Bees and mites

It seems that when the Varroa Mites began damaging our bee population, many of the commercial beekeepers bought into the wisdom of the pesticide industry. This mentality permiated much of the beekeeping world and it was declared that bees could not survive without chemical treatments. Those treatments began selection for a super mite which the bees really could not survive without assistance of some sort.

As real wisdom finally caught on, we realized that not only were we selecting for a super mite by using increasingly more toxic chemicals, we were harming our bees also and now they really are failing even with all the assistance we can give them. I began beekeeping in 2004 and decided to not use chemicals even if I lost my bees. My goal was to find and select for a bee that was tolerant of the mites.

I also began searching the wilds for feral bees that managed to survive without assistance to selectively breed for resistance in my stock. I have now made it until 2008 with no chemicals and I have raised queens from my best stock with great results. I CAN raise bees without chemicals and they are doing better than the bees of my friends who use chemicals.

Many experts believe there are no surviving feral bees and all the bees that were believed to be feral are actually swarms that escaped from managed colonies. A New York forest called the Argone Forest seems to have proven there are feral bees still in existance without management and they are surviving without chemicals.

My first thought was these bees must have naturally adapted to the mites. Studies now show that that may have happened to a degree, but mostly, the mites adapted to the bees. A good parasite does not kill its host, and these mites seem to have regressed to a point that they can live with the bees without killing them.

I find this amazing. Had we allowed this natural process to go on in our colonies instead of using chemicals, we may have actually been able to live with the mites instead of creating a super mite and poisoning our bees. Maybe someday we will learn to think about our interventions before we make matters worse.