I am planning on going to our state beekeeping convention and am working up
a sheet which I feel will give people an accurate picture of the quality of
my queens. I have never "pushed" sales of these queens(apart from simply
encouraging people to use resistant stock) but may begin soon as my
confidence has been steadily growing over the years. I realized the
following response from a few months back (that I never sent) pretty well
summarized what I wanted to say to give people a justified confidence.
This seems to be an appropriate time to post this.
Dave B wrote:
> Okay I am confused. What is the consensus are there mite resistant lines
> of
> bees or not?
Dave,
Let me give a few facts/observations. You can make of it what you will.
1 I have not treated any of my bees for mites in ~ 5 years, about half
have not been treated for ~ 6 years. I use Terra/Tylan when I find
foulbrood, usually I clear it up in a few weeks of treatment.My entire
yearly chemical bill is way less than $40.00. (I use chemical free supers
storage also.)
Bees are generally gentler than average-a quality I prize....haven't used
gloves for 15
minutes in two+ years..No veil often. I do get stung fairly frequently but
not
"hammered".
2 I was in a USDA test program with a yard of some 30 colonies. I put two
of "my" colonies there in the 3rd year . The honey production for one tied
for first, the
other was in the top 30%.
The lines were 1/3 Russian, 1/3 SMR/VSH and 1/3 controls.The controls were
from a beekeeper(1000+ Hives) who I had worked for down south of me. In his
yards of 40 hives , 38 or 39 would be utterly beautiful-2 deeps boiling with
bees
in spring, and judging from his honey production produced good crops.
Let me add this. The USDA study I mentioned above showed very very little
difference between VSH, Russian, and control honey production over a 3 year
period.From my conversations with the USDA scientist (PhD)who was involved
in the research I have little doubt as to his findings. He is a very
meticulous person who enjoys the safety of good statistics. My best memory
is that it was a 3 year program involving over one hundred hives.
Study was published in ABJ some 3 years back.
3 A bee scientist whose name most would recognize looked at one of my
yards a few years back-some of my foundational stock from Bweaver. He gave
them a two thumbs up.
4 I have had one "bad" report-this from a Midwestern beekeeper who is
commercial.
He said my bees(10 queens) failed to build up. He is an extremely
knowledgeable beekeeper. I have no reason to doubt his report.
5 At roughly the same time I sent 20 queens to another Midwestern beekeeper
who is semi-commercial.
He had really nice things to say about them. I would sum it up in a one word
quotation: "Lovely". I have no reason to doubt his report as he is a
knowledgeable beekeeper
6 I have sold some to a commercial beekeeper(500 hives) near here-salty
character. His comment "Aint nuttin wrong wit yo bees Horton". He does
treat all his bees-mine included.
7 In southern Tennessee a beekeeper with about 140 hives has not treated the
40- 60 queens he has of my stock in two years. His impression was that they
are somewhat above average in honey production.
I have had repeat sales also to a 3rd generation beekeeper(100 hives?)
here
and asked him to give me a no holds barred evaluation of my queens..his
summary statement was "I keep buying them don't I?"
(In our area we have queens from the deep south, Florida, Hawaii etc.)
8 According to his estimate of honey which our bee inspector gave me last
year-my bees were well above average production for this area. I requeen
less than 10% of my hives in a year.How much of this is dependent on yard
location I don't know, but listening to other beekeepers from this area my
strong
opinion is that my hives are performing well wrt others in comparable
locations.
9 A friend of mine from our beekeepers association pulled me aside and told
me that when our inspector was going through his hives-late summer-
he(inspector) went and got his camera because the hive-particularly the
brood pattern-was so
beautiful(I think his words were that it was the most beautiful pattern he
had seen this year)he wanted to take a picture of it...I am pretty sure that
the
inspector didn't know that it was from a queen I had sold the beekeeper-Don
L.
(I had to shout when Don told me about this-I couldn't help it!)
I need to add that I am reasonably sure that my friend had treated his bees
the year before(or spring). On the other hand the mama of that queen has
produced
beautiful "spotless" or close to it brood patterns with corners/edges filled
w/honey.I feel a conservative estimate of 95% filled. w / o treatment in
her hive for 5+ years.
10 I took my uncle in southern Louisiana a hive about a year ago-his health
is failing so I took him a hive with some other animals for him to enjoy. A
year later the deep with the shallow was bearded and substantially covered
on the other 3 sides. Nobody maintains it, it is just for his enjoyment.
11 Of the some 1000 queens I sold there is an acceptance rate that I would
estimate at 98%. I would say that some 80% of the reports I get back
from the beekeepers I sell to are "very good to excellent".The balance that
I know of are "average" or at least very few complaints have been voiced. I
sometimes have "duds" when I requeen my own hives. I "age" my queens as this
will highlight queens with severe problems and is the main contributor to
the high acceptance rate.
12 Some of my bees look good and strong-especially on a "yard basis" where
all hives in a yard will look good regardless it seems of lineage(all mite
resistant)...Some
other yards not so hot. One of my strongest/most productive yards has not
been
treated in about 6 years.
13 There are other queen producers that haven't treated in several years-at
least one in this forum. I know a few and have heard of more.
14 I have around 300 hives and honey sales form the major part of our
family's
income. (This was a tough year weather-wise and I will have to make
adjustments)
15 In measuring mite numbers, I have found it useful to uncap several drone
cells. My experience is that this is for measuring extremes..not getting
exact mite counts to the nth significant digit.. In
other words, if you find every cell w/ mites...look closer...If you find
zero cells with mites...look closer. I wont go into detail, but for my
purposes am mainly interested in extremes.There is little doubt in
my mind that you can use drone pulling as a good tool to measure extremes.
16 I had a line of bees-still got a few -who showed excellent resistance but
just wouldn't produce much honey over the long haul. I keep a few of them
around-
perhaps for nostalgia.
The criteria I judge my bees on are in descending order of importance :
varroa resistance and average honey production-gentleness-comb pulling
zeal....frankly if a hive has these characteristics I am not picky about
much else. My definition of resistance = survival w/o treatment.
17) I deeply love nature and perhaps one of greatest joys is that I feel as
if I am contributing to the little old European honeybee survival in my neck
of the woods. Fortunately, I believe I have maintained a practical approach.
I have taught a class on queen rearing to our local club and heartily
encourage beekeepers to maintain their own supply of queens from resistant
stock-it can be easily done-in fact, I consider it one of the most
pleasurable aspects of beekeeping. .BTW when working my queen nucs in most
conditions, I rarely get stung w/no veil and short sleeve shirt.
18 My total losses have not changed as far as I can tell since going
exclusively w/resistant stock and have been ~ 10-20% for an entire year.
My foulbrood percentage is not far off the state average of some 3%.
I can reduce my losses substantially by judicious requeening and especially
by requeening weak hives in the fall. The numbers include a few starvations.
I have made mistakes and am still experimenting with queen rearing genetics
and techniques. I am however ,convinced that the queens I have are
productive.
19)On a comical note with a point: I Have had a couple of newbee's just to
call and tell me how well their bees were doing after a year or so.I asked
them "Have you put strips in your hives?" They said "What are strips?"
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