Hello Melanie & All,

"There are two kinds of commercial beekeepers in the U.S.. Those which admit
to using various treatments  and those which use and do not admit to using
various treatments." Bob Harrison

I see mostly the later type. I guess the practice goes back decades .
Hopefully the beekeepers Melanie speaks of are being truthful. If so then
the news is wonderful.

I see lots of beekeepers using VSH & hygienic queens but still treat. maybe
time those beekeepers take off the training wheels ( treatments) and reduce
treatments.

I spent many years looking for varroa tolerant bees ( articles in BC & ABJ)
with some success. The problem in a commercial apiary is the way hives vary
in tolerance. Levels of varroa vary between hives. Bees rob the varroa
infested hives and all hives need monitoring for varroa. My solution in the
test yards (back then) was to remove and depopulate over threshold hives.

I never felt confident enough to drop all varroa treatments on a large scale
nor recommend it.

I found varroa tolerance was best on hives which stopped brood rearing with
every change in the weather (Russians) and those which kept *small
clusters*.

I consider every hive a production unit. At seasons end I have a certain
amount of money invested.
Controlling varroa with a treatment (whatever treatment) and checking a few
to make sure the treatment worked as insurance on my investment. Some see
VSH as their insurance in not treating.

I do not know which beekeepers Melanie is speaking of but those I work with
requeen all hives yearly and some requeen and split four or more times a
year.

I took a queen rearing class from Marla years ago and we raised over a 1000
queens once from one of her Minnesota Hygienic queens we purchased through
Glenn Apiaries. I strongly believe in the benefits of the hygienic trait.
Years ago in BC & ABJ I showed the way we use a piece of PVC and nitrogen
gas to freeze brood.

> One of the beekeepers was forced to try "chemical-free" beekeeping after
> he poisoned himself using Tactic.

Please explain the term "chemical free". Some beeks say they are "chemical
free" when they drop amatraz & fluvalinate and do not consider formic, OA or
thymol chemical treatments.

Your beeks use no treatments at all? No OA or other soft treatments?

Finding several year old queens in a large operation is rare if you requeen
every year. Most use cells as better acceptance. In fact many introduced
queens are superceded within a few weeks. More so than I ever saw before.

Keep up the good work Melanie and keep us posted on your progress.

Encouraging!

bob

Waiting for a vehicle repair and then will be on the road for weeks with few 
times around a WiFi but I do have a phone now with internet. 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm