Of relevance to everyone

[B+.]

Dr Buchler gave a series of presentations at the National Honey Show last year. These presentations were videod and are now available to watch on Youtube. Some of you may be interested to watch them. They are a bit basic/general though.

Varroa Resistance Characters and Selection Protocols (Part 1 of 4) - https://youtu.be/KwuR3uMkMF0
Environmental Adaptation of Honey Bees (Part 2 of 4) - https://youtu.be/4DVm_L7Fkqc
Sustainable Varroa Management (Part 3 of 4) - https://youtu.be/tuJlgzcQWAg
Understanding Bee Colony Biology (Part 4 of 4) - https://youtu.be/1mC9R1e-tn4

I post this, not to re-open old discussions, but to highlight the useful information he delivered.
One point that was particularly significant to me was his comment about the myriad of natural occupants of a beehive (mites, fungi, etc). The way I take this is that anything you do, anything you take out or put into your hive, and each time you interfere with it, you may be having an effect that you don't appreciate (e.g. oxalic treatments for varroa mites affecting beneficial organisms too - a bit like antibiotics wiping the natural organisms in your gut). I am not saying this to espouse "natural beekeeping" but to ask you to consider the unintentional effect of everything you do. Whatever side of previous discussions you stand on, this is relevant to us all.

 

[drex]

Having practiced medicine all my life, before any prescribing, I always asked myself if the treatment was actually necessary, and what were the downsides. There are downsides to any therapeutic drug, even aspirin and paracetamol, powdered sugar, thymol etc

Great videos, already watched the series. Given me quite a lot to think about in my own beekeeping. I liked his promotion of brood breaks, as happens in natural swarming.

 

[B+.]

Having practiced medicine all my life, before any prescribing, I always asked myself if the treatment was actually necessary, and what were the downsides. There are downsides to any therapeutic drug, even aspirin and paracetamol, powdered sugar, thymol etc

Great videos, already watched the series. Given me quite a lot to think about in my own beekeeping. I liked his promotion of brood breaks, as happens in natural swarming.

I remember having many a "heated discussion" with my wife (who was doing a pre-phd course at the time) about the need to observe vs the impact of disturbance.
There is plenty to step back and think about in those videos but there is also an inherent contradiction: brood break (as in swarming) versus the impact on colony dynamics (If I remember correctly, he also said they lost a number of queens during the exercise). There is always an impact, no matter what you do.

 

[B+.]

There is always an impact, no matter what you do.

...and, of course, whenever you don't do something.
It wasn't so long ago that beekeepers were advised to remove drone brood to reduce varroa mites. What happened? They discovered that there weren't enough drones and queens weren't being properly mated.
There is always an effect somewhere.

 

[Beefriendly]

...and, of course, whenever you don't do something.
It wasn't so long ago that beekeepers were advised to remove drone brood to reduce varroa mites. What happened? They discovered that there weren't enough drones and queens weren't being properly mated.
There is always an effect somewhere.

Who did the work that discovered that?
Was it ever published?

 

[B+.]

Who did the work that discovered that?
Was it ever published?

I can't remember off the top of my head but you can see it being practiced in the IWF video C1896 Beekeeping by annual rotation (https://youtu.be/zXvHu5ZVOfc?t=1268 ).
One additional point: drones are quite fragile and any disturbance to the feeding/rearing of a drone can affect his fertility. Perhaps this is why some people have problems getting queens mated.

 

[Ian123]

I don’t think beeks culling drone comb was responsible for poor matings I don’t think enough ever did or it hatched before they got there. Am sure I remember research showing the effects of both varroa and its treatments having an impact though.

 

[Lancs Lad]

Excellent series of videos, showing from good research the benefits of locally adapted bees, but also you can improve as long as you don't keep changing the background population

 

[Beefriendly]

I can't remember off the top of my head but you can see it being practiced in the IWF video C1896 Beekeeping by annual rotation (https://youtu.be/zXvHu5ZVOfc?t=1268 )..

Yes, we already know culling of drone brood was practised and preached to all and sundry.........but who discovered it was detrimental to queen mating's? You said "they discovered it......", you must have some information somewhere who they are.

 

[B+.]

Yes, we already know culling of drone brood was practised and preached to all and sundry.........but who discovered it was detrimental to queen mating's? You said "they discovered it......", you must have some information somewhere who they are.

OMG, there were loads of population models back in the late 90's that looked at the effect of removing drone brood. I used to read Apidologie a lot back then but the same articles would be published in different places. By the early 2000's there were lots of theories why queens were being superseded early (some were quite outlandish). Some of the info I was getting around this time from German contacts was that they had stopped drone culling because it was so wide-spread that it was affecting queen mating. Again, this may have been circumstantial but they stopped doing it and, from what I understand, their queen mating problems went away.
One of the points that Dr Buchler makes is that it takes several thousand drones to maintain a DCA. If there are insufficient strong, healthy drones in the area, this may also have an affect on queens mating properly (sensible?). We already know that some chemicals are absorbed by the wax and affect drone fertility. This is one reason why I am so interested in treatment-free beekeeping. My drones are very healthy (https://twitter.com/i/status/1130130123561349121 ).

 

[Beefriendly]

OMG, there were loads of population models back in the late 90's that looked at the effect of removing drone brood.

I was rather hoping you could help me out rather than "OMG me" and try fobbing me off with a load of drone culling population studies. I wanted to specifically read the ones that found culling drone brood affected queen mating's, as you stated earlier. Apart from rhetorical thoughts and musing on't t'internet I cannot (yet) find any work or any facts that confirms this.
Never mind, if you don't know of any you simply don't know of any.
I shall continue searching.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

B+ Thanks for posting the links. I will look fully when I have time. I too worry about chemicals.

 

[For want of a better word]

Excellent series of videos, showing from good research the benefits of locally adapted bees, but also you can improve as long as you don't keep changing the background population

As with importing and requeening with exotics

In my ""eco niche"" anyway!
Chons da

 

[B+.]

I was rather hoping you could help me out rather than "OMG me" and try fobbing me off with a load of drone culling population studies. I wanted to specifically read the ones that found culling drone brood affected queen mating's, as you stated earlier. Apart from rhetorical thoughts and musing on't t'internet I cannot (yet) find any work or any facts that confirms this.
Never mind, if you don't know of any you simply don't know of any.
I shall continue searching.

It's you who is asking the question. I'm not searching through 30 years of bee stuff to answer it for you.

 

[B+.]

As with importing and requeening with exotics

In my ""eco niche"" anyway!

You don't get to pick-and-choose. He also said the qualities necessary to thrive in an area can be developed in similar places around the world.
The one thing I was disappointed in was that he failed to address changing environments (you can't ask for everything though). You might think that if the environment changes, the ability is no longer as important to a bees survival. Other abilities would become more important.
Another point was his suggestion that colonies should be ~70m apart. As a general point, overcrowding is probably something we should avoid, but, how many beekeepers could satisfy that? Not many amateurs and probably no professionals.

 

[B+.]

Excellent series of videos, showing from good research the benefits of locally adapted bees, but also you can improve as long as you don't keep changing the background population

Did you notice how he side-stepped the question of what constituted "local"? In fairness, I think he had to because hive density will be different all over the world.
Selective breeding is pretty big in Germany and they are well organised so everyone can benefit from advances. There are still plenty of beekeepers who work with a local strain though. They seem to co-exist amicably. I think we can learn from their example.

 

[Beefriendly]

I'm not searching through 30 years of bee stuff to answer it for you.

I rather hoped when you wrote "They discovered that there weren't enough drones and queens weren't being properly mated." that you might know who or what's work you were talking about. Obviously not.
Shame, as really interesting that a potential method of varroa control could be causing queen mating issues.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Liked the examples of forced brood breaks. Prefer the idea of caging the queen to shook swarming but (and there was a question) once you release the queen most of the bees are ageing. You've lost 3+ weeks of brood. Don't you need young bees which can produce royal jelly? Do they pick up again?

I'm going to give this a go this year.

 

[Ian123]

As with importing and requeening with exotics

In my ""eco niche"" anyway!
Chons da

Some consider not marrying your cousin exotic!!!!

 

[B+.]

Liked the examples of forced brood breaks. Prefer the idea of caging the queen to shook swarming but (and there was a question) once you release the queen most of the bees are ageing. You've lost 3+ weeks of brood. Don't you need young bees which can produce royal jelly? Do they pick up again?

I'm going to give this a go this year.

I'm trying to remember the name of those cages. I think it's scalpini (I'm probably miss-remembering but it's something like that). They're a bit like a Nicot cage but smaller