I started a reply several days ago, but have been traveling, sick dog, markets, internet issues, etc.....


Peter, I'm not really sure what you are asking me.

Do I think that substances used to treat the bees are "treatments"?  Do I really need to answer that? ....I think I just did :)

...but more specifically...

I'm not aware of anyone promoting "Bee Boost" to restore any kind of balance.  I think it's a great thing for some specific purposes (containing bees on trucks, cleaning up after a cutout/swarm removal, etc)...but if a functioning hive doesn't have enough queen pheromones for proper functions, there is something wrong with the queen.  If the beekeeper wants to use such products to increase production (if it does), that is their business....I wouldn't.

My understanding of the research is that probiotics showed great promise in caged experiments, but in functioning, free flying colonies...not so much (at least according to a talk Jeff Pettis gave on the subject at our county bee club a couple of years ago). 

My attitude towards probiotics (wrt treatment free beekeeping) is that it is the equally flawed opposite of antibiotics..an attempt to micromanage a very complex microbial culture that we don't really understand in the first place.  If we knew what it should look like (and it is dynamic...it should look different under different circumstances), we might have a clue…but we only now beginning to get a picture of even the gross functioning of this system..never mind the details.  

When you begin to look at complex adaptive systems (like complex microbial cultures), you start to see tens of thousands of players (some major, some minor…some with specific roles, some with more general or variable roles…all interacting in non-linier complex relationships), it is easy to oversimplify things so we can wrap our heads (and possibly some equations) around it…but it’s probably more useful to apply some less concrete analysis to the problem.

The best analogy I can think of are some of the climate models that exist.  I’m not at all convinced of the accuracy of these models as they exist (and are presented as “proven science”)…there are simply too many variables that are too interrelated in complex ways….even with accurate and up to date data collection, we can’t even predict the weather from day to day with a high degree of certainty…the path of hurricanes and storms, etc. 

These kinds of complex relationships require a different way of thinking than simple linear relationship…we can predict what yeast will do in a sterile (or mostly sterile) medium when given sugars and other nutrients…but many heat the honey and inoculate with specific yeasts when making mead, not because it will definitely taste terrible if you just let dilute honey ferment with its already present yeasts and other microbes, but because under those circumstances the results are unpredictable….it might taste terrible, it might be cloudy….or it might be wonderful.

One can easily model the shape of a crystal with simple math/geometry…but to model a cloud, something more abstract (like fractals) are necessary.

I don’t think that the microbial systems we are talking about are simple enough for us to pilot them successfully towards our own goals without compromising their robust nature, their ability to (most of the time) self regulate so that no one component becomes overly dominant (and kills the goose).  In my opinion, this is the most important thing to preserve in the honeybee, an intact (and proven to be robust) microbial heritage.

Regardless, I think there is a vast difference between something that is constantly administered in order to "improve things" (like popping antacids) and something that is administered to actually restore balance (like the poop infusions we have been discussing).  An effective hangover pill is not an effective treatment for alcoholism, even if it does solve the biggest problem (from the alcoholics POV).

If we find that there are things missing because of our beekeeping (or other agricultural) practices that need to be present for a healthy hive (like a specific microbe or a specific complex culture),I think we should do something to restore that (especially if it has been functioning/developing for 50 million years).  But by “restore”, I’m talking about a one time restoration, not a constant infusion of things to replace what is being destroyed by our practices….more like a detox than a hangover pill.  My guess is that it won’t be so easy to do if some of the niches that need to be recolonized with something that has been lost are occupied.

Challenges of pests, parasites and disease are nothing new for honeybees (or for nature in general).  The only thing we can point to and say “this has worked in the past for 50 million years” is letting these relationships mature and balance themselves…..and to be clear, they are never “in balance”, but always in the process of “balancing”….it is this dynamic nature that allows them to adapt. 

Yes, species do go extinct sometimes from such challenges…but 50 million years of honeybees has produced an unbroken lineage of queen mother to queen daughter without extinction taking place.  

Yes, there are local (and global) dieoffs (boom and bust, as we have discussed before).  There are ebbs and flows in populations…but a 50 million year track record can’t be wrong.  Nothing we are doing with treatments, feeds, or “whatever else” supports the “wildness” of the bees…their ability to feed and care for themselves…their ability to adapt to an ever changing environment…their long term robustness.

If you want me to comment on “whatever else”, you will have to be more specific.

We had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Peter Teal’s ARS lab in Gainesville (it is on the U of F campus).  Both Ramona and I were extremely impressed with the work they are doing, and the direct nature of the data they are gathering.  I will write more about this in a separate post, but based upon what we learned, if I had a sudden infestation of hundreds of SHB in my hives (a friend nearby who is close to a migratory operation and orchards really got hit hard), I would try putting out some ripe cantaloupe out (adult beetles are preferentially attracted to ripe cantaloupe over bee hives), and every two days I’d let the chickens at em.  If that’s a “treatment”, so be it.

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