Some Notes from Ron Hoskins Talk at Northampton Branch.

Ron is 80 and has been a beekeeper for nearly 68 years. He became more critical about what he was doing in the last thirty years and now calls himself a beekeeper. He has taught himself to Artificially Inseminate (AI) queens and in the late 80s he joined BIBBA to develop strains of the british black bee. In the 90s his success at AI dropped off , he attributed this to the chemicals used to treat varroa, causing drone infertility. Ron has nt used chemicals since, in the latter years the main focus of his efforts have been on breeding varroa resistant honeybees. Ron works with the Swindon Honeybee Conservation Group . The have a Hygienic Bee Introduction Programme and are looking for industrial sponsorship to help seed his hygienic bees into a local area. The Swindon group are looking for a sum of 350 for each kit. A kit comprises of a microscope, resistant queen, frame of drones, lens, sample jars and a brush. A recipiant would obtain the kit monitor the bees for the year if the bees survive at the end of the year they would keep them. The bees must not be treated with chemicals and if they die out then so be it. The equipment is then returned back to Ron for replenishing and then sent on to another recipient. Next season his target was for 20 kits, they have 7 ready to go. Ron described how through carefull observation he uncovered two

traits that the honeybees have developed to naturally control varroa populations. The first traint he observed is the honeybees groom each other and damage varroa mites with ther mandibles either on the carapace or the legs of adult varroa. Ron demonstrated that this behaviour is genetic and not learnt. Ron showed many slides of damaged varroa. Through painstakingly observation Ron has counted and examined in excess of 50,000 varroa over a two year period. Ron monitors and samples every day and is merticulous in his record keeping. Each floor is numbered with each hive, a dicataphone is used to record his notes and varroa samples are collected with a fine paint brush and stored in individually labelled pots. Ron suggests that some bees can sense when a larvae is infected with a varroa mite, these hygeiniec honeybees uncap the the larvae and pull out the larvae by their underdeveloped antenna which break off. When he monitors floor debris he can see evidence of damaged antenna and the nymph larvae of the sexually immature varroa mite. This hygienic behaviour disrupts the breeding life cycle of the varroa mite. From observation hives he has seen this behaviour in action. If the varroa larvae are disbturbed before the males develop this will disrupt the breeding cycle and reduce the levels of varroa in the hive. To observe these two traits you need either a disection microsope or hand held lens of at least 7 X magnification. He uses a piece of equipement called a lens dust buster. It was nt untill he used this equipment that he was able to determine the hygienic trait. He collects the mites by using a very fine staple paint brush so as not to damage them. To observe damaged antenna you have to collect debris on top of the open mesh floor.

Picture show damaged antenna from honey bee larvae and also damaged varroa. Sometimes dents are observed in the carapace, which is soft.

Immature varroa mites.

picking up nymphy varroa with a fine paint brush to avoid damaging the mite There is a suggestion that if we carefully examine our own hives we may see this behaviour as well. In the question and answer section one member of the audience who had seen Rons talk previously has been observing his floor debris with a cheap usb microscope from Maplins. He has been treating his bees with oxalic acid, thymol and he has observed the same varroa and larval damage in his floor debris. Rons group have selectively bred for the hygienic behaviour. In the early 90s he was breeding for the dark british bee. His focus is no longer on any one strain of honeybee but any bees that show hygienic traits. Any queens that dont make the grade are dispatched on his queen dispatching post. This post then ends up as a swarm trap. They have nt treated their hives with chemicals sine the mid 90s when they discovered that chemicals for controlling varroa where effecting the quality of semen fertility. He goes to the extreme lenghts of importing chemical free wax from Australia and treating it with cobalt radiation . He also makes sure that any plants he puts arround the apairy have nt been treated with seed treatments such

as neonictionomides. There was some discussion as to how the bee can tell which bees are damaged. Ron emphasised that these blood sucking mites would be about the size of a dinner plate on a human and could consume upto half the haemoplymph in a bee. If a bees wings are not zipped back along the body then the bee is showing signs of wing damaged, when the bee first emerged it did nt have enough blood to pump its wings up. A sign of healthy bees are those whose wings run along the bees thorax and dont stick out. I have noticed that when a bee is at rest at first they stick out eventually the bees wings relax and fold back A previous speaker at Stoneliegh has stated that the varroa go into the cell just before they are sealed, atrracted through a increase in the release of brood phermone by the bee larvae. I think that these hygenic bees have become attuned to some chemical trigger that the larvae have when they are underdeveloped or infected with the mite. And therefore remove the damaged larvae. An alternative suggestion is that the worker bees sense some change in vibration in the damaged larvae and remove them. This could either be vibrations of the varroa or lack of or unnatural vibrations from the larvae. This is speculation, in anycase it is desireable as it will disrupt the varroa lifecyle. It could be that the bees have sensed that the larvae are dead and are just removing the dead pupae. There is a suggestion that if beekeepers selectively breed queens from hives that show these two varroa disrupting traits, grooming and hygienic behaviour they will develop varroa resistant bees and without need to use chemicals to treat them. Chemicals introduce a selection pressure to help the mites become resistant to treatment. There have also been studies to show that the varroa treating chemicals damage drone fertility. Varroa infestation also damage drone fertility. Ron has also observed the same hygenic behaviour from wild bees that he has collected from swarms . Both traits may occur indepenantly, they are not correlated. Ron is now focusing his breeding programme on bees that have this hygienic behaviour which prevents varroa build up. Summary, there is a good chance that grooming and hygienic traits are in our own populations of hives but have gone unoticed, especially in regard to varroa damage. If beekeepers use magnification equipment they will be able to determine which of their hives are controlling varroa naturally. If we selectively breed for these characteristics we will develop more resistant bees that will require less use of chemicals to treat them.

Ron has brought to our attention that chemicals that are used to treat varroa are damaging drone fertility. Any beekeeper that is having problems with immediate supercedure or short queen laying life span should reassess their varroa treatment regime. He has advised on the use of a frame of super , with fresh wax drone cells on the bottom as a precaution.

Pictures were taken from his website http://www.swindonhoneybeeconservation.org.uk where a leaflet title are your bees hygienic can be downloaded. I have tried to faithfully the main points of Ron Hoskins talk as I recall them. After attending the talk I examined my hives earlier today and found the broken antenna trait in one hive. I think the damaged varroa is cocktail stick damage. After treatment next season I plan to follow looking for varroa damage when I have bought the right kit. These two pictures are my efforts. Anthony

Tips Stick numbered queen labels on painted queens they dont come off with the hairs break off. Uses soda stream anthetise and clip queens, Varroa floor has a lip on it to stop bee ingress Release drones at 2.30, then the virgin queen out 10 minutes latter, helps to control drones in the local area. Drones can come from with in a 80 square mile area. Put stores to one side of a hive in winter to help prevent bee starvation. Bees draw comb at 40 degrees C, fresh comb has a transparant back wall, which will cause you to think that the queen has laid two eggs in a cell, however one is from the back cell the other from the front cell.

In an emergency cut out foundation place the empty frame at the end and the bees will fill it with foundation. The bees draw out foundation in straigh lines in the dark, two sections at a time uniting them. Work out old comb to the left and remove every 11th visit. When building hive stands splay the legs so that the stands dont topple over. Rub queens out on a post to collect swarms never ever waste a queen Use bow scissors to clip queens dont need to use fingers in holes. Dont use checkmite makes queens sterile. Coumaphos. He can store semen in glass tubes with vaseline on the ends for up to 10 days, air bubble then saline solution. If a hive swarms it wont go back into its original box, put it into a new box even if that box is next to it. Put drone foundation in hive, trap queen in box, make hole so queen can place eggs in both sides, feed feed. Only look at them 9 am or 5 pm. Place queen exculder on bottom to trap drones.