# Interview: Dan Weaver from BeeWeaver



## zabadoh (Jul 18, 2019)

Frederick Dunn interview with Dan Weaver of BeeWeaver.


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## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

@zabadoh: 

Great video- thank you for sharing. While the whole discussion was really good, a few things stood out to me:

1. It was interesting to hear him talk about how Weaver's long association with Buckfast and the success in overcoming Tracheal Mite was the impetus for seeking a genetic solution to Varroa.

2. I was surprised to hear that their stock was as genetically-diverse as it was: Beyond the Buckfast, he mentioned Italian, German Black, Carniolan, Caucasian, Russian and (obviously) Africanized.

3. His thoughts on the Drone side being the key point for selection based on their genetic make-up and viability is very insightful IMHO.

4. His point that selection for resistance/tolerance has to be a singular focus in the beginning is an interesting concept to chew on.

5. I was surprised to hear him say that no queens become breeders nor drone mother colonies until they are 2 years old - likely helps to underscore the findings that their colonies tend to have very low viral loads.


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

Litsinger said:


> 5. I was surprised to hear him say that no queens become breeders nor drone mother colonies until they are 2 years old - likely helps to underscore the findings that their colonies tend to have very low viral loads.


basically selecting for longevity and virus resistance.
so if the queen can only make 1 year then the bees are at 6 weeks for example
if the queen goes 2 years , then maybe the bees go 8 weeks.
I have read the first 3/5 of a bees life replaces what it took to grow them, and the last few weeks is the excess for stores.
so at 6 weeks the excess is lets say, 1.5 weeks where, at 8 weeks the excess is 3 weeks, could have double the honey.
So short lived queen and bees are less desirable.

GG


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## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

Gray Goose said:


> I have read the first 3/5 of a bees life replaces what it took to grow them, and the last few weeks is the excess for stores.
> so at 6 weeks the excess is lets say, 1.5 weeks where, at 8 weeks the excess is 3 weeks, could have double the honey.
> So short lived queen and bees are less desirable.


Good point, GG. That was Daniel Weaver's position- by setting his threshold at 2 years he is selecting for longevity.

He also mentioned that he had considered 3 years as the minimum threshold, but that was going to make it difficult to keep his queen production numbers up.

Either way, it seems to support the notion that they are producing healthy queens.


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## mtnmyke (Apr 27, 2017)

I ordered a number of queens from them as soon as their 2022 queens opened up for sale. I have since cancelled the order. With reports of them being incredibly defensive, especially daughters of purchased queens, as well as the "treatment free" claim failing with a number of local hives I simply don't see them as superior to what I'm currently raising...and certainly don't want Russian or African bees anywhere near my yard. I've already learned that the hard way.


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

Thanks for posting. I did have to speed it up to 150%.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

I may be over-paraphrasing - but the general gist of what I have been reading is that resistant stock is no match for an environment overrun with mites. It's not magic.


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## joebeewhisperer (May 13, 2020)

Litsinger said:


> 5. I was surprised to hear him say that no queens become breeders nor drone mother colonies until they are 2 years old - likely helps to underscore the findings that their colonies tend to have very low viral loads.


I understand that folks running large honey operations often requeen once a year. But I personally think a good queen may be hitting her stride in her 2nd year. This may not fit the strategy of others, but unless she's dwindling, I expect more than one year of brood production from her. I like to see the old gals roaming around, long-in-the-tooth. 


AR1 said:


> Thanks for posting. I did have to speed it up to 150%.


This is a light-bulb moment. I cull YouTube videos all the time, not because I'm not interested, but because I'm not 1.5hrs interested. I've used the speed feature a few times to figure out a speedy guitar lick, but I don't think I would have ever considered speeding these guys up. Thanks! 


Lee Bussy said:


> I may be over-paraphrasing - but the general gist of what I have been reading is that resistant stock is no match for an environment overrun with mites. It's not magic.


Haven't seen the video, but I wouldn't disagree with your statement. I recently heard one of the Russian guys say that he advised keeping your whole yard Russian, or not at all. He said they could generally keep mite-growth low, but if overrun (dead out beside etc.) they had a hard time dealing with it. And thanks for the recap. Between you and @AR1 , I've gotten several time-saving tips to help my day.


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## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

Lee Bussy said:


> I may be over-paraphrasing - but the general gist of what I have been reading is that resistant stock is no match for an environment overrun with mites. It's not magic.


At about the 26 minute mark of the following podcast, Dr. Steven Martin discusses this concept based on his own research and discussions with Dr. Marla Spivak and others:









Episode 35: Natural Varroa-Resistant Honey Bees and Small Hive Beetles by Two Bees in a Podcast


In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Steve Martin, a professor from the University of Salford in the United Kingdom, who will be discussing his research on natural varroa-resistant honey bees. This will be followed by a segment where Cameron interviews Jamie on small hive beetles. We end this...




anchor.fm





Basically he suggests we (in the US at least) need to conduct resistance breeding at the population level to gain any traction.


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

joebeewhisperer said:


> This is a light-bulb moment. I cull YouTube videos all the time, not because I'm not interested, but because I'm not 1.5hrs interested. I've used the speed feature a few times to figure out a speedy guitar lick, but I don't think I would have ever considered speeding these guys up. Thanks!


I tried it sometime last year and it has made a huge difference. Litsinger posts lots of great videos, but I simply can't stand to watch. Speeding the flow up helps a lot. And Dan Weaver talks S_L_O_W!


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

In the Heroes to Hives course, Adam Ingrao does a classic professor thing - any "quick video" is just under 60 minutes.  So, thankfully, I was able to speed them up as there were probably ~50 hours of videos to watch in that course.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

How is this speeding up accomplished?


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

crofter said:


> How is this speeding up accomplished?


Right here:


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