from TreeHugger.com
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California
A British beekeeper has been working on creating a new strain of honeybee resistant to the varroa mite, a prime suspect in colony collapse disorder (CCD), and it looks like he's hit a high note after 18 years of careful observation and selective breeding. Ron Hoskins found that bees in one of his hives figured out what a great idea mutual grooming can be -- they learned to clean the mites off one another. Hoping that this learned behavior is hereditary, he spread the genes of bees from this colony to his other hives. It worked. Now, combating CCD could be linked in no small part to how quickly the new strain of bee spreads across the country.
Daily Mail reports that the British Beekeepers Association is excited about the work Hoskins has done, and the hope is the drones from his "grooming" bees will mate with wandering female queens to spread the heartier genes across Britain. It could take quite a long time, and a lot of generations of bees before the behavior becomes normal, but if it's a way to combat the mites that wipe out entire colonies, then it's quite an exciting evolution to witness.
Hoskins, who is from Swindon, has named the new strain the "Swindon Honeybee" and all his colonies consist of this new breed. And the behavior might be the only thing that can save honeybees from the verroa mite:... read more story at TreeHugger.com
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ReplyDeleteWe are about to build 3 vertical Top Bar Bee Hives..with NO GLUE joints..and painted with a melted mix of beeswax and linseed oil...We were Told to make sure we treat the new bees with anit-biotics and put mite strips in the hives?
ReplyDeleteI would appreciate a second opinion before we purchase the bees and queens...We want the bees to be heathy..but we want them to be as natural as possible..Also..what is your take on clipped and marked queens?
Thanks!