Varroa resistance breeding in Lunden Apiaries

An updated summary

The first Varroa was found in September 1996, a great chock, that turned into passion.

Finding Varroa explained the troubles, which these first-hit places had had in the previous years. The treatment of Varroa was done by formic acid from the hive bottom in the first years. The acid was impregnated into soft tissue on a plate. Lucky enough, the difference of the Varroa numbers dropping into these plates was the thing that woke my curiosity.

By 1999 Varroa had spread on every bee yard.

Beginning of the breeding program

A two-way breeding program was started 2001.

Part one: The treatment of Varroa was changed into once-a-year oxalic-acid dropping in late October, and the amount of treatment was to be diminished each year by 5 ml. Year 2001 38 ml was given to each hive, 2005 it was down to 18 ml. No other treatment was given even it was needed. The oxalic-acid dropping is very effective, about 95%, when given on the bees in brood less period. It’s a 3% sugar solution: 100 ml water, 100g of sugar and 7,5 g oxalic acid.

Why so?

Because, in the beginning the mites were not evenly divided between the hives and the bee yards. Absolute evenness is very hard to achieve without package bees. Because of this I thought that stopping treatments totally at once would give me wrong results. I was not sure, that the right hives would survive. When the treatments were little by little diminished, I gave Nature some time to adjust. And besides, with treatments I got very easily valuable information about the number of mites. (Of course, mites could be counted from bee samples, but I considered it to be a bit laborious.)

Part two: One bee yard with 70 nucleus hives with 6 shallow frames each was established in July 2001, and these so called “mini-hives” are not treated at all. By now a lot has happened in these hives during the years, but it has been a totally closed system: no bees or brood has been into or out of this yard. The mini-hives were later 12 shallow frames, because of the wintering troubles of the 6-frame nucs. (In Finland the winter of bees lasts for 6 months and there can be temperatures down to -35 and a period over 10 days with -25 Celsius.) Now the mini hives are sc. Mini-Plus hives.

In 2001 I got the first Primorsky queens from Josef Koller in Germany. Primorsky -bees originate from the Far-East area in Russia near Vladivostok, and they were taken to USA by prof. Rinderer. From USA there was export to Germany and many European breeders started working with these bees. They vary in appearance, from mixed orange to grey, Carniolan like bees. My main stock is Buckfast.

Situation 7.1.2006

The program has worked surprisingly well so far. The survivors of the mini-hives have been used as drone-mothers in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The survivor-genes from the mini-hives have been spread into the 150 normal honey producing hives. In October 2004 the oxalic –acid treatment dropped 10 to 7200 mites from one hive, in the 2005 autumn from 7 to 1500. Is this progress? I don’t know.

The number of mites dropped with treatments 2005 was from 7 to 1500, but the efficiency of the treatment is not known. I have some idea, that with strong hives the effect of 18 ml/hive might be under 50%. There is also some evidence of other changes: Bees may have changed a bit more aggressive. There are also hives, which are not gathering nectar as well as you would expect from their strength. Has the selection taken its toll?

There are still 4 years to go until the treatment is totally over. I’m optimistic, that this time is enough. New tested bee material, such as the SMR bees, would be very helpful. Import from the USA is however forbidden. On the other hand, this kind of work must be carried out with various bees in various places on Earth to keep the genetic diversity as large as possible.

The situation of the mini hives got dramatically worse in July 2005. Viruses, which tend to follow Varroa with waves, made a new hit. Now there are only two nucs, which might, with some luck, be alive next spring. If they all die, a new experiment will be set up. Of course, there are some sisters of these last two survivors in the normal hives; they are the second best choice to be my breeders in 2006.

The information of the breeders has been published in the Internet: www.buckfast.de -> Links -> Pedigree-Archive -> Juhani Lunden

http://perso.fundp.ac.be/~jvandyck/homage/elver/pedgr/ped_JL_2010.html (revision of the original article)

Swarming has been reported as the worst negative thing in Primorsky, but I can’t agree. We have had only one Primorsky mother, whose daughters swarmed quite a lot (R39, Pedigree 2003). From my point of view minor susceptibility to chalkbrood and AFB(=American Foul Brood) are the most negative things about Primorsky. The gentleness is easy to breed back after we have concurred Varroa.

Matings are done with two isolation apiaries. Isolation apiaries are tested to be very sure: mating hives are taken to these places without drones, there are no laying queens in 3-4 weeks. There will be more instrumental insemination in the coming years. This is because the risks are getting bigger: one wrong choice, one drone-line that is not working as expected, would be a big hit back.

There is some new bee-material, which has been tested in the recent years: EA68 is a queen originating from Colombia, South  America. R113 is a new Primorsky queen, mated with Elgon –drones. The Elgon is a Buckfast line, which has its origins in the African bees Monticola and Sahariensis mixed with Buckfast.

December 2005

Juhani Lundén

(Some revisions made 3.4.2010)

Niina Hyvönen started beekeeping because her uncle inspired her interest. Her uncle has been a beekeeper all her life, over 40 years. Niina sells honey directly from home, in outdoor and indoor markets and to resale buyers, too. Besides pure honey she has a big variety of high quality products, different kinds of flavored honey and beeswax candles, just to name some.

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Niina has 40 hives, which she tenders very precisely. The queen is kept upstairs from early June to early July, this way it is easier to control swarming preparations. She takes the queen with her comb upstairs above queen excluder. The rest of the box is filled with empty drawn frames, some food and foundation too. After extracting is over, she feeds the bees 25 litres sugar solution, which is very normal amount in Finland. Some hives overwinter in one 10 frame Langstroth box, stronger hives have one Farrar (160x 447mm) above to give more space.

“To keep the queen locked up with excluder is unethical, therefore there is an upper entrance too. She can fly away is she wants to.”, Niina says with emphasis which tells a lot about her as a person.

Niina lives with her husband and kids near the city of Hämeenlinna. Their home has been a small farm. She used to extract all honey in their kitchen, but to make facilities more professional she ended up to a quite genius solution: a construction site barracks.

The total cost of the barracks with transport and foundation was 7400 €, including 24% VAT, which is refundable.  Her husband helped quite a lot, he did all the wiring and plumbing. There is everything needed for a small honey factory: running water, lightning and warming. There is even a honey drying room and shower to wash the equipment. Sewerage solution is somewhat homemade, but it is used just to washing water.    

Niina could be and excellent organic beekeeper (LUOMU) but the bureaucracy, yearly inspections and fees are so enormous, and time and money consuming, that she has had to say no.

Treatment free beekeeping has an image problem.

Then we moved on to discuss varroa mite. She makes three treatments: August treatments with formic acid or thymol pads, late autumn oxalic acid dribbling (OAD) and summertime drone brood removal.    

My question to Niina was: Why would you not consider treatment free beekeeping as an option?

“I have been told that the treatment free bees are angry.”

I told her that is not true.

“I have been told that the treatment free bees have such huge masses of mites that they cause troubles to neighbouring beekeepers.”

I told her the fact is the opposite; the treating beekeepers cause troubles to treatment free beekeepers.

“Treatment free queens are very expensive.”

I told her that Timo Rahkola from Kauhajoki is selling daughters of my queens for 55€.

That is not too much, said Niina.

“There are no mating places for treatment free bees.”

This nearly is true, I said, but, in Ruovesi there will be one next summer.

“Shame it is so far away!”

 I have to admit, 150 km is too much. We must solve this issue.  

The real reason not to start treatment free beekeeping is the lack of mating places. And for some, the lack of queen rearing skills. Niina has the skills needed, but very often life has been too busy for that.

“The biggest obstacle to start treatment free beekeeping is the beekeeper himself.” JOHN KEFUSS

In this bombshell it is time to say goodbye.

Juhani Lundén