too. I can only do my bit. I'm not concerned with what the Americans do with their bees. Hopefully our surveillance systems are sufficient and we will never have to worry about it.