varroa free bee

Just wondered what anyone's view is on these links about bees combating varroa.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...s-breeds-indestructible-bee-protect-mite.html

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU0DBZgf4_s[/ame]

http://www.moraybeedinosaurs.co.uk/stanton_park.html

I want wish to sound cynical or question his findings but I do have some doubts about this. Sadly the first thought that came to mind a year or two ago when I first heard about this, is this simply another money making exercise.

No doubt Ron is very well respected in bee keeping circles and even if he has stumbled across a bee that actively removes mites its not going to change bee keeping in the UK or anywhere else in the world over night or even over the next 10 years. To do so would require hundreds - thousands of colonies, remote breeding sites and a lot of bee keepers to manage. As Ron said himself when treating his bees he found issues such as sterile drones and the queens he was inseminating were being rejected. Some thing changed thats for sure but its unlikely it was caused by just the treatments he was using at the time or everyone who treated in the same way across the country or even the world would have the same problems.

Then purely by chance he found a colony that deals with mites...
I wish him well but I'll stick with what I have for now.

If you have time to stand and watch bees in an observation hive you will often see them grooming each other, especially the newly emerged ones.

Oddly I was wondering today how Mr Hoskins is getting on as things seem to have gone a bit quiet?

PH

counting bugs must be very time consuming..

counting bugs must be very time consuming..

Click to expand...

It is, and counting swallows migrating and sharpening claws.

Chris