A New Approach to Pests and Diseases?

Dr Catherine Thompson has published a paper here in the UK which strongly suggests that feral nests are swarms from local beekeepers. They have been DNA tested. These bees survive four years or so and the cavities are re-populated. Now that we have the more virulent deformed wing virus B here it’s killing the colonies quicker. Anybody with a theory that bees are adapting has to understand that varroa is not a natural parasite of Apis nellifera. The two have not co evolved like varroa and Apis cerana. Evolution and adaptation will be slow because the honey bee produces very few fertile female offspring.

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Just an update. My bees did not swarm as suggested…i simply added a third brood box and did checkboard frames. I now have three full brood boxes and strong activity on all 6 flow frames. Next year I will split. In keeping with my experiment based on the scientific data that
CO2 levels and temperature inhibiting varroa I have let the bees do what they do best undisturbed excepting removing the reducer as the small opening was affecting their efficient ingress and egress. I check hive vitality every day and will be doing a full varroa/ pest evaluation in the Fall and will report back.

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