# Treatment-Free Beekeeping in Norway scientifically studied



## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Here a link:

http://tvl-avsa.ch/_downloads/Neumann.pdf


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

I find this study most interesting:

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep27210



> Our counterintuitive result shows that susceptible individuals can benefit the superorganism, which goes against the common assumption that ‘strong’ elements of a social entity are required to ensure group survival. We here show that ‘weak’ elements can contribute to the strength of a social ensemble. This provides empirical support to theories on the adaptive value of suicide or high death rate in social insects25,26, thereby constituting a social analogue of apoptosis, a mechanism preventing the spread of infections by sacrificing parts of the whole organism27,28. Given the high number of individuals in a honey bee colony, some individuals can be (and are commonly) sacrificed without compromising the survival of the group29 and even promote colony survival by hindering further infestations30. Such altruistic suicide of immature individuals is a novel form of transgenerational social immunity in honey bees. Irrespective of the actual pathogen, the observed social apoptosis is most likely a fundamental defence mechanism of social insect colonies to combat diseases.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Problem with VSH is it is something that humans can identify, and even put a number on, such as 60%, 80%, or whatever. So breeding programs have gone down the track of attempting to improve VSH. Other traits, that may come more to the fore in natural breeding, are not identifyable or easily quantified, so are not used so much in human run breeding programs.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

I forgot the link!

https://peerj.com/preprints/2976.pdf

In conclusion, our data support that a reduced V. destructor mite reproductive success seems to 
be a key factor for natural colony survival. However, grooming and VSH are unlikely for this 
Norwegian case. Instead, yet unidentified behavioral traits of work bees seem sufficient to 
explain reduced mite reproductive success. Therefore, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive 
and should be a focus of future studies taking advantage of naturally selected survivors.
This Norwegian honey bee population, taken together with previously reported independent 
cases (Locke 2016), clearly show that European honey bee subspecies can indeed develop traits 
to overcome extreme V. destructor infestations by means of natural selection. It is therefore high 
time we take advantage of these cases and gain a better understanding of natural host adaptations 
(Fries and Bommarco, 2007) for a practical application in apiculture and honey bee conservation 
worldwide.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

great info. many thanks juhani and sibylle. looking forward to giving this a thorough reading soon.


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## Buzz-kill (Aug 23, 2017)

Thanks for the link. I was wondering about that but thought maybe it wasn't accessible or something.
Perhaps they need to look at the brood death as described in the article SiWolke posted.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

In a sence it is no wonder something like this is found in Norway. From the web site of Norwegian Beekeepers Association:
"Norway is perhaps the only country where Varroa destructor is battled exclusively by biotechnical methods and organic acids. The work of NB has been crucial to avoid the use of pesticides for varroa treatment. Parts of the country are still free of Varroa due to restrictions on movements of colonies from infested areas to uninfested areas."


I wonder if there are anyone form Norway in BS. I´m curious to know who is this beekeeper in Norway? Why has nobody heard or written anything about his work before, has been TF since 1997!

Hans-Otto Johnsens work is familiar to me, but he writes: "I saw the first Varroa mite in my operation in 1997. I tried different methods available, but soon came to use only what is contained in my description further down." I haven´t heard anything of him either for ages.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Juhani Lunden said:


> I wonder if there are anyone form Norway in BS. I´m curious to know who is this beekeeper in Norway? Why has nobody heard or written anything about his work before, has been TF since 1997!
> 
> Hans-Otto Johnsens work is familiar to me, but he writes: "I saw the first Varroa mite in my operation in 1997. I tried different methods available, but soon came to use only what is contained in my description further down." I haven´t heard anything of him either for ages.


Erik posted this about him last year:



> Today Hans-Otto has research money from the Department of Agriculture in Norway.
> 
> Resistant stock
> 
> ...


Seems like he uses elgon stock now. It could be him who is involved. I will ask Erik what happens in the north.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

SiWolKe said:


> It could be him who is involved.


 If Johnsen had been TF 2016 for 15 years, that brings us back to year 2001. 

In the study there is clearly said the beekeeper has not treated since 1997. It looks the study is not done with bees.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

The interesting tangle in this web is that he has some A.M.mellifera in his stock. That is the same basic source as my bees though it is possible the traits that are important for reduced mite loads come from other races.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

SiWolKe said:


> Erik posted this about him last year:





Fusion_power said:


> The interesting tangle in this web ...


Could you give a link to this (web)?


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

I sent the link to Erik and he wants to contact Hans-Otto and will give me the true story when he has spoken to him.
His reaction was that there was something seriously wrong with that study.
I will update.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

It is hard to isolate which hive has the ability to teach other
bees their mite fighting traits. Finding them is like finding a needle in a
big ocean. Need to find some variable in the hives with keen observation for that.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

SiWolKe said:


> I sent the link to Erik and he wants to contact Hans-Otto and will give me the true story when he has spoken to him.
> His reaction was that there was something seriously wrong with that study.
> I will update.


Ok...interesting...we´ll wait for that.

I wrote to my friend who has in Finland maybe the best contact network in beekeeping. 
He is doing some research.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Here are the facts:

http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=1036

Guess who the breeder is....


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

So Erik is sure the beekeeper of the study is Hans-Otto Johnsen, although there is contradictory information (about the TF years)?

I don´t understand this sentance in Eriks writing: "This has also *not* been a defensive campaign for its bees for many years."

Does he mean that there has been some sort of campaign against his bees or not?


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

I asked Erik to clarify. Update is coming.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Erik is not at home right now but will correct the spelling and informations in his blog post the moment he is.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Erik corrected the blog post.

Juhani,
He ( and I) is wondering why you do not try to contact Hans-Otto yourself if you want the informations.


> I wrote to my friend who has in Finland maybe the best contact network in beekeeping.


I would like to know who he is to inform Erik. Why always talking behind backs? Is it still the small cells?

I can´t believe you all in scandinavia are not co-workers having the same goal, treatment free bees.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

SiWolKe said:


> Juhani,
> He ( and I) is wondering why you do not try to contact Hans-Otto yourself if you want the informations..


I don´t have contact information to Hans Otto Johnsen. I barely remembered his name.




SiWolKe said:


> Why always talking behind backs? Is it still the small cells?
> 
> I can´t believe you all in scandinavia are not co-workers having the same goal, treatment free bees.






Talking behind back?? Are you serious?? Writing in a free Internet forum is, to me, NOT talking behind backs.



Who is the beekeeper in the Norwegian study? I would be the first to write him, and maybe visit as well, if I only knew who he is.

Erik does not know. You don´t know. I don´t know. 

With this thread I´m trying to find out who he is. 



Today I´m one step further in this process. *The beekeeper of the Norwegian study is not Hans Otto Johnsen.* 

This much we know now:
"Regarding the resistant bees, our cooperating beekeeper do use 4.9mm cells have some 200 colonies and cooperates with several other beekeepers for breeding (amongst them Hans Otto Johnsen which again cooperates with Erik Østerlund).

To be honest I don't know if cell size is a part of the story. Regarding the literature it is most likely not.

The bees are not super gentle, but can be easily handled with veil and gloves. They are productive and build strong colonies that are good honey producers. They are a mixture of different breeds, but not as yellow as many buckfast breeds.

The beekeepers quit treatment in the late 1990ties and experienced some years with higher losses. However, he did select on surviving colonies and he also challenged the bees with the common small black ants and observed their behavior. Aggressiveness towards the ants was also a selection criteria for some years.

I have taken a lot of bee samples from his colonies and mite levels stay rather low, but this fall I sampled some colonies with at least 10 mites/100 bees. Winter losses are minimal, less than 5% and usually not related to varroa.

His apiaries are not isolated, though he use to mate his queens centrally in his area where his bees probably dominates the drone population."



This information comes from Norway. But they refuse to release his name.

Mystery continues.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

have you already written the authors of the paper, provided your contact info, and requested they ask the norwegianbeekeeper to contact you juhani?


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

In the end I will do so. (pm to you squarepeg)


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

Translation often loses it's context. Double translation triples the risk.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

The beekeeper in this Norwegian study is Terje Reinertsen.



I phoned him and asked if it is all right to publish his name.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Juhani Lunden said:


> The beekeeper in this Norwegian study is Terje Reinertsen.
> 
> 
> 
> I phoned him and asked if it is all right to publish his name.


:thumbsup:


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Boy I love this moment, this is so great news.

*Terje Reinertsen from Norway has done something which has long been questioned if it is possible at all. He has done a miracle!

It has now been scientifically proven that a beekeeper with only 200 hives in less than 20 years time with simple breeding methods and with no isolation to other beekeepers has come up with a bee stock that is varroa resistant. 

-in less than 20 years time
-no isolation 
-free mating
-no fancy difficult breeding methods 
-bees are easily workable, build strong colonies and make good honecrops
-infestation levels remain low
-no AHB genes
-scientifically proven

Is this first time ever?
*


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Cos of translation issues I haven't read the paper, but could you give a run down on how he did this? Including what breeds he is using, and what level of varroa are now in the hives?

Are there plans to share these bees around?


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Juhani:
I just studied the article and your posts and website again and have some questions:

-


> His apiaries are not isolated, though he use to mate his queens centrally in his area where his bees probably dominates the drone population."


Can you be a little bit specific on that? Are the queens bred isolated from other drones or not? 

- Did you yourself ever tried AHB? Didn´t you say once you used bees from Columbia?

- The stock in the test was from different breeds, are african bees used ( like mine, monticola) ? You seem to know so much about Terjes bees.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Oldtimer said:


> Cos of translation issues I haven't read the paper, but could you give a run down on how he did this? Including what breeds he is using, and what level of varroa are now in the hives?
> 
> Are there plans to share these bees around?


It is all in English:

https://peerj.com/articles/3956/

I would not know about Terjes plans, just phoned him today for the first time.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

SiWolKe said:


> Juhani:
> I just studied the article and your posts and website again and have some questions:
> 
> -
> Can you be a little bit specific on that? .


I have shared with you all information I have.

I had one Colombian queen back in 1996(if I remember year right). Great breeder. As gentle as my other bees.


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Thanks Juhani I had clicked a wrong link.


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## Eduardo Gomes (Nov 10, 2014)

"The overall average mite reproductive success in surviving colonies was significantly reduced at 0.87 offspring per foundress whereas in susceptible colonies it was 1.24."

Very impressive! The same mechanism found by Le Conte in french bees populations.
Thanks Juhani for the link and your effort!:applause:


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

:thumbsup: excellent thread juhani. many thanks for bringing this information to the forum.

if terjes is english speaking by all means invite him to join this community. if he has the time and is so inclined we would love to hear more about what he is doing.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

squarepeg said:


> :thumbsup: excellent thread juhani. many thanks for bringing this information to the forum.
> 
> if terjes is english speaking by all means invite him to join this community. if he has the time and is so inclined we would love to hear more about what he is doing.


That would be great! I would like to know about the stock he used and the cell size. :applause:


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

SiWolKe said:


> That would be great! I would like to know about the stock he used and the cell size. :applause:


I allready wrote he uses 4,9 mm (post 21).


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Sorry Juhani.
I only wanted to have this confirmed by the source. I apologize.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Here is some more information, direct from Terje:

Terje Reinertsen found varroa in his hives 1993. He treated for two years with formic acid. Results were not good, winter losses were big. After serious thinking he decided to stop treatments. He started to take closer look at his hives. He monitored their behaviour and number of mites. He discovered there were huge differencies in number of mites between hives, although they were standing nearby each other. The surviving hives with lower mite numbers were used in breeding. Besides mites he found out that some queens had huge egg laying capasity, more than 2500 eggs per day. He changed to small 4,9mm cells in year 2002. He will tell more about his breeding methods later. 


I wrote earlier; "no fancy breeding method were used". With this I meant difficult methods like counting VSH factor, which requires several hundred cells opened and looked with microscope. My words were because I at that point had only read the words of Melissa Oddie. Oddie writes in the last words of the study: "... that European honey bee subspecies can indeed develop traits to overcome extreme V. destructor infestations by means of natural selection." 

To me these words of Oddie underestimate what Terje Reinertsen has done. It is not natural selection only. There is definitely selective breeding work behind his success.


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## teplov (Dec 31, 2016)

Juhani Lunden said:


> I don´t have contact information to Hans Otto Johnsen. I barely remembered his name.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hans Otto Johnsen
(address removed pending permission)


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Oddie writes:


"Since only susceptible donor brood was used for our experiments in both surviving and susceptible host colonies, any traits of immature bees can safely be excluded to explain our data. For example, changes in brood volatiles (Nazzi & Le Conte, 2016) are not a factor in the results obtained. "

I think a big mistake is made here.

Although the brood frames come from another source, susceptible host colonies, is is well possible that volatile combounds is the key factor. 

Hives with heavy mite loads were selected as donors of brood frames. This is understandable, it makes counting VSH factor and finding possible differencies easier. BUT: Mites can affect the larvae infested in such a way that special kind of volatiles start to form. These volatiles are detected by the surviving group but remanin undetected by the susceptible group.

Of course she means the genes(of bee larvae) are similar in both groups, but the conclusion that " changes in brood volatiles (Nazzi & Le Conte, 2016) are not a factor in the results obtained. " is not right.


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## Scottsbee (Jan 11, 2017)

Both groups showed VSH and grooming! 
Somehow the bees were preventing the mites from reproducing. Female mites smell different maybe?? 

If Squarepeg and others ever get there bees tested, might show the same results. 

Still, one more piece of the puzzle!


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Scottsbee said:


> Both groups showed VSH and grooming!


Yes but in such low and similar levels that that was not behind the differencies.


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## Scottsbee (Jan 11, 2017)

Agree. So what is then? Bees sense of smell must be extreme to smell through wax and find the mites in a cell, VSH. Smell the mite on a fellow bee inside a dark cavity and groom it off. 

Makes me wonder if the bees can smell the difference between a male mite and a female mite. 

Maybe smoking the bees is a bad habit? Interfering with the bees sense of smell big time. 

Wondering how many TF keepers don't use smoke or use something else? 

The few TF queen breeders I've read about don't use smoke when working the bees.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

scotts......

It has been studied that the mite takes on the bee smell and it is not smell from the mite that triggers grooming. There is a very short window when the mite switches host that might let the bees catch movement and it could be some kind of distress smell from the larva being attacked that causes some kind of smell but most studies say it is not the smell of the mite.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Please remember this out of the article. It´s not about VSH.



> Our data confirm that reduced mite reproductive success seems to be a key factor for natural survival of infested A. mellifera colonies.


As I understand this it´s pheromones from the worker bees suppressing mite reproductive success, or am I wrong? 
Well, VSH starts a brake in the reproduction of mites too.

Just remembered that mites are not as productive when having a longer phoretic period. So it´s the brood brake behavior, too. Some hives do brood brakes when mite infestation is high.

And the small cell beekeepers claim small cell breeding has some impact on mite reproduction too, since the bees hatch earlier. Terje has small cells.


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

SiW....


> As I understand this it´s pheromones from the worker bees suppressing mite reproductive success, or am I wrong?


I don't think they figured out the why of the lower breeding of the mites. I had see either this study or a differrent one saying the same thing a while ago and I don't think they know what is causeing the lower mite propagation rate. They just know it happends for some reason.
That is what I got out of the stuff I have read.
Cheers
gww


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

gww,
yes, we still have no evidential scientific studies about that, you speak the truth.

The questions I ask myself are:
- do mites adapt to treatments by having a shorter phoretic state? Hiding faster and earlier in cells probably? Escape from grooming more?
- do we as beekeepers disturb the hive microclimate and air chemicals so strongly bees are not able to fight the mites as they should?
- do we as beekeepers disturb the correlations between drone brood,workerbrood and mite reproduction so much we select for "worker-mites"?


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

Addressing the fear of selecting for "worker mites," when Nicholas Calderone was researching drone brood for trapping mites his team tried to select for mites that preferred worker brood, but they were unable to do so.

When mites do not have a phoretic stage they have fewer viable offspring than mites that do have the phoretic stage. Having a shorter phoretic stage may reduce the number of viable offspring also. That could only be determined by controlled studies.

As for disturbing the hive microclimates, I know of no studies showing that beekeepers that use essential oils have larger mite populations than those that do not. The essential oils would cause the longest lasting disturbance that would be beekeeper induced.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

The VSH factor counting was done in a strange way:

- they compared photographs taken at brood age of 10 days versus 20 days
- the number of cells opened by the bees was counted and divided with total number of cells examined together 
- then they used the infestation rate (of donor colonies?) and formed from these VSH factor for the colony

Oddie writes:
"The number of empty cells was taken as a proportion of the total number of cells examined on the frame. This measure together with the mite infestation rates (Harris, 2007) were used to assess the level of VSH in surviving and susceptible colonies."

This method does not take into account if bees have opened *and closed* a cell.
This method is not the one usually used by for instance Arista BeeResearch Project.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Makes me wonder if the bees can smell the difference between a male mite and a female mite. 

If they are phoretic, they are female. YOU can tell the difference without smelling them: http://idtools.org/id/mites/beemites/images/about/LS_3-Life_stages_of_Varroa_destructor.jpg

>Maybe smoking the bees is a bad habit? Interfering with the bees sense of smell big time. 

For about ten minutes... Feed some essential oils and how long to you interfere with their sense of smell?

>Wondering how many TF keepers don't use smoke or use something else? 

I use smoke.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

AR Beekeeper said:


> Addressing the fear of selecting for "worker mites," when Nicholas Calderone was researching drone brood for trapping mites his team tried to select for mites that preferred worker brood, but they were unable to do so.
> 
> When mites do not have a phoretic stage they have fewer viable offspring than mites that do have the phoretic stage. Having a shorter phoretic stage may reduce the number of viable offspring also. That could only be determined by controlled studies.
> 
> As for disturbing the hive microclimates, I know of no studies showing that beekeepers that use essential oils have larger mite populations than those that do not. The essential oils would cause the longest lasting disturbance that would be beekeeper induced.


How long did they do the selection research?
I just love science.  Are there some results of value? Still nobody knows which are the main factors of tolerance except the bees living in tropical climate are more tolerant.


http://www.moraybeedinosaurs.co.uk/Varroa/Rosenkranz-Biology-Control-Varroa.pdf


> Under laboratory conditions, Varroa fe- males can successfully be transferred from brood cell to brood cell without a phoretic phase (De Ruijter, 1987); under field conditions, older mites seem to invade brood cells more rapidly than nullipa- rous Varroa females (Fries and Rosenkranz, 1996). It seems that especially under unfavorable conditions, the phoretic phase may have negative effects on the reproductive capacity of Varroa mites: After a long phoretic phase of 5 weeks or more, or after a starvation period of 7–18 h the number of infertile mites was two–three-fold higher than in the control (Rosenkranz and Bartalszky, 1996; Rosenkranz and Stürmer, 1992).





> Fea- tures of the parasite that influence population growth are the reproductive capacity during the mite’s lifetime and the lifespan, features of the host are brood availability, presence of drone brood, swarming, and level of defense behavior, among others (see also in Section 5.2.3). Some of the host features that influ- ence mite population growth are additionally triggered by ambi- ent factors such as climate and nectar flow (Currie and Tahmasbi, 2008). The exact impacts of the individual parameters on the population dynamics are not known.





> Increasing the mites’ phoretic phase during winter times or dry seasons decreases the reproductive success (Rosenk- ranz and Bartalszky, 1996).





> It is likely that environ- mental factors act indirectly via the host on the parasite, for in- stance by modulation of honey bee brood amount, the relation of drone to worker brood or the extent of the hygienic behavior of the bees.





> However, the removal of mites from the brood leads to an interruption of the reproductive cycle of the parasite, a prolonged phoretic phase or even the death of the mites.





> The hygienic behavior is strongly influenced by environmental and in-hive factors (Boecking and Spivak, 1999; Harris, 2008; Spivak 1996a,b).





> Simulations indi- cate that a shortening of the post-capping period by about 10% could reduce the mite population growth by about 30% (Büchler and Drescher, 1990). Africanized honey bees as well as some African subspecies have a significant shorter post-capping per- iod than European honey bee races (Moritz and Mautz, 1990; Rosenkranz, 1999; Rosenkranz and Engels, 1994a).* However, Martin (1998) does not expect a considerable effect of a shorten- ing* *of the developmental time of the bee brood as the number of brood cycles per season may increase;* and Bienefeld and Zautke (2007) *even expect negative effects due to a reduced vitality of the hatching worker bees.*


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Michael Bush said:


> >Makes me wonder if the bees can smell the difference between a male mite and a female mite.
> 
> If they are phoretic, they are female. YOU can tell the difference without smelling them: http://idtools.org/id/mites/beemites/images/about/LS_3-Life_stages_of_Varroa_destructor.jpg
> 
> ...



Maybe they smell the male mites hatching in cells?  IMO they smell stress pheromones from pupa.

Michael, I extracted broodnest honey from my deadouts and the smoker smell is still in the wax and honey. I can even distinguish between what I used ( the lavender for example).


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## AR Beekeeper (Sep 25, 2008)

SiWolke; Calderone was working on trapping with drone brood in 2002, at Cornell University. His paper on drone brood trapping did not state the length of time spent attempting to select varroa that preferred worker brood, just that they tried and were unable to do so.

I had read that the phoretic phase was not needed by the mite, they could enter the cell to lay immediately after emerging from their birth cell, but with reduced fecundity, but I was unaware that an extended phoretic phase was a cause of infertility. Thanks for that piece of information. There is always something more to learn about the honey bee, isn't beekeeping great!


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## Eduardo Gomes (Nov 10, 2014)

SiWolKe said:


> Please remember this out of the article. It´s not about VSH.


From Le Conte et al. The mechanisms underlying bees suppressing mite reproductive success in two populations resistant to varroa in Avignon and Gotland have been partially discovered. They are: mites infertility; mites with delayed egg-laying; mite offspring mortality.

"Investigations of the individual parameters involved in the mite's overall reproductive success also revealed differences between surviving and control colonies at each location, as well as differences between the two mite-surviving populations (Table 1). Although all the parameters rendered statistically significant differences between groups in each location, a few are highly significant and biologically interesting. In Avignon, the significantly *high rates of infertility* and secondly the *high proportion of mites with delayed egg-laying* seemed to be the most influential parameters in reducing the mite's reproductive success (Table 1). In Gotland however, the proportion of mites with delayed egg-laying was the parameter most significantly different from control colonies with a *high proportion of mite offspring mortality* a secondary significant factor." source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.248/full


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## Eduardo Gomes (Nov 10, 2014)

Likely mechanisms underlying mites infertility and mites with delayed egg-laying

"V. destructor has only a very narrow time window for starting reproduction after enclosure in the brood cell (Rosenkranz et al., 2010). Within 5 h after the capping of the brood cell, the mite consumes the first haemolymph meal and only a few hours later oogenesis begins. If the female mite fails to initiate ovary activation in this narrow time window, it will remain infertile. *The ovary activation has been suggested to depend on cuticular hydrocarbon stimuli (Aumeier et al., 2000; Frey et al., 2013). Hence, a lack of such stimuli might be one way to prevent mite reproduction.* However, *it is also possible that specific compounds in the first haemolymph meal can inhibit the activation of the mite’s reproductive cycle.* Clearly, understanding the underlying physiological processes that interfere with the crosstalk between the mite and the host larva will be fundamental to comprehend this important step in host–parasite coevolution. This is the most critical phase in the reproductive cycle of the mite, where the host has the opportunity to evolve true resistance." source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0944200616300198


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## gww (Feb 14, 2015)

Eduardo
Thanks for posting.
Cheers
gww


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Eduardo Gomes said:


> Likely mechanisms underlying mites infertility and mites with delayed egg-laying
> 
> "V. destructor has only a very narrow time window for starting reproduction after enclosure in the brood cell (Rosenkranz et al., 2010). Within 5 h after the capping of the brood cell, the mite consumes the first haemolymph meal and only a few hours later oogenesis begins. If the female mite fails to initiate ovary activation in this narrow time window, it will remain infertile. *The ovary activation has been suggested to depend on cuticular hydrocarbon stimuli (Aumeier et al., 2000; Frey et al., 2013). Hence, a lack of such stimuli might be one way to prevent mite reproduction.* However, *it is also possible that specific compounds in the first haemolymph meal can inhibit the activation of the mite’s reproductive cycle.* Clearly, understanding the underlying physiological processes that interfere with the crosstalk between the mite and the host larva will be fundamental to comprehend this important step in host–parasite coevolution. This is the most critical phase in the reproductive cycle of the mite, where the host has the opportunity to evolve true resistance." source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0944200616300198


Great info Eduardo, thanks!

In this Norwegian study they conclude: "changes in brood volatiles (Nazzi & Le Conte, 2016) are not a factor in the results obtained."

If VSH bees get their clues through the cappings of cells, could it be thinkable that mites get some volatiles through cell walls? If yes, then Terjes bees and larvae volatiles may have effected mites in cells in a different way than in control colonies.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

AR Beekeeper said:


> , but I was unaware that an extended phoretic phase was a cause of infertility.


The long winter of Finland makes record long phoretic phase, but still mite problems are serious and use of oxalic acid has been doubled in professional apiaries in the last 5 years. 

There is usually at least 2 months broodless period in Finland, but beekeepers end up in troubles in a year if they don´t do treatments properly.

This reminds me: did you notice that in the Norwegian study they mentioned that some of the control populations was treated biannually, that is every second year.
Quote: "Susceptible local control colonies were located ∼60*km away from the surviving apiaries in a local A.*m.*carnica conservation area and treated against V.*destructor on a biannual basis."

Terjes bees are said to be "mixed origin (Buckfast)", control is carnica.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Many thanks, Eduardo.

Many thanks, Juhani, for updating about Terje and the norwegian study. Very interesting, I hope they reveal more.

This topic of volatiles in the bee hive is the most interesting thing and I hope this is studied more.

I do not understand that there is no interest of research in an information pool coming from the smaller hobbyist or sideliner tf beekeepers. There are many of those but they work in secret because of laws which are a barrier to every development in that direction.
Sure, one can take part in some research programs, but rules must be followed. 
Only the observation of a variety of beekeeping methods can reveal what happens in a beehive with all the correlations between bee behaviours, environement, genetics and the handling of bees. 
Lab science is not what happens in a natural setting.

So scientifically research must have it´s own reasons for this, aka money funds and and importance.

Thank god tf beekeepers share their hard work and experience in forums and blogs. Sometimes in studies also.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

I light the smoker. I put one puff in the door and after taking off the top, a puff across the top. That is usually the extent of my smoking bees and certainly when I'm harvesting it's the extent.


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## 1102009 (Jul 31, 2015)

Thanks MB. 
I think I must reduce smoking, do more like you do. 
I already wait a while after first puff as you advised and this is really good. 
Before closing up I give too much smoke I believe. Thinking the queen must go down so not to be hurt.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

From Terje Reinertsen study, by Oddie and Neumann:

"Experiments were conducted in the Østlandet region, Norway, during local late summer and early fall 2015. Surviving *colonies were of a mixed origin (Buckfast)* that had been kept without any V. destructor treatments for 19 years prior to the study."


From another study of Oddie and Büchler (thanks to Hunajavelho!):

"Norway: Experiments were conducted with surviving and susceptible* A. m. carnica colonies* in separate apiaries 60 km apart near Oslo between August and September 2015, with the susceptible controls located within an apicultural conservation area."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-26001-7


I wonder if here is a mistake, or are we talking of two separate resistant populations? Or just misleading? They are not saying the origin of the surviving population in the latter (Büchler) study.


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## lharder (Mar 21, 2015)

Nice paper, I haven't heard of this mechanism of uncapping/recapping without brood removal. May be a better way of documenting mites (reproductive success) than actual mite counts themselves. Also interesting that they had to bring in mites to study for some of the resistant bees. 

I think the paper was using one population in Norway and Sweden and 2 resistant populations in France. Hopefully Germany gets it act together and has a loci of resistant bees soon.


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-26001-7

This study of surviving treatment free colonies in Sweden, Norway and France, the mechanism was uncapping and recapping cells. Mite reproductive success was reduced when worker bees uncapped then recapped cells, resulting in colonies that survived.


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## Hunajavelho (Oct 11, 2015)

Terje Reinertsen, Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNbYgUUcCovxJoridXWefvw


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

many thanks for the link hunajavehol.

here is paper i saw linked in another forum this morning looking at cell size of survivor colonies in the Nordic regions:

https://link.springer.com/article/1...9aWvRQWlImQcfRifvq1XzsHHytlZspO5f_z5B1l8IrKLg

they conclude that cell size was a potential factor in susceptible colonies but not a key factor in surviving colonies resulting from natural selection.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

Visit to Terje Reinertsen in my blog.

https://naturebees.wordpress.com/2019/07/09/visit-to-terje-reinertsen/


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

i enjoyed reading that juhani, thank you for sharing it.


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

Yes. Nice visit. Thanks for posting.
A question. In Europe is there anything resembling the mass movement of hives to a small area similar to the US with almonds? I believe this is a huge part of the difficulty we have in the US with finding resistant bees. Mite populations are mixed every year so any new virus they carry is spread that same year all across the US.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

AR1 said:


> A question. In Europe is there anything resembling the mass movement of hives to a small area similar to the US with almonds?


No. 
However beekeepers in Central Europe move a lot of bees, here and there to different crops. In the Nordic countries that is much less common, in fact in Finland there are very few (I know one) commercial beekeepers, who could be called migratory beekeepers, but nothing like almonds in US, not near.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

AR1 said:


> Yes. Nice visit. Thanks for posting.
> A question. In Europe is there anything resembling the mass movement of hives to a small area similar to the US with almonds? I believe this is a huge part of the difficulty we have in the US with finding resistant bees. Mite populations are mixed every year so any new virus they carry is spread that same year all across the US.


Keep in mind, while the open Euro-zone is present, there are still plenty of administrative and physical obstacles for those willing to move long distances.
A very good thing.

However, wide migratory beekeeping in Russia and Ukraine could be possible due to large open unrestricted spaces (similar to the US).
But at present - infrastructure/business ways are just not there.

After watching the N. American beekeeping ways via Youtube and such, some people will probably try copying the same.
For example, Ian's channel is very, very popular in Russia (the Canadian beekeeper videos are routinely translated into Russian) - people are trying to copy many of his practices.
Some other channels are popular and translated too. 
So people are really watching now days and learning the ways.
I can see the long-distance migratory keeping developing in Russia as a copy-cat (especially along North-South routes) - not necessarily good without understanding all the implications. But if money is to be made, people will go after it. For now it will be mostly after the local honey flows; I don't see someone paying $$ just for the pollination.


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