# Treatment Free BWeaver



## fieldsofnaturalhoney (Feb 29, 2012)

cavscout said:


> I've used Bweaver in the past but continued to treat my hives when needed.


If you are leaning in the direction of completely treatment free what will you do when "they need it":scratch: I have some of their stock in my apiaries and I am completely "mite treatment" free since I began many moons ago. The stock sometimes are not the friendliest, but its a give and take


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Can confirm. They don't need treatments. One of the 3 queens I got in 2015 showed a few bees with deformed wings. One of them was firecracker hot. One was a decent queen and wound up producing some very good daughters. I have a superb breeder queen to use this year. Mite resistance is excellent, beetle resistance is excellent, they have shown no sign of swarming with a 2 year old queen. They are packing honey away right now.


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## pjigar (Sep 13, 2016)

I have Bweaver queen. I haven't been treatment free but when I did OAV last fall on a first year hive, I had very few mite drops (less than 10 for the whole hive). I didn't want to take any chances TF first year. As I make increase this year, I will start experimenting TF from next year.

I haven't treated for SHB and haven't seen any yet. I have seen SHB larvae on various occasions but on the hive the parts when bees can't police e.g. Under SBB, inside pollen patty, etc.

PS: I had two different queens to start last year. The non-bweaver queen died towards the end of winter. So now all my queens are daughters of bweaver mother queen.

Thanks,
Jigar


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## Nordak (Jun 17, 2016)

I kept a BWeaver queen TF for 2.5 seasons. Good bees. Like FP, saw some DWV, but didn't seem to have much of a detrimental effect on the hive.


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## NickAdams314 (May 19, 2016)

I am starting year 2 with Bweaver bees, totally treatment free, and so far so good.

Started with one nuc, they grew to 22 deep frames, came through the winter strong, and I split them back in april.

Was nervous about one half of the split, as some of you might have seen in another thread, but both halves of the split are doing well so far.

I havent done an alchohol wash to count mites, but I have put in sticky boards from time to time, and had what seemed like low numbers of mites on the boards. (10-15 in a week).

Anyway, so far so good. I had some italians quite a few years ago, the Bweavers are definitely hotter than they were, but are still very workable, even for a novice.


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## Jecsd1 (May 20, 2014)

I have used some B Weaver queens mixed in with my "feral" swarms. I have never treated in the 3.5 years I've been up and running. I am currently operating at about 10-15% losses annually. 

They are not docile but they're also not unmanageable with proper gear. I would rather have healthy than docile any day.


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## dennis crutchfield (Aug 5, 2016)

i have run bee weaver queens for 20 years. I haven't treated them for that long. I now have other queens which are mixed in with them and still have no need to treat. can get mean if no new blood is added. this year they have been real easy to work with.


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## Juhani Lunden (Oct 3, 2013)

dennis crutchfield said:


> i have run bee weaver queens for 20 years. I haven't treated them for that long. I now have other queens which are mixed in with them and still have no need to treat. can get mean if no new blood is added. this year they have been real easy to work with.


This is a great testimony. How many hives? Average losses per year?


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## hypsin (Feb 13, 2014)

I have 8 hives that were started from Bee Weaver over the course of last 5 years. All treatment free. So far only lost 2 hives, both times due to poorly performing queens following a split. I only noticed DWV and varroa once in a single colony following a very warm winter. Other than that, hardy and productive strain. But, they are a ferocious little bunch, especially during a dearth.


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## drummerboy (Dec 11, 2015)

When we got serious about TF in 2007, we bought BeeWeaver bees from Texas for the first several years. Most of them didn't survive the first winter, very few survived the second winter.....none ever lasted more than 2 years. 

Now we keep enough of our own winter survivor colonies alive to split in the Spring. 

TREND; More 'local' Nuc and Queen producers are getting into the BIZ of raising/selling LOCAL Bees, so we no longer buy bees (from five or six States away) that didn't survive at least one 'real' winter in our region....and ideally, with our splits and caught swarms, we don't have to buy any bees at all. Hoo-Ray!!


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## drummerboy (Dec 11, 2015)

duplicate


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