#thedrones

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

I'll just summarize at the outset:The drones have, amongst others of course, the duty to first attract diseases in the hive on themselves in order to keep them away from the bees. This shows that the drone brood must be designed for the needs of the bees and not as we want it!By the recent studies of our survivor colonies we can now fully confirm what Dee Lusby has shown us many years ago: The interaction of small cells and the correct amount of drone comb on each comb is the basis of Varroa resistance. The varroa problem and the drones:As already discussed, the varroa within the small cell bees prefers the drone brood, as they can’t multiply within the small cell bees due to the breeding cycle shortened by one day. She knows it. One varroa in and one out, compared to the large cell bees with an average relationship of one in, one-and–a-half outThe bees conventional (5.4 mm cell size) happens to be almost as large as the drone of small cell bees. Therefore the varroa confuses bee brood with drone brood in the large cell bees, this means she thinks that the drone brood is bee brood. Also in the Asian bee, which builds small cells, the varroa prefers the drone brood. Dee calls this the pseudo-drone effect. And then it suddenly increases explosively in our large cell hives, where it settles in the bee brood.A few years ago, after a discussion on this topic in a beekeepers forum, I made an experiment to open 100 drone cells and 100 bee cells in several colonies: I found up to 200 mites in the drone cells and could not proof any within the bee cells. That changes, of course, in autumn and spring when there are no more drones in the hive and the Varroa is forced to move into the bee brood, where the bee then begins to clean the infected cells – if they have learned it! So it is clear that we need to find out how much and where bees want to have their drone brood. As you know, the mites prefer cooler areas of the hive. Experience has shown that each comb may not accommodate more than 10% drone cells. Therefore Dee leaves half an inch between each foundation sheet, where the bees can breed drones or not, up to the way they want. We cut a corner out of every foundation sheet, no matter which side, and then that is usually where drones are bred. Change (after intense study the area is now slightly larger than in the photo)The area of this corner is about 8% of the entire comb and measures approx 14cm x 9cm, what corresponds to what Dee Lusby leaves free below each foundation sheet.(Langstroth)We need to teach the bees to again keep these proportions. We achieve this through selective breeding, because they have apparently forgotten with the use of artificially produced middle walls over the last 100 years. If the bees would fill a honeycomb that only has a thin strip of wax welded on, entirely with drone brood, it would fatal for the colony. We never have to apply this technique with the ‘Varroa Drone catch comb’ (or whatever it is called). I’ve also had hives that would perfectly built the small cells (which sometimes can be problematic with strong honey flow) and were showing bald headed brood, but built almost no drone cells. That was the opposite extreme and then they soon developed the virus of deformed wings – without a chance. Very important:We need to adopt the habit of moving combs with more than 10% Drone brood to the sides and top of the hives at each inspection of the colonies, where the bees will fill them with honey and then sort them out.Do not just take them out, because one may think that it is a good way of getting rid of a many mites. I've already made this mistake in the beginning. The varroa mites nicely remain in the drone brood, but if we suddenly decimate the drone cells it will cause problems. You can now see that selective breeding is a key component. But more on this later.Dee has taught us some tricks here, without them you’ll have a hard time to cope. E.g. She showed us how, in an area with foreign hives, we can selectively mate the new queens with our own drones only. And how to change the queens of more than 50 colonies in the same day. But more on this later.Another thing is the problem of the tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi.When I arrived 25 years ago here on the island of La Palma, nearly all the bees perished due to the trachea. Then the beekeepers applied menthol and it went upwards again - until the varroa arrived.In the bees that hatch of 4.9 mm cells, the foremost part of trachea, or the frontal trachea opening, by which these mites can get into the inside of the bees, is so small that the mites no longer fit through - QED.Dee Lusbys bees had this problem in the beginning and it disappeared drastically once the cell size was reduced. Read the full article

Retrogression Back to Normal – Part 2 Retrogression Back to Normal – Part 2 The Way Back to Biological Beekeeping, Part 9We have talked about the process followed the first year for catching feral bees or retrogressing domesticated colonies from oversized brood foundation. Writing from the standpoint of Southern Arizona area conditions and confining thoughts to a discussion of necessary data and observations gleaned in a semi-arid, but still temperate location, note to those following this Saga, that this is basically a non-migratory area and we are working with colonies in apiary sites that have been permanently set (some for decades, generation to generation), making these sites perfect for determining field feasibility for natural biological controls for parasitic mites and secondary diseases without the use of chemicals, essential oils, and antibiotics. To assess, understand, and retool colonies to fit a natural biological system, beekeepers must work with stable apiary sites from which to observe and learn, by process of trial and error, that which works, figuring out why; and that which does not, also understanding why not. The objective then being, to implement.Transitory colonies of bees, caught-up within a perpetual migratory yearlong loop are incapable of completely adapting due to constant area/regional movement, not allowing for natural acclimatization necessary for evolution. Though associated inherent problems of parasitic mites and secondary diseases for transitory colonies of bees, may be CONTROLLED with proper field manipulative management, relative to use of small cell foundation matching the top-of-the-range natural traditional sizing for a given area for acclimitized honeybees, this does not apply to the breeding aspect of migratory colonies which has no relativity to real-world natural selection.Once the process of catching feral bees or retrogressing domesticated colonies from oversized brood foundation has been accomplished the first year, with the creation of as much correctly drawn-out 4.9mm foundation as possible with stores of pollen and honey, the colonies need to be assessed going into Winter to make sure they contain enough stores to overwinter. If reserves are not adequate they need to be supplemented. Preferably feed honey and pollen only. Do not feed substitutes. When feeding honey, feed it as granulated honey, in manila paper packets with 1/4 punched feeding holes. If feeding pollen, feed it as a mixture of pollen/granulated honey patties. Place both as needed right next to or directly above the brood nest or cluster. Replace as necessary. (Note: granulated honey, fed in packets this way, is assimilated within the hive like regular stores of gathered honey). To stimulate brood rearing in the Spring, switch out the granulated honey in manila paper packets and change to LIQUID honey in manila paper packets, with pin-holes (4-6 each side, just enough to let honey slowly drip, but not enough to run/stream). With the feeding of liquid honey, pollen/honey patties must be fed, if internal stores of pollen are inadequate to initiate brood rearing.Prior to initiation of broodrearing in the Spring, while the bees are still clustered, pull surplus drawn-out foundation where stores have been consumed. Leave hives as singles with drawn-out combs. Where supplemental feed is still necessary, or you are feeding to stimulate broodrearing for Spring build-up, use undrawn frames of foundation in a second story super around the feeder packets positioned over the brood/cluster. As broodrearing increases, and drawing- out of new wax commences, this restarts the process of drawing new frames of foundation for the coming year.Store pulled surplus drawn-out foundation temporarily in supers standing on end, in a cool place until used. Store butting, facing bottom to bottom, with top-bars facing out (placement this way will keep out rodents).As soon as enough fresh nectar/pollen is being collected to sustain bees and initiate natural broodrearing in the field, begin shake-down of selected colonies from oversized combs onto your seed-frames of surplus drawn-out foundation. Use 3-5 frames, depending upon your supply of seed-frames made the previous year. Remember, like the previous year, this is done by physically shaking the bees off of the combs and restarting like a shook-swarm, only this time instead of using all undrawn frames of foundation, you are now using 3-5 frames of drawn-out foundation (Note: Place drawn seed-frames together in center of super with undrawn foundation on either side to establish a compact broodnest/cluster site). This will speed up the process of retrogression, by giving the queens an immediate place in which to lay brood, instead of having to wait for comb to be drawn-out to lay in. Like the previous year, place the shaken down colonies upon a queen excluder, upon a bottom board, to prevent swarming until the queens are laying upon a minimum of 2-3 frames. You should notice that this year, once the queens have finished the first brood cycle and new bees are emerging, the bees will be sized down to proper sizing and should be drawing small natural comb foundation more easily, necessitating less culling of mis-drawn foundation.Having accomplished the field shake-down of selected colonies from oversized combs, continue the objective of creating correctly drawn-out combs. CULL ANY COMBS WITH MORE THAN 10% DRONE CELLS DRAWN ON ANY ONE SIDE. MAKE THIS A MANDATORY FIELD MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE. THERE IS VALID REASON FOR DOING THIS. It has been previously demonstrated that Varroa mites prefer drone brood to worker brood for reproduction in the feral population of honeybees. Generally, about 40% of drone cells are infested, while for workers, the average is close to 10% (Note: For Trachael mites the feral average is also about 10% for workers for infestation levels). It has been demonstrated that the larvae food is the stimulant in oversized bigger cells for attracting Varroa infestation. For many years it was traditionally taught to cull drone combs as much as possible.Since the advent of Varroa, this practice has been reversed to the detriment of our industry. Beekeepers should go back to the old traditional way of culling drone combs, as there will always be plenty of drones reared in corners of the frames or in cells that become enlarged by accident. It should always be remembered that while the drones do no work physically in the hive, THEY DO ACT AS THE BEST ATTRACTANT TO PULL DISEASE AND PARASITES TO THEMSELVES AS FIRST TARGETS, SO WORKERS CAN SURVIVE THROUGHOUT THE ACTIVE SEASON. THEN, WHEN THE HONEY IS IN AND NEW QUEENS ARE MATED, THEIR JOBS DONE, THEY ARE CAST OUT TO INITIATE CLEANSING THE HIVE OF ITS DISEASE AND PARASITE PROBLEMS.On a natural biological system, the few phoretic mites that remain are quickly filtered out through the brood nest by the workers chewing-out and/or removing mites from infected larvae cells (cleansing). By culling brood frames which have excessive (more than 10%) drone cells, beekeepers limit colony infestations and reduce Varroa infestation down, using the 40% vs 10% infestation level difference to their own manipulative hive management advantage. Additionally, by changing out and shaking-down colonies from oversized brood combs, they further reduce the attraction for Varroa to enter pseudo-drone cells, (aka: artificially oversized worker comb acting as an attractant with more larvae food for mites) and reproduce at a higher than natural 10% infestation level. By beekeepers actively culling drone comb to less than 10% drone cells per drawn frames, beekeepers can reduce the naturally occurring 10% infestation level in Nature to below 5% with field manipulative management.In the second year of retrogression back onto a natural biological system of keeping bees, beekeepers must learn to look for visual signs that their colonies are cleansing themselves of parasitic mite and disease problems. QUESTION: Just what are the signs to look for, to see if workerbees are chewing out and/or removing Varroa mites (cleansing) from infested larvae cells?In Southern Arizona, the chewing-out of Varroa mites (cleansing) happens on the downside of the honey flow. It starts slowly as the queens stop laying drones, picks-up speed as the drones are expelled from the hive, then tapers-off just prior to the end of broodnest cleansing time. By the time the broodnest is resituated and cleaned by the workers, with the pulling-out of old larvae cocoons and reshellacked, beekeepers will find Varroa mite infestation reduced to a non-detectable level in most cases; and under control by the workerbees. In Southern Arizona, this happens approximately twice a year with the primary cleansing season occurring in the fall. Other times beekeepers will see it occurring, will be right after a colony requeens, when the hive workers are throwing out drones and getting ready to roll again.Beekeepers will see cleansing mostly around the periphery of the broodnest of sealed worker cells, although it can occur as a buckshot brood pattern in weaker hives, or in a strong hive where large numbers of mites are transferring from drone to workers. In some hives beekeepers will see a combination of both patterns, starting from the sides of the supers and progressing towards the center of the broodnest. When this happens, the buckshot brood pattern is normally nearest the pollen and honey frames, changing to the periphery around the edge of the broodnest of sealed worker cells, as frames are looked at nearer the center of the brood nest.Beekeepers should look for signs, like uncapped worker brood with the pupae exposed and in many cases cannibalized. If there was only one Varroa and it was located on the head between the eyes, many times the pupae will be unharmed, as the workerbees have only to remove the mite to rectify the situation. If the Varroa is situated on the back of the head between the thorax, the workerbees will eat the head off to get to the Varroa. If the Varroa and/or another is situated on the thorax, workerbees will eat down to that also. If those Varroa and/or more are located on the abdomen, lodged between the tergits, the bees will continue eating down. Beekeepers should notice that when the workerbees are doing this and working only with removing Varroa mites from healthy bees, the pupae will be a HEALTHY WHITE COLOR, which shows that the workerbees are not removing diseased or infected larvae/pupae. (Note: What they are doing is cleaning-out infestation, like our human livers clean out impurities from our bodies. They are also recycling protein as a food source, being labor efficient.)When Varroa is removed from the top of the head and the pupae left unharmed, beekeepers will usually notice that the pupae, are at-a-state of purple, darkening eyes. Beekeepers observing colonies, will find that the bees seem to chew-out Varroa when other chores of the hive are not pressing, i.e. honey gathering and major broodrearing, showing that they have a way of prioritizing work. Until workerbees are ready to cleanse the broodnest on the downswing of honey flows, Varroa mainly infest drone larvae and pupae.Thus the drones, although they do no work physically in the colonies, DO ACT AS THE BEST ATTRACTANT BY BODY MASS AND THEREFORE A BETTER BASIC FOOD TARGET, TO PULL DISEASE AND PARASITES TO THEMSELVES AS AN INHERENT DEFENSE MECHANISM WITHIN THE COLONY CASTE STRUCTURE’S DIVISION OF LABOR, so workers can survive throughout the active season raising vital brood and gathering stores of honey and pollen. Then as the season winds down, the drones are thrown-out, and the WORKERBROOD ACTS AS A LIVING LIVER IN THE HIVE PURGING THE OVERPOPOULATION OF VARROA MITES, BY CHEWING OUT (CLEANSING), to bring the colony back into a balanced parasitic mite host relationship (similar to that of Apis Cerana).Each new broodrearing season, the cycle repeats. Uncapping of sealed workerbrood (manually by hand, for field observation), NOT UNCAPPED BY WORKERS DURING THIS TIME, have revealed non-infested pupae by Varroa. When beekeepers see these signs, they can know that their bees are doing what they should, to handle the problem naturally without the use of chemicals, essential oils, and drugs. CAUTION: Do not confuse this phenomena with starving bees that need pollen and/or honey, and are driven to eat their own for nourishment to survive hard-times. Beekeepers must learn to see with their eyes and understand the difference.As progress continues in retrogression, beekeepers will notice more colonies stabilizing. As parasitic mites become more controllable, by the end of the second year, beekeepers should notice the workerbees beginning to chew-out drone cells, cleaning them as they do worker brood cells. (Note: While all this is going on throughout the active year, beekeepers should be actively culling combs for irregularities, i.e. incorrectly drawn size, disease, etc.) Beekeepers should notice, that just as culling for incorrectly drawn foundation subsides, so will the culling of diseased combs. This signals that the colonies are coming into balance with a natural system of beekeeping, working with Nature effectively instead of to the detriment – side, by being out-of-tune with natural flora and climatic conditions, etc..During the second year, beekeepers should continue catching feral swarms as a renewable resource for bees and clean, uncontaminated wax for recycling into foundation. Beekeepers also need to start planning how many hives to get ready for production for the third year (End year with colonies, a minimum of 3 deep supers of bees, pollen and honey, with all drawn 4.9mm foundation), and how many hives to keep using for the production of seed-frames to continuing shake-downs each Spring until all colonies maintained are retrogressed back onto a natural biological system of beekeeping. Here it is suggested that newly caught feral swarms be allowed to do the balance of the drawing-out of foundation work, along with forced-splits (swarm cells in colonies, necessitating divides rather than having bees go to the bushes).During the second year beekeepers need to also plan to start recycling empty shook-down boxes of frames of oversized combs. If chemical treatments were used in management, beekeepers also need to plan decontamination wax procedures prior to recycling wax into new undrawn foundation.– Signed: Dee A. Lusby, Amado, Arizona, USA 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

In small cell bees is very noticeable that they rear drone brood all the active bee season through .The drones are the real heroes in small cell hives and protect the worker bee brood against infection: - Does the drone brood act as a Varroa trap in small cell bees? - In this way SC bees fight against Varroa mites – Investigation of survivor colonies 09/03 - Survivor bee colony found, 7 years without treatment and the importance of drones 16/04 - how do SC bees defend against Varroa mites? We need to teach them again the correct number of drone brood per comb.tenth_drone cullingSince the Varroa mite reside especially in the drone brood in small cell bees and they are there even actively decimated by the bees (trap), will be seen how important the drone brood is for Varroa defense .It is now early July and we had one month very little nectar flow, the bees flew barely and brood hatching decreased. The drone brood went back. Now is again beginning nectar flow at the coast, the wild fennel and the agave. The bees have again very well laid brood:and the drone brood is back again:This is one of the major differences between small cell and large cell bees. The latter have only drone brood in spring and in the small cell bees the whole active year round, which is a huge advantage in terms of the Varroa mite. The drone brood is protecting the worker bee brood in the small cell bees. Read the full article

I'll just summarize at the outset:The drones have, amongst others of course, the duty to first attract diseases in the hive on themselves in order to keep them away from the bees. This shows that the drone brood must be designed for the needs of the bees and not as we want it!By the recent studies of our survivor colonies we can now fully confirm what Dee Lusby has shown us many years ago: The interaction of small cells and the correct amount of drone comb on each comb is the basis of Varroa resistance. The varroa problem and the drones:As already discussed, the varroa within the small cell bees prefers the drone brood, as they can’t multiply within the small cell bees due to the breeding cycle shortened by one day. She knows it. One varroa in and one out, compared to the large cell bees with an average relationship of one in, one-and–a-half outThe bees conventional (5.4 mm cell size) happens to be almost as large as the drone of small cell bees. Therefore the varroa confuses bee brood with drone brood in the large cell bees, this means she thinks that the drone brood is bee brood. Also in the Asian bee, which builds small cells, the varroa prefers the drone brood. Dee calls this the pseudo-drone effect. And then it suddenly increases explosively in our large cell hives, where it settles in the bee brood.A few years ago, after a discussion on this topic in a beekeepers forum, I made an experiment to open 100 drone cells and 100 bee cells in several colonies: I found up to 200 mites in the drone cells and could not proof any within the bee cells. That changes, of course, in autumn and spring when there are no more drones in the hive and the Varroa is forced to move into the bee brood, where the bee then begins to clean the infected cells – if they have learned it! So it is clear that we need to find out how much and where bees want to have their drone brood. As you know, the mites prefer cooler areas of the hive. Experience has shown that each comb may not accommodate more than 10% drone cells. Therefore Dee leaves half an inch between each foundation sheet, where the bees can breed drones or not, up to the way they want. We cut a corner out of every foundation sheet, no matter which side, and then that is usually where drones are bred. Change (after intense study the area is now slightly larger than in the photo)The area of this corner is about 8% of the entire comb and measures approx 14cm x 9cm, what corresponds to what Dee Lusby leaves free below each foundation sheet.(Langstroth)We need to teach the bees to again keep these proportions. We achieve this through selective breeding, because they have apparently forgotten with the use of artificially produced middle walls over the last 100 years. If the bees would fill a honeycomb that only has a thin strip of wax welded on, entirely with drone brood, it would fatal for the colony. We never have to apply this technique with the ‘Varroa Drone catch comb’ (or whatever it is called). I’ve also had hives that would perfectly built the small cells (which sometimes can be problematic with strong honey flow) and were showing bald headed brood, but built almost no drone cells. That was the opposite extreme and then they soon developed the virus of deformed wings – without a chance. Very important:We need to adopt the habit of moving combs with more than 10% Drone brood to the sides and top of the hives at each inspection of the colonies, where the bees will fill them with honey and then sort them out.Do not just take them out, because one may think that it is a good way of getting rid of a many mites. I've already made this mistake in the beginning. The varroa mites nicely remain in the drone brood, but if we suddenly decimate the drone cells it will cause problems. You can now see that selective breeding is a key component. But more on this later.Dee has taught us some tricks here, without them you’ll have a hard time to cope. E.g. She showed us how, in an area with foreign hives, we can selectively mate the new queens with our own drones only. And how to change the queens of more than 50 colonies in the same day. But more on this later.Another thing is the problem of the tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi.When I arrived 25 years ago here on the island of La Palma, nearly all the bees perished due to the trachea. Then the beekeepers applied menthol and it went upwards again - until the varroa arrived.In the bees that hatch of 4.9 mm cells, the foremost part of trachea, or the frontal trachea opening, by which these mites can get into the inside of the bees, is so small that the mites no longer fit through - QED.Dee Lusbys bees had this problem in the beginning and it disappeared drastically once the cell size was reduced. Read the full article