Variations in the good ratings I have only seen a few isolated varroa mites, despite breaking apart a lot of drone brood. I have only seen occasional wing-damaged bees, then only in 1-2 colonies that had a large brood cluster
Treatment-free beekeeping On november 12, 2022, the 4th Annual Conference on resistance to the varroa mite was held in Hallsberg. The goal for us participating in these conferences is to be able to conduct a more trouble-free beekeeping without chemicals
Resistance conference in Hallsberg 12 Nov We who work with varroa resistance in Hallsberg and the surroundings will have our fourth annual conference on varroa resistance and treatment free beekeeping. Anyone who is interested is welcome! In previous years, there
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
Finally! No treatment! One loss! I have had a long journey to achieve treatment-free bees. I’m obviously thinking of the varroa mite. In 1989, breeding material was retrieved in Kenya: https://www.beesource.com/threads/exploring-monticola-efforts-to-find-an-acceptable-varroa-resistant-honey-bee.365571/#post-1843973 It took until 2007 before the varroa mite was
Breed varroa-resistant bees! The study of EurBeST states that varroa-resistant bees are important for beekeeping. In 2017, the European Commission appointed an international group of bee researchers led by the German Bee Institute in Kirchhain to find out more about
Strong Varroa resistant bee colonies Some suggest that one important trait for varroa resistance is smaller brood nest and less brood rearing. That may be so for some stock resulting in lower growth rate of varroa mites. It’s also resulting
Traits for Varroa resistance We have found in our Varroa resistant project in our local bee club that when you begin a project like this, checking the varroa level is the most important tool, if you plan to treat colonies
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
Spring cleaning of varroa The most important time for monitoring the varroa levelis in spring. (Other times can also be important!) Last year I realized that the varroa level can differ quite a lot for the same colony just a week