[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Unless you are already doing it, I'd set-up my mating nucs with
>virgins in this location.
Hello Waldemar!
That’s in my plans to place mating nucs in woodlands and areas where I
find traits of interest. I have a few out already, but need to do more.
From what you describe, these may be the
>*best* bees in the US since they grooming for varroa.
There are excellent breeders in the US producing excellent bees. I’m not
making claims that these bees are as good, or better than any other well
bred bees. But, because varroa pressure remains low in these colonies,
and brood patterns are very nice, honey production is good, and they
thrive without any treatments. Perhaps, there are fundamental traits in
place that will be valuable for breeders OR myself to select from to
produce a very good bee. Brother Adam went off to Africa, NOT to find the
best bees, but to find the traits that would be useful in his breeding,
and this is basically what I am attempting to do here with the local
ferals by gathering bees and assessing for traits of interest.
Also, I have yet to prove that the grooming trait is effective or not
against varroa. Low varroa counts, surviving without treatments and
ability to produce honey seem to suggest something is suppressing mites in
these colonies, but I have yet to prove any mode of action.
A snip from a research manuscript reported
(name dropping, dropped here) ;)
“Allogrooming never dislodged a mite.”
So this is my project for the year to study the behavior to see this
particular behavior will dislodge mites. It would be great if the event
should occur, and I could get it on video.
What kind of
>honey crops have you gotten from these bees?
A few seasons ago I noticed a great increase in brood viability and
largeness of patterns occurring. I don’t know why the viability increased
in all my colonies from not so good to the very high 90’s, in practically
a single season. But I’m assuming the strong rebound of the feral
population in my area has assisted in better mating. The last two years I
noticed the colonies being stronger, and crops have increased as a result
of better queen performance. For me to quote numbers and crop results on
these lists tends not to be accepted well. So all I will say is that this
line outperformed my other colonies and did much better than what the
average is for my area.
>Would you consider selling some of this stock?
At this time, all I am mainly interested in is testing and experimenting
with this line of bees. My love in beekeeping is observing and evaluating
traits found in the feral population, and this is where my focus is. I
want to do observations on the grooming behavior this season before
deciding to enter any breeding program. If I can manage to quantify
allogrooming as the reason for the mite suppression in these colonies,
then I may consider selling stock. But without finding the actual mode of
resistance, all I have is something that is not a great selling
point; “mite resistant stock with a funny looking grooming behavior that
may or may not be the mode of action suppressing varroa.” ;)
>I'd be interested to know if this woodland population is steadily
>expanding. Do you have any way of gauging that?
The immediate area of woodlands where I assess my swarms had been lagging
behind the feral recovery till about 2 years ago. The first areas I
noticed to recover were in more prime bee habitats which have abundance
of ‘large voids‘ and tended to be located in remote farmlands to the West,
and old growth forests to the East of my location.
The best way that I know of to gauge the population of ferals is to set up
several feeding stations to triangulate the positions of feral nests, then
each year repeating the process. I tried it in my immediate area and In
the past it was quite boring at the feeding stations with rarely a bee
visiting. But last season, feeding frenzy’s occurred at all stations
making the process much more exciting. And by using triangulation, there
is a possible 5 feral colonies in my immediate area.
Best Wishes,
Joe
Feralbeeproject.com
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