Hacker News Reader

Comment by helij | Hacker News Reader

If you are an amateur beekeeper and not concerned about the amount of honey you produce there is another way to get rid of Varroa. Just let colonies swarm naturally! Because the old queen goes with the swarm and new one doesn't lay eggs for a few days Varroa mites don't have anywhere to breed. That way their population crashes to manageable levels and colonies survive the winter without dying off. And yes, I did control Varroa this way for years. Obviously this doesn't work on a commercial scale due to colonies swarming just when it's time for them to be productive ;)

View on HN

Now that is an interesting story that I have not seen anywhere.

So if I'm understanding you right, this danger to bees is a sort of hack where our business-needs (namely being able to control what we pollinate and when) cause us to tend these colonies in a way that removes a security precaution (the honey bees "cleaning house" regularly) and these mites happen to be in a great position to shamelessly exploit that precaution and grow beyond bound?

You are correct in that the ways we commercially keep bees (our 'business needs') override the mechanisms honeybees evolved for defense against disease.

Swarming is just one of many natural behaviors that enhances the bees' ability to survive. This paper from a prominent bee researcher highlights 20 significant differences between how honeybees evolved to live and how we keep them today, all of which reduce the 'exquisite fit' with their environment:

https://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/darwinian-beekeeping

Swarming cleans house, sort of. They swarm to similar spots or old empty and potentially diseased ones. If you want to find a swarm, so where you last found one. Bees love going into old comb and it’s not a good habit.

If you're an amateur beekeeper chances are high you're in a populated area, and it's irresponsible to let your hives swarm repeatedly.

I'm also not convinced this works; hives generally swarm in the spring, and most beekeepers also do a round of treatment in the fall to knock down levels for the winter. Harvesting drone brood is a common way to achieve the same thing you're trying to do, and can be done any time of year.

I’m not sure why this is so down voted as it is accurate. Treatment is in spring and autumn and for some, all winter. It’s basically whenever there isn’t honey onboard and sometimes when there is. Swarming radically reduces honey production (swarm versus non swarm honey production is about 10kgs versus 80kgs for me this year, YMMV). Swarming is not good management, results in exterminators being called and irritates people. It’s also destructive of property depending on where they go. And what if you don’t catch them? It’s good that the new colony has less varroa, but if it’s not yours anymore it doesn’t really achieve anything.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com