Selection and no chemicals but a too close to treatment bees In 2019, Sibylle and Wolfgang bought 3 Elgon colonies from me. They were all treated for varroa with half a dose of thymol that year. Since then, they have
More treatment free Elgon bees
Help for varroa resistance
Resistance against intruders One of my bee colonies (Elgon, combinationof Buckfast and Monticola) started to superseed their queen, but the new queen evidently got lost. The colony ended up with egg-laying workers. I discovered that in August. It had several
Darwinian beekeeping, cell size and fitness
I respect and appreciate Tom Seeley and consider him a friend. He coined the expression Darwinian beekeeping. He has given us deeper understanding of the natural bee colony. But I don’t understand an expression of his in one of his
Varroa resistant bees
– African bees are resistant to Varroa mites, or become resistant in about 5 years after the mite has come to their hives, in Africa and Americas – Italian bees on an isolated island close to the cost of Brazil
Updated Elgon website
I have had this blog for some years now. And I had originally a website in both English and Swedish for many years, which were also not updated for many years. 1.5 years ago or so I updated the English
Varroa resistant bees in Norway
It is positive that the research community is becoming increasingly focused on varro-resistant honeybees. The latest report comes from a doctoral student, Melissa Oddie. She has started an investigation why a Norwegian beekeeper’s population of bee colonies can be called
Small cell size important in breeding Varroa resistance
After reading the blogpost ”Breakthrough?” an European PhD-Scientist wrote me an email with the following comment: ”After reading your post I realized that you do have small cell size, but you’re not mentioning it in the actual post. To make
Learning and teaching
Hans-Otto Johnsen was very skilled already in his youth keeping old American cars and trucks going. That skill can be very handy for a commercial beekeeper. For many years he worked as an expert on explosives, but he got
More Varroa resistant bees
Darrel Jones lives in a rural area in northern Alabama. He is an enthusiastic grower of heirloom tomatoes, http://www.selectedplants.com/ Being a beekeeper as well is a natural fit with his gardening activities. Keeping bees treatment free was his goal from
A locally adapted Varroa resistant bee stock
http://www.happyhollowhoney.com/ Richard Reid in a Virgina rural area in the US began with bees 1973. Beekeeping was simple, almost only it consisted of putting on and removing supers. By 1995 all of his bees died due to the Varroa mite.