#resistantbees

To begin with - there are some valid criticisms of this work. One is the queen rearing. Already 100 years ago, Rudolf Steiner said, that if we continue like this, with the kind of queen rearing which we operate, the bee, in 100 years, will be infertile. And he was not entirely wrong. But there are problems at the beginning and we need to quickly adapt to new situations and change quickly the genetics of many of our hives. I must not do that much longer, and Dee has ceased some time with it some time ago. Now I will tell about things, where a few will say that I'm crazy, because you simply cannot believe it, but I have tried and it worked exactly as Dee told me. I have already mentioned – it is quite simple - we must multiply the hives, that better defend themselves against the diseases, and those who are less able to handle it, we must eliminate. Ie do not kill, but you have to solve the health problem, then remove immediately the queen and replace her with one, that we have bred after certain criteria. So we need to breed queens, does not matter how, because there are many kinds. I often use the Cloake board, but it is the same. The trick that is applied by Dee, is briefly explained as follows: Dee does not search the old queens, but mimics the process of a supercedure queen in a hive. For this purpose, she breeds virgin queens, who have no smell, that is the most important factor. And she adds them to the hive with the use of smoke in a stress free situation. I could not believe it, made it many times and can say that it works to 90%. The new queen is accepted, is mated and the old one - no one knows what exactly happens, have discussed a lot about it, disappears. The question is: how do we get the virgin queens odor-free?We do the grafting and wait until the queen cells have been capped. Very important in my experience is, that we feed the hive, that builds the cells, strongly with honey. The cells are quite long and there is plenty of royal jelly left inside. I pour a pound of honey every day, just over the frames and in addition, with a feeder, I feed honey. And the other trick, that they accept many cells on the first day, is to place the frame with the grafted cells very close to the next frames (without separation) The next day they are placed at right distance. We do not do the grafting with water but with a lot of royal jelly, diluted with water - the one day old maggots are swimming in jelly. If we now have capped queen cells, we put them in thin flat-bottomed glass tubes and then in the incubator. I bought a cheap but very good incubator in which I installed a weather station sensor that monitors moisture and temperature, also with alarm. There, the queens hatch, resting first a couple of hours in sleep, usually on the back and then we can introduce them into the selected hives. Thus you can control this babies beautifully whether you like them in every aspect and you can keep them alive even up to 24 hours, or longer. These are babies, you have to feed them, clean them, give them to drink, etc. But it is best to use them straight on when they wake up. This can often be stressful for the beekeeper to get up several times at night to check them.But most important is NEVER touch the virgins by the fingers, or they take the smell. Now comes another trick. I do not know if you ever have worked your hives at night. This works well with red light, which can not be seen by the bees. I have a head lamp with red bulb and red glass, open the hive and the bees remain absolutely quiet. They cannot see us (so you can open most savage hives, and even search the queen - but beware of the bees run anywhere, preferably in the pants from the bottom). I smoke some times with the smoker through the entrance hole until it comes up through the opened lid. Then I free the virgin from the glass tube, without touching her, in a place where I suspect, that the old queen is not present at the moment. Close - ready. The most important thing is, that the bees are not stressed and we can observe that the virgin enters vehemently, the bees touch her and its finished. . Your not going to believe it, I didn't believe it either, but I have learned it. Just try it out;- . . . My son Luca has put together a video where Dee also appears at the end: In Spanish, but you can see quite a lot:Video of Michael Bush about queen rearing and selection Read the full article

Published in Bee Culture, May 2020, pages 75 – 77 - article from Erik Österlund Dr Melissa Oddie, a Canadian researcher, will continue her research for at least two years based on the Varroa resistant bees with Terje Reinertsen in central Norway. Her doctoral dissertation was based on research with these bees. The Norwegian authorities have allocated $ 1 million (NOK 8.5 million) for this research. February 21-23 the commercial beekeepers in Sweden (Biodlingsforetagarna) had a conference in Sunne in western Sweden close to the Norwegian border at the newly built hotel Selma Spa. It was fully booked. Beekeepers from Sweden, Norway and some from Finland were listening to Terje and Melissa and many others, from the University of Agriculture in Sweden (SLU), from Belgium and Canada to mention a few. Sunne is the place where Selma Lagerlöf lived, a famous author, the first woman to get the Nobel Prize in literature. Dr. Melissa Oddie and Terje Reinertsen in Sweden. Dr. Oddie discovered a salient trait in Terje Reinertsen’s bees which expresses itself in that bees uncap pupae in which there are mites and recap them again without damaging the pupae. This apparently interferes with the mites’ reproduction. The characteristic that is otherwise very much in focus today is called VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygiene). Here, the bees remove pupae that are invaded by mites (mites that have offspring). VSH is not a prominent feature of the resistant Norwegian bees.Visit in NorwayIn the Fall of 2019, my wife Gunvi and I visited Anita and Terje Reinertsen. They don’t have a lot of suitable agriculture land for growing crops in Norway so they use every little piece of land possible to grow food. Quite steep slopes had recently been harvested. Norway is no longer Sweden’s little brother as it’s been for many years. It’s the big brother now, with oil and gas and Varroa resistant bees!Anita and Terje Reinertsen The Varroa resistant beesSome years ago, researchers began to be interested in a population of Varroa resistant bees in Norway around Terje Reinertsen. The important thing is that you don’t have to treat them at all against the Varroa mite, and they are therefore not treated. The mite population in a hive of Terje can vary during the season. His bees havn’t been treated for about 25 years. It was about the time when the mite came to Norway. When I became aware of this, I wondered why we hadn’t heard or read more about his bees during these many years.Now there has been some exciting research reports from the works of Dr. Melissa Oddie and her coworkers.1,2,3,4 Research on these bees was the basis for her doctoral dissertation. Since then, articles and reports of the bees of Terje Reinertsen have been published.He has been focused on developing a stock of Varroa resistant bees since the mite began to create problems in Norway. And he has done that together with beekeepers in his vicinity. In April 2019, he was one of the speakers at a conference in southern Sweden on healthy bees that do not need to be treated against parasites and diseases, and how to get there. Melissa Oddie participated, together with several other speakers including also Kirk Webster from Vermont. And now in February 2020 he and Melissa Oddie were speaking in Sunne.Varroa in NorwayIn 1994, the Varroa mite had made its presence so well known among beekeepers in Norway that it was decided that bee colonies had to be treated against the mite. The central association took help from countries where they had had more experience of the mite. Among other things, it was recommended to use ”Krämerplatten” that evaporate formic acid in the bee colony.5Terje listened carefully to the advice and treated his bees in the recommended way in the Autumn of 1994. He lost 70% of his colonies in the Winter of 1994-95. Other beekeepers also lost about the same amount of beehives. Several lost 100%. Spring treatment with formic acid was then mentioned as an additional alternative to save colonies that survived the Winter. Then fewer holes in the plastic around the formic acid soft board plate were used so that the evaporation speed would not be so high.5 Terje applied this method to the survivors.Decision not to treatAfter analyzing the results of all the treatments, Terje and a some other beekeepers concluded that if you were to loose so many bee colonies after treating, you could just as well not treat, because you didn’t lose more colonies if you didn’t treat.At that time, little was known about the importance of the balance between all different types of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and other types of microbes) for the immune system. Such an ecological system of microorganisms in and on a living being is called a microbiome. For example, we humans have about 2 kg of microbes on and in us. Without them we die.Microbiome and epigeneticsThe microbiome6 is now a hot topic in research, even among bees7. The microbiome will become unbalanced if chemicals in sufficient quantities affect the bees.8 Defense against harmful microbes is weakened, for example against pathogenic viruses.Another hot topic in research is epigenetics.9 Changes in how genes in the DNA are used, in kind of a contrast (or rather complement) to how the composition of the genes in the DNA is changed through breeding (natural or beekeepers).10 Changes in the environment create changes in the DNA so that some genes are turned off and others turned on.Purchase of never treated bee coloniesIn 1995, Terje compensated for his colony losses by purchasing about 35 bee colonies. These came from an area where the Varroa hadn’t yet arrived to, so these colonies had never been treated against Varroa. Some of these colonies were splits raising new queens of their own. The new colonies developed well and wintered successfully. These were more in number than those that survived Varroa and formic acid.In the Winter of 1995-1996 and onwards, the losses were again about normal, five to 10 %, despite the lack of Varroa treatment.Because of the large losses of bees for many beekeepers in the winter of 1994-95, the reinvasion of mites was not a problem for Terje’s bees. He also started at once with the simple breeding concept he has followed through the years since. He focused in various ways to identify the worst and the best bee colonies when it comes to keep down the mite population and being resistant to viruses. Terje Reinertsen shows a split in September, grown in strength to be ready for Winter and well fed. Breeding strategyToday Terje Reinertsen doesn’t estimate the varroa level in his colonies. He doesn’t care about varroa mites anymore. Others have though made estimates. And it seems the Varroa levels mainly is 1-3%, with some exceptions at a higher level. The interesting thing is though that no signs of virus damage could be seen.His main traits for selection are 1 – Good temper 2 – High egglaying capacityEvery year he replaces the queens in the worst 30 % of his hives. They are today about 250. Once they were 350. He is in his retiring age, but he’s working all days. If not with bees, he’s hunting or fishing.Among the best 10 % of his hives he checks the very best. Good hives are of course also giving a good enough crop. He breeds queens from several of these. He does not regularly replace queens who have grown old. Only when the bee colonies are bad, whether the queens are young or old. Colonies in the mid range (and the best) are allowed to replace their queens themselves. Young queens are mostly mated in the center of an area where many good colonies of somewhat different heritage are kept. This type of mating system you can call population mating, actually the old type of line breeding where all bees in an area could be called a line.I remember Steve Taber explained what a line really was at the Bee-85 conference in Sweden many years ago. This could be likened with a kind of closed population breeding. In this way, high vitality, good harvest and genetic variation are maintained.Terje wasn’t sure it was sufficent with the buckfast variety of bees he had initially, so he tried other buckfast types and some other varieties of bees. Today, Terje’s bees could simply be called Terje bees.Comb foundationTerje got smaller cellsize wax foundation from Hans-Otto Johnsen, a beekeeper colleague. Shortly after the year of 2000 he reduced the cell size to 5.1 mm, then to 4.9 mm. Now he is in the process of setting up his own, almost commercial equipment for manufacturing wax foundation. A small mini mating nuc with three mini frames. When the queen is egglaying, Terje harvests it and introduces it in a colony that needs a new queen. Establishment of another Varroa resistant strainTen years ago he acquired 14 Norwegian carniolan queens mated in an area with only carniolan bees in Norway. These queens were introduced to splits from Terje bees. The splits were placed with a beekeeper about 60 km from Terje, isolated from other bees. Today, the 14 colonies have grown into a population of about 100 bee colonies.All new queens (and splits) come from the group and mated in its area. These colonies have never been treated against varroa. There have always been low winter losses in this group, which has become kind of a stock, a resistant stock. Maybe you can do it this way if you want to produce a Varroa resistant bee stock of a bee variety other than Terje bees.Terje queens in a different environmentA number of years ago, Terje queens were purchased to some universities in Europe. From Switzerland I have heard results how they managed. They were introduced to colonies of local bees managed in their traditional way. After the introduction of Terje queens, these colonies were not treated against Varroa, and they managed well.Active in the bee associationTerje has always helped beekeeper colleagues and beginners. He has held beginner courses for many years. And he has helped them with splits and new colonies. He has been the chairman of the local association for 20 years and vice president of the district association for many years. Once a month from April to September, the local association has a club meeting in his garden. There are gathered in average 30-35 people.The Terje stockThere are now 1500-2000 Terje bee colonies in Norway. There are about 100 beekeepers having these bees and they do not treat against Varroa. Most of these have their bees in the area where Terje lives, 20 minutes north of Oslo, the capital.One of these beekeepers, I call him Tim (his name is something else), has eight colonies and lives on the outskirts of the Terje area. There are many bee colonies other than Terje bees around him. The closest is 200 meters (yards) away. Tim has done a small measurement study on the daily natural down fall of mites during a season. It varies during the season and although from some colonies it can be quite big in May, it is low at the end of the season. References1. Oddie, M.A.Y., Dahle, B., Neumann, P. 2017. Norwegian honey bees surviving Varroa destructor mite infestations by means of natural selection. PeerJ 5:e3956 – https://peerj.com/articles/39562. Oddie, M.A.Y., Dahle, B., and Neumann, P., Reduced Postcapping Period in Honey Bees Surviving Varroa destructor by Means of Natural Selection, MDPI: Insects 2018, 9(4), 149 – https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/9/4/1493. Oddie, M., Büchler, R., Dahle, B. et al. Rapid parallel evolution overcomes global honey bee parasite. Sci Rep 8, 7704 (2018) doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26001-7 – https://rdcu.be/bZasw4. Oddie, M.A.Y., Neumann, P. & Dahle, B., Cell size and Varroa destructor mite infestations in susceptible and naturally-surviving honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies, Apidologie (2019) 50: 1. – https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-018-0610-25. A piece of soft board, drenched in 250 ml 85% formic acid, 15x17x1 cm in size, put in a tight plastic bag with 2 x 10-15 of 15 mm round holes in the plastic for evaporation, described here. – https://wiki.bienenzeitung.de/index.php?title=Krmerplatte6. https://golden.com/wiki/Microbiome7. https://mbio.asm.org/content/7/2/e02164-158. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.13149231109. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics_in_insects10. https://www.whatisepigenetics.com/the-epigenetics-of-honeybee-memory-offers-a-glimpse-into-our-own-minds/ ;https://doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2016.00082 Read the full article

The bee that we have in our remote apiaries in the north of the island of La Palma, is a indigenous pure black Apis mellifera mellifera bee.Time and time again, our bees were granted an African ancestor due to the geographical proximity of the island of La Palma to the African continent.In 1995, a detailed scientific investigation was created in which it was confirmed that the bees of La Palma are black and have absolutely nothing to do with Africa, they are quite similar to the Iberian bee, but also very different from it: http://www.resistantbees.com/fotos/estudio/estudio_biom_lapalma.pdffor example the cubital index is much less than 2, that of the African is greater than 2. In the list the cubital index is number 6:Almost twenty years ago, I collected bee samples from beekeepers who then still had bees in the north of the island, of which now virtually all hives are dead. The samples were sent to a university in Spain, within the framework of the black bee recovery program in La Palma, and it turned out that all our hives were of the indigenous black race Apis mellifera mellifera of the A15 haplotype.Nobody knows why this bee has been assigned to trunk A, which includes African bees, but it seems that they did not know where to put it, because there was neither similarity with bees from the Iberian Peninsula, nor with African bees (I think that Ruttner was to blame, because he added the Canary Island bees to the African ones, without having done any detailed research):Trunk M are the bees of the Iberian Peninsula. And the ones from La Palma were simply put on top of the African ones. And these are our indigenous small cell black bees. Read the full article

In spain already quiet a few beekeepers are working with small cell bees. Spain hosts few beekeepers compared to Germany, but the average individual has more colonies. Many spanish professional beekeepers whose lives depend on their bees work here. 1000-3000 colonies are quite usual. Our problem is that we live of the bees and therefore our profession must work. But the weather alone is already a very big risk factor with the climate change giving the Spanish beekeepers a hard time. The catastrophic health of bees is a further issue. If we now switch to the system of small-cell bees, we face one more risk. The advantage is Dee Lusby and other beekeepers who have been working with small cells have done much of the pioneering research and we can use it as a base for our work. One big problem I see is that the beekeeper will at first have to adapt to the new situation. Working according to De Lusby’ system with bees, no longer has much in common with today's conventional beekeeping. Our first principle is that we DO NOT treat. The beekeepers must learn to recognize signs of crisis in the hive at the very first stage above all and also have to learn to respond properly. This is purely a matter of experience and can be learned within a few years., We can’t recommend these professional beekeepers to jump right into the cold water and switch immediately with a large part of their hives. It is necessary at first to start with 10 or 20 colonies, on order to accustom them to small combs and later subdivide from them. Thus, we can quickly multiply the number of small cell colonies and observe closely how the bees act in the new situation, train our reactions in crisis situations, learn how fast the genetics improve colonies through selective breeding with the most responsive hives and soon handle a larger number of colonies without treatment. This is not invented, it is based on experience. In the event of problems we can always rely on our colleagues who may have more experience. With Dee, I always got a reply within hours in response to my questions and I will be handling all inquires in the same manner. here is a recipe for success with small cell bees Read the full article

A colleague from our work group has managed to make a video of a very important behavior of his small cell bees. They recognize the danger posed by the Varroa mites, they grap them, bite them and then take them away.a sensational video:The behavior of active Varroa defense occurs mainly in small cell bees. Here we explain why.This is a Buckfast hive. It was accustomed to the small cell size of 4.9 mm recently and is now building this new small cell size well. The hive is completely treatment free and very vital. It has his own honey and is located in Bavaria.and here a similar video from Finnland in a small cell bee hive: Read the full article

Does the dronebrood act as a Varroa trap in small cell bees?In the course of my investigations of my small cell hives on VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygiene), stimulated by Erik Österlund, I now came across very interesting facts that take place in the bee brood and especially in the drone brood.IIt is well known in small cell hives that the Varroa mites go in the active season especially in the drone brood. This is more pronounced than in conventional large cell colonies, which has already been confirmed years ago by my investigations in my small cell hives.Now I already noticed for some time that drone brood cells and also worker brood cells could be occupied by several Varroa mites, although the number of Varroa mites in the hive was rather low. I did not have an explanation, only assumptions that the inbreeding of the mites would be avoided if there are more than one mite in one brood cell.Now I learned that this was not correct and the assumption that this is controlled by the bees cannot be contradicted anymore.I examined recently a very strong hive N ° 3R, which went through the winter on 4 supers and now, at the beginning of February in the almond blossom, already has four brood frames in the second box and two brood frames in the third box. A fully occupied brood comb (Langstroth) of small cell bees has about 7000 brood cells (with large cell only 5500). First, I opened capped worker brood cells with pupae with purple eyes, as Erik Österlund proposes in the VSH test. After 50 cells I gave up because I found no Varroa mite in the cells. However, I saw on this comb 2 brood cells opened by the bees through the hygienic behavior and the holes in the caped brood comb testify some cleaned bee brood cells. In these two opened bee brood cells I found in one a Varroa mite, with also a female offspring and the other had a dead Varroa. Now came the interesting aspect, the drone brood. First, I noticed immediately 5 drone brood cells opened by the bees through the hygienic behavior (Harbo has not identified hygienic behavior in the drone brood in his large cell bees): In these I found the following: - one Varroa with 3 female offspring - one Varroa with 1 female offspring - 6 Varroa mites with 2 female offspring - two cells with three Varroa mites and 3 female offspring each.And in these cells the brood of Varroa mites is interrupted, which is in itself a significant advantage for these small cell bees. I watch this hygienic behavior constantly in the drone brood in my small cell hives.But now comes the interesting part. I opened a total of 86 drone brood cells with pupae with purple eyes, which does not happen so often that one has the opportunity to find this so concentrated.First I found - 2 cells, with one Varroa mite and only one male offspring each.on the other hand I found - One cell with 3 dead Varroa mites and a living male offspring - One cell with a dead Varroa - One cell with two Varroa mites without offspring - One cell with a living and a dead Varroa mite without offspringThis means that these 10 Varroa mites do not propagate.59 of 86 opended drone brood cells were without mites and in the remaining 21 infected cells I found the following adult Varroas, male offspring and the following: - 4 cells with 1 Varroa and 1 female offspring - 3 cells with 1 Varroa and 2 female offspring - 2 cells with 1 Varroa and 3 female offspring - 2 cells with 2 Varroas and 1 female offspring - 3 cells with 2 Varroas and 2 female offspring - 1 cell with 2 Varroas and 4 female offspring - 1 cell with 3 Varroas and 1 female offspring - 2 cells with 4 Varroas and 1 female offspring - 1 cell with 5 Varroas and 2 female offspring - 1 cell with 5 Varroas and 3 female offspring This means that I found a total of 51 Varroa mites in 86 drone brood cells and only 37 female offspring.That's amaizing and you can calculate that the Varroa mites do not represent any more danger to this hive. The Varroa mites focus on the drone brood and those who nevertheless go to the worker brood are allayed.Now the astonishing thing is the multiple occupation of some drone brood cells by up to 5 Varroa mites.Evidently is: The more Varroa mites that are in one cell, less female offspring arise per mite.So if you think logically, then the mites would have to split between the existing drone brood cells to proliferate themselves optimally. But they do not do it. So the assumption appears that multiple occupation is controlled by the bees. This is an assumption that we need to verify by further studies.So we come back to the question we made at the beginnig:Does the dronebrood act as a Varroa trap in small cell bees?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ second study : Further and extremely interesting observations of how small-cell bees defend on their own against Varroa mites. This second study shows how fast small cell bees can get the Varroa problem under control, if we give them the necessary prerequisites. Now I have re-examined after one month exactly the same hive. Here you can see the first investigation. Situation: It was very windy for 2 weeks and the bees could fly less. However, the hive had large food reserves, so the breeding continued without any break. I examined exactly the same comb as the last time.In the worker brood I found some open cells by the hygienic behavior. In 40 opened worker brood cells I found no Varroamite. .Then I opened again 86 drone brood cells with purple eyed puppae: First I found - one cell with 4 Varroa and only one male offspringon the other hand I found - two cells with one dead Varroa each and no offspring - two cells with one Varroa each and no offspring - one cell with two Varroa mites without offspring - one cell with 7 Varroa and one dead Varrao without offspringThis means that these 18 Varroa mites do not propagate and that the VSH now makes its appearance.70 drone brood cells of 86 were without mites and in the remaining 9 infected cells I found the following adult Varroa mites, male offspring and the following: - 1 cell with one Varroa and one female offspring - 2 cells with one Varroa and 2 female offspring - 2 cells with 2 Varroas and 1 female offspring - 1 cell with 2 Varroas and 2 female offspring - 1 cell with 3 Varroas and one female offspring - 1 cell with 4 Varroas and one female offspring - 1 cell with 4 Varroas and 3 female offspring This means that I found a total of 38 Varroa mites in the 86 drone brood cells and only 14 female offspring. Of these 38 Varroa mites there were 14 that did not lay eggs or were dead.At the last examination, a month ago, there were 51 Varroa mites in the 86 drone brood cells and 37 female offspring The multiple occupation of Varroa mites in drone brood cells, that I found last time, now increased to 8 in a cell and above all they did not lay eggs at all.The explanation for this behavior: It is clear that this is controlled by the Juvenile Growth Hormone JGH in the Royal Jelly of bees. Even Prof Ruttner and Königer mentioned this many years ago and in this book this also been noted already in the 80s: Al Dietz, and Henry Hermann "Biology, Detection and Control of Varroa jacobsoni": A Parasitic Mite on Honey BeesDee Lusby:It was written early on in the 1980s that researchers were able to show that mite reproduction hinges on the physiological condition of infested honeybee larvae inside a bee cell.Thus, the juvenile hormone titer in the blood of the honeybee prepupa dictates whether the female mite initiates egg laying after the first blood meal. In the Western honeybee, A. mellifera, the blood of both the drone and worker larvae has a relatively high juvenile hormone titer at the time when the cell of the developing larva is capped. In the Esern honey bee, A. cerana, the worker larva has a relatively low hormone titer in the blood at the period of cell capping which is also the period for mite entry into the cell. Since the drone prepupa of A. cerana, however, has its highest blood hormone level at this period, the mite selects it as its host.Now since our European bees for the most part are on artificially enlarged foundation, reducing the foundation to the size equivalent for A. cerana and also original size of feral European races of bees, this step then drastically reduces mites from entering and reproducing in our domesticated european honeybees worker cells, just like with A. cerana worker cells.And above all the level of JGH in the bee puppae will be reduced by the blood sucking of so many mites, so that the Varroa mites have no more incentive to lay eggs.The question that still remains: Why ever several Varroa mites go into the same drone brood cell, although it is clear that they can not multiply there? So we need to investigate further Read the full article

Collapse and Recovery: The Gateway to Treatment Free Beekeeping (from our colleague Kirk Webster who has a lot of experience with resistant small cell bees)At the Treatment-Free Beekeeping Conference in Leominster last July, it was very clear that the people who have succeeded in keeping a productive apiary for many years without treatments have all figured out their own patterns and methods based on their own unique situations. These apiaries are spread out across the world in a variety of environments from the humid tropics in South and Central America to the blazing hot Sonora Desert of Arizona; from the high altitudes of the Southern Rockies to the humid rain forests of Western Washington. Further east they spread out from the mild temperate zones in Texas, North Carolina and France, to the short summers and bitter cold of interior Scandinavia and northern New England. The weather and honey flow patterns are very different, to say the least, across this range of locations, and this menagerie of beekeepers has an astonishing variety of strategies for producing honey, pollen, propolis, wax, bees, queens and venom from their colonies.However, there is one thing all these beekeepers have in common-- one experience they all share: like it or not, they all watched their bees go through at least two Collapse and Recovery cycles before their apiaries would stabilize enough to produce surplus hive products without treatments.For some of us, who didn't know what we were doing, and who started with bees that had very little ability to co-exist with varroa, these Collapse cycles were very dramatic--bordering on disastrous. But for some of the beekeepers in S. America, the cycles were very mild or even invisible-- because the Africanized bees already had considerable ability to co-exist with varroa, and also had an extremely rapid reproduction cycle. This provided an important clue: We now know that apiaries of European bees can go through the Collapse and Recovery cycles without too much economic damage if you can start with a "wild-type" stock that already has some resistance to varroa, and propagate new colonies faster than the initial heavy losses.The Collapse and Recovery cycle is the means by which insects keep their niche filled to the corners for the largest possible percentage of time, and the way they adapt to sudden changes in their environment. Insects seem indestructible in certain situations, but can suddenly become very vulnerable when their environment shifts in a radical way. Sometimes whole populations will be decimated, but the survivors are endowed with unbelievable potential for reproduction when conditions are favorable. This allows them to rapidly refill the space in the ecosystem, change their genotype quickly, and activate who knows what other defense mechanisms. The Collapse and Recovery cycle is the reason that grasshoppers are hard to find in some years, and everywhere in others. This is the way that varroa mites became quickly immune to the most deadly poisons we could throw at them, and it's also the way that honeybees can become able to co-exist with varroa.It remains to be seen whether the bees now being selected by testing hygienic behavior, and by counting mites and nosema spores-- while still treating the bees-- will someday be able to thrive without treatments and never go through a Collapse and Recovery event. I assume this is the goal of these programs. Perhaps John Kefuss's bees are the closest thing to this kind of success so far-- he has certainly expanded and at the same time streamlined his testing procedures better than anyone. But from his writing and conversations, it seems clear that his own version of Collapse and Recovery (the "Bond Test" and "Cave Man Genetics") have done most of the heavy lifting, and were a necessary first step before all of his testing could yield really good results. (You see how each person arrives at his or her own favorite methods.) And there are many apiaries going through a series of Collapse and Recovery events, despite being treated every year. I am fearful that the process of testing bees, while they are still being treated, will be interminable; and if it does end at some point, the bees will still have to go through the Collapse and Recovery cycle, much the same as they would have without all the testing. The bees are being tested in too few dimensions. The very definition of an Ecological Niche: an n-dimensional hyperspace-- where n is an unknown and potentially infinite number-- should suggest that treatments are a real problem and that bees should live and adapt and recover in all of their dimensions, not just some of them. A lot of time and money are now being devoted to treatments and testing that could much better be spent investigating the real costs and effects of pesticides, and helping farmers figure out how to grow crops without them. Beekeeping is now a case where practice has to progress faster than science can document that progress. The emphasis needs to be on removing all treatments as fast as possible, and using Nature's larger patterns to find a path back to health and resilience. Let's come back again to the case of my Swedish friend Erik Osterlund, who did so much to track down and document--in many countries--the work of beekeepers operating without treatments. He also did more to prepare his apiary for the arrival of varroa than anyone else I know of, or can imagine. Three years before the arrival of varroa in his area he had already completed the multi-year task of stocking his colonies with bees having survivor parents on both the male and female side-- and converted all of his combs to 4.9 size. Yet, when the first contact with varroa mites occurred, his bees fell apart, much the same way the all unprotected European bees in N. America did upon their first encounter. To me this is just further strong evidence that natural systems operate in more dimensions than we can easily see and measure. It took time for a new host-parasite relationship to develop, and we really did need to kill the mites at the beginning in order to have any bees left at all. The one good thing about our current situation is that we are well past this stage now in N. America, and also well past the point where the focus should shift towards removing all treatments and learning from our new friends.Once honeybees and varroa can co-exist in an economically viable situation, then this mite disappears as a pest and takes on the role of friend, ally and mentor-- doing most of our selection work at little or no expense, and pointing clearly to the places where our practices are misguided or poorly adapted. Because of its status as an out-of-balance parasite and its enormous destructive power, the varroa mite is the most important creature to focus on this way: as a potential ally. But the story is the same with all the other visible and invisible creatures we regard as "pests". If we can learn to treat them as friends and allies, and learn from them; then we have a chance to create a better agriculture and a world based on creativity and biological energy. If not we have no choice but to follow the same consumptive and self-destructive path we are on now--and share the same outcome with all past civilizations and cultures who chose to live by such tactics. In many of the same ways that my tiny state exerts a disproportionate amount of influence in the Senate, beekeepers--because of their key role in both the food chain and natural ecosystems--may have a disproportionate role to play in choosing which path to follow. Read the full article

Who is telling us if the cell size impressed on the foundations is what the bees need? Dee Lusby discovered, after intensively studying beekeeping literature (from over 100 years and more), the cell size commonly used does not match the bees' needs. And yet the cell size is a critical factor. I’d even say the bee can’t live in harmony with nature without the right size. The Belgian professor Baudoux stated about 100 years ago "large cells, large bees, lots of honey" He experimented with extreme sizes, large and small, and incredibly, no one knows why, the cell size on all foundations remained at about 5.4 mm to this very day. It looks like the bee gets to its natural balance on a cell size from 4.9 mm downwards. At 4.9 mm, and the distance between the combs reduced to 32 mm, the temperature in the nest rises, reducing one day of the incubation period. At 20 instead of 21 days, the bees outrun the Varroa.The Varroa mite is of course aware of that, therefore in the summer it only breeds within the drone brood, as they can’t multiply within the worker brood. The Asian ‘cerana’ and African bees, without varroa problems, build small cells. here is a map of the cellsizes 100 years ago - click on the map to see it biggerObservations of Michael BushPre and Post Capping Times and Varroa 8 hours shorter capping time halves the number of Varroa infesting a brood cell. 8 hours shorter post capping time halves the number of offspring of a Varroa in the brood cell.Accepted days for capping and post-capping, (based on observing bees on 5.4 mm comb) Capped 9 days after egg laid Emerges 21 days after egg laid very important: reducing of comb distance to 32mm Another point is that small cell bees have a much longer life span, from 8 up to 12 weeks.The conventional large cell bees only have a lifespan of 6 weeks, which is considerably reduced by the use of chemicals, like anti Varroa treatments (Fernando Clatayud, biologist, Valencia, spain). This longer lifespan produces incredibly strong colonies as the work inside of the colony can be done by a lot more bees, which is a prerequisite for a healthy immune system. Ongoing stress by the same amount of work to be done by too few bees negatively affects the bee’s immune system. Dee Lusby found out that the cellsize of 4.9mm is the actual fundamental prerequisite, that the hygienic behaviour VSH appears, which means the active culling of Varoa mites from the infected brood cells. see hygienic behaviour VSH With this the topic addressed, there is still much more to be explained. The cell size is only one aspect amongst many that must be changed to get resistant bees.The history of cell sizes (Dee Lusby) - The first artificial comb foundation was made in Germany in 1842 by Gottlieb Kretchmer. - I would say our present era of problems began around 1891 in Belgium with the introduction of artificial comb foundation with 920 cells to the square decimeter which would equate to about midway between 4.6 cm and 4.7cm for 10 worker cells. cell sizes of different bee races (in europe and USA too big due to use of too big cellprints)A Prof U. Baudoux of Belgium published an article in Progress Apicole in June, 1893, advocating the use of larger comb cells, as a result of experiments duly described. It seems Prof Baudoux wanted to rear bees of extraordinary vigor, able to forage over a more extended flight-radius and to visit a multitude of flowers the nectar of which was, then (and probably still is), out-of-reach of their tongues.He experimented with cells up to the limit of 750 cells per square decimeter, the sizes of cells which he obtained by stretching wax comb foundation. Then encouraged by his experiences, he wished to do still better—”TO GO TO THE BOUNDS OF POSSIBILITY”. (Here is where our current modern-day problems begin with parasitic mites and their secondary diseases.)Prof Baudoux experimented with various sizes of foundation per the square decimeter, namely: 750, 740, 730, 710 and down to 675. He also experimented with various ways of measuring cells and devised his own measurement system for it. (Unfortunately, there was no corresponding correlation chart made for his devised measurement system, vs. the traditional way of measuring comb foundation that had been in use for over 2,000 years back to before the time of Christ, so beekeepers could go back and forth between the two measurement systems.)Prof Baudoux was so successful with his writing and his experiments, and so convincing , that manufacturing houses all started selling foundation with enlarged cells and claiming good results for the use of the same. Most of this work was done around the late 1920s through the 1930s and 1940s. (The result has been that this process of bigger is better with its resultant selling has never stopped, and continues up to modern day to the detriment now, that only enlarged oversized foundations (well beyond the bounds of possibility for bigger honeybees as envisioned by Prof Baudoux) are now only sold and standardized large at that, i.e. 5.7cm for 10 worker cells being about the largest). How do we measure cell size?The default is to measure 10 cells from wall center to wall center and then divide by 10. Dee Lusby: I would say our present era of problems began around 1891 in Belgium with the introduction of artificial comb foundation with 920 cells to the square decimeter which would equate to about midway between 4.6 cm and 4.7cm for 10 worker cells. The beekeepers there all adopted this size of cell. The experts of that time believed that it was advantageous to produce as many bees as possible on the least possible surface of comb. Thus there was said to be a premature narrowing of the cells throughout Belgium, and at the end of a few years the bees were miserable specimens. (We could say that this was then the opposite of today’s problem of bigger is better.)It was then that to combat so harmful a tendency that an idea was born with a proposed magnificent final (which we are still playing out today). A Prof U. Baudoux of Belgium published an article in Progress Apicole in June, 1893, advocating the use of larger comb cells, as a result of experiments duly described. It seems Prof Baudoux wanted to rear bees of extraordinary vigor, able to forage over a more extended flight-radius and to visit a multitude of flowers the nectar of which was, then (and probably still is), out-of-reach of their tongues.He experimented with cells up to the limit of 750 cells per square decimeter, the sizes of cells which he obtained by stretching wax comb foundation. Then encouraged by his experiences, he wished to do still better—”TO GO TO THE BOUNDS OF POSSIBILITY”. (Here is where our current modern-day problems begin with parasitic mites and their secondary diseases.)Prof Baudoux experimented with various sizes of foundation per the square decimeter, namely: 750, 740, 730, 710 and down to 675. He also experimented with various ways of measuring cells and devised his own measurement system for it.Unfortunately, there was no corresponding correlation chart made for his devised measurement system, vs. the traditional way of measuring comb foundation that had been in use for over 2,000 years back to before the time of Christ, so beekeepers could go back and forth between the two measurement systems.a fatal mistake old rhomb metod to measure: new metod from Baudoux ona fatal mistake The old method of measuring results in much fewer cells per dm² as the new one introduced by Baudoux. Before Baudoux foundations with about 5 cells per inch were used, which corresponds to about 800 - 830 cells per dm ² according to the old measurement at 5.0 to 4.9 mm. But there was no conversion system and foundation manufacturers , after Baudoux, in the 20s till the 40s, took over the rate of 800 cells/dm ², but applied the new method of measuring. Thus it came to a cell sizes of about 5.4 mm. And apparently no one is aware of this serious error, because the size is maintained to the present day. conversion table of the different measuring metods:Dee Lusby:Prof Baudoux was so successful with his writing and his experiments, and so convincing , that manufacturing houses all started selling foundation with enlarged cells and claiming good results for the use of the same. Most of this work was done around the late 1920s through the 1930s and 1940s. (The result has been that this process of bigger is better with its resultant selling has never stopped, and continues up to modern day to the detriment now, that only enlarged oversized foundations (well beyond the bounds of possibility for bigger honeybees as envisioned by Prof Baudoux) are now only sold and standardized large at that, i.e. 5.7cm for 10 worker cells being about the largest).Could this continuing trend towards bigger is better be an underlying causative effect creating todays problems of parasitic mites and their accompanying secondary diseases? Probably. But on what evidence would one place such a thought?Unfortunately for us all, it was not the large cell in itself for which Prof Baudaoux was working, but rather instead for the selection of a better bee. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR TODAY’S BEEKEEPERS TO REMEMBER THE TIME FRAME HERE, AND ITS PLACE IN HISTORY, AND ALSO THE FACT THAT THE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM DEVISED BY PROF BAUDOUX WAS NOT CORRELATED WITH TRADITIONAL MEASUREMENT METHODS. WHY? BECAUSE, AN UNDERLYING CAUSATIVE EFFECT FOR TODAY’S PARASITIC MITE PROBLEMS AND THEIR ACCOMPANYING SECONDARY DISEASES WAS BORN HERE!Equally unfortunate for us all is the fact that Prof Baudoux was a follower of what is called Lamarckian Theory, and believed that it was possible to improve the honeybee permanently, by giving her the chance to grow larger in each succeeding generation. However, to a follower of Darwinian or Mendelian theory, this is indeed a very uncertain doctrine; and the bees themselves appear to confirm this criticism (even today any beekeeper can compare the feral to those bees confined domestically), since even back in the early 1900s it was common knowledge that they tend to retrogress in the size of the worker comb cells they build when let alone, back to what is NATURAL as put forth by the laws of Nature and not by man’s artificially created and politicized rules.Dee Lusby:We have found through reading, that mills have been made in many sizes over the years, all the way up to 3-1/2 cells to the inch. THIS IS WHERE OUR INDUSTRY HAS GOTTEN INTO SO MUCH TROUBLE. CELL SIZES, THEIR SIZE, AND HOW TO MEASURE THEM. Most beekeepers universally agree that five cells to the inch is worker size and four cells to the inch is drone size in the feral population. But, the domestic sizes our bees today have ended up on, are quite different and have wrought havoc, as artificial combs have gotten bigger. The stress upon our honeybees caused by being out-of-balance with natural flora has opened Pandora’s box to foulbrood diseases, chalk, and viral infections. By being too big, our domesticated honeybees have taken on parasitic mite infestations as our now pseudo-drones,aka: worker bees, are perceived as a new food source by both Varroa and Tracheal mites. With all this damage being done, we find no teaching anywhere on the history of use of artificial comb foundation sizes in the USA, so our beekeepers can make rational decisions concerning proper usage.The various comb cell sizes (706, 711, standard, drone, etc) were originally designed with meaning, which is now forgotten in today’s modern world. No one person or company is to blame in the USA or elsewhere in our world for artificially increasing honeybees so big as to cause disease and parasitic mite problems that now encompass over 135 nations at catastrophic level, placing them in a situation out-of-tune with the reality of Nature. Nothing was hidden and everything was written and published out in the open.The only thing that has happened is that artificial supposition and an artificial domesticated system of beekeeping has so far prevailed over that found naturally occurring in Nature and has been taught.It began with a simple idea everyone wanted to participate in, i.e. scientists, manufacturing houses. Now through the passing of each successive generation (figure 20 years to each new generation), the growing disparity of size between feral and domestic hives dictates this bigger-is-better trend must be corrected and its underlying causative effects must be brought to light and taught, if beekeeping as we know it is to continue.In Belgium, Prof Baudoux measured workers in the range of 5mm to 5.17mm and 5.35mm per cell. (Ordinary drone cells he placed at 5.5mm next to 5mm for worker cells.) Even he found 5.5mm drone cells next to 5mm worker cells to be double in volume of cell contents for food confirming Mullenhoff’s results. When we then consider having today, foundation on the market as large as 5.7mm, it’s not hard to see how it would not be disastrous for beekeepers to use, because of parasitic mite attraction with a pseudo-effect on worker bees perceived as a food source just like that of drones.Yet, look how much foundation on today’s market is 5.44mm in size (close to the 5.5mm drone size measured by Baudoux).Wouldn’t this too, also be dangerous for attraction for parasitic mites, causing a pseudo-effect, with mites mistaking worker bees for drones?JUST HOW BIG THEN, IS TOO BIG?I would say too big is when a colony of bees starts to become distressed, which leads to stress, which leads to disease, which lets a beekeeper know through visual perception that something is wrong within the hive. Read the full article