BeeLines - March '25

I’m not sure if this thought is a flight of fantasy, but the BIBBA conference we recently attended supports our perspective for the rapidly growing interest in beekeepers to keep their bees treatment free (TF). Travelling down and taking part in the conference on 15th February was quite an event for us and we hope information on the conference, and the possible ripple implications for LLEBKA, will be of interest.

The title of the conference was “Varroa Resistance through Bee Improvement”, and it was organised by BIBBA (Bee Improvement & Bee Breeders Association) https://bibba.com/. It took place in a large, modern village hall in Ettington, just outside Stratford-upon-Avon. The capacity of the hall was 200 and with approximately 170 attendees, 5 presenters, an organising team from BIBBA and a large contingent of friendly helpers from Stratford-upon-Avon Beekeepers’ Association, the hall was packed!

The presentations:

Understanding the science of honey bee varroa resistance (VR) - Stephen Martin

Varroa resistant bees: when it’s more than a hobby - Rhona Toft (commercial beekeeper)

Free living bees solving the varroa problem - Joe Ibbertson (Boughton Estate Project)

Working as a club towards varroa resistance - Steve Riley (Westerham Beekeepers)

16 years of treatment-free (TF) beekeeping with Welsh dark bees - Clive (LLEBKA)

The Chair for the day, or, perhaps, a more accurate description is master of ceremonies, was Roger Patterson, the president of BIBBA. With his friendly banter and quick wit Roger was well able to hold the event together and the use of his dog-whistle ensured that the sessions started on time!

The audience was attentive during the presentations, which was in complete contrast to the atmosphere in the hall during tea and the lunch break. ‘During these ‘in between times’ the hall was filled with enthusiastic chatter with folks meeting and greeting one another. It really was a great atmosphere! At the end of the afternoon there was a Q&A session. For a few minutes I ‘turned the table’ by asking the audience, ‘How many were already keeping their bees Treatment Free? The show of hands was illuminating - around ⅓ -to ¼ were already TF beekeepers. And of that proportion around ½ indicated that they had been TF for three years or longer.

BIBBA should be congratulated for organising and sponsoring this conference. It is the first organisation in the UK, as far as we know, to arrange a conference dedicated solely to VR honey bees and TF beekeeping. BIBBA has also formally committed to supporting and actively promoting this cause.

Other than the general interest of being informed about the wider view of UK beekeepers towards TF beekeeping and VR bees, is there any relevance to LLEBKA members? In our area we are very lucky to have VR honey bees and do our beekeeping without any need to control the varroa mites in our hives. So, maybe we have little need to know what BIBBA is doing? There is, however, one aspect of the VR/TF topic that, we think, will be relevant to our area and to our BKA; that is, an increased demand for VR bees. As the day at the conference passed we were approached by a number of beekeepers from different parts of the UK, all very friendly and enthusiastic beekeepers, and all with the same question, “can you supply a VR queen?’ The beekeepers were amateur, semi-commercial, and one very definitely commercial - Border Honey. https://youtu.be/IomGgODqKzA

Border Honey has clearly put a big effort into running an efficient business, and, by what friends tell us, is run by a dedicated and friendly family. The only problem from our perspective is they represent a very different view of honey bees and beekeeping to ours. The Youtube video noted above is informative. You will find out, in some detail, how to import Buckfast breeder queens from Denmark, breed large colonies from these queens, graft their larvae and produce thousands of queens in mini nucs - to be then sold as British Bred Buckfast Queens.

If you have knowledge of our remnant native honey bee and wish to protect this insect, this importing of non-native bees is tragic news. Especially when the vast majority of beekeepers do not agree with the importing of queens, and this view is supported by all the national bee organisations (WBKA, BBKA, SBA, NIHBS, and international organisations, e.g.SICAMM).

Back to the question - and it is quite possibly a question you could be asked - “Can you supply a VR queen?”. Our answer, at the moment - and without filling pages of discussion - is, ‘maybe yes’, but probably, ‘no’. Because there are important variables to consider. Again in summary we mention two.

Firstly, recent scientific research has concluded that VR is a trait transmitted through queens. So, pop a VR queen into a suitable colony and ‘hey presto’ you have a VR colony - or do you? Will it always succeed? How permanent is the trait? What will happen in subsequent generations? How important are local conditions? Questions, questions, that might be relevant and add to our very cautious consideration of supplying bees to ‘anyone’.

Secondly, how ‘local is local’?

On the one hand - great to encourage and enable as many beekeepers as possible to have varroa resistant (VR) bees and become treatment-free (TF) beekeepers- but because of the many unanswered questions, better, at least at the moment, to be cautious and continue to help ‘local’ starter-beekeepers in our local area.

We do think varroa resistant bees have ‘taken off’, but we don’t want them to ‘crash land!’

Back to Earth with hive weights. On St David’s Day we weighed our 7 hives nominated for this exercise, and found 6 had lost weight and one had gained weight. The average loss over the 6 hives was 0.96kg. The largest loss was 2.2kg, and one hive gained 0.12kg. The next weighing, and the last for this ‘bee winter’, will be on the 1st April. We know other members are weighing hives, and after 1st April we will collate the information, and see if we can draw any conclusions.

If you have comments, information, a bee story or tips you would like to share with members please let us know and we will include them in BeeLines.