09-29-2014, 12:00 AM
So I checked out the history of the bee killer mites. Wiping out our bees. Turns out it was a really old thing, and sometimes up to 90% of the colonies were wiped out by them a year. Horrible. back in 1912 i think it was there was this fellow named Brother Adam who began a quest to save the bees and traveled around taking samples of the bee survivors. The ones who had resistance and survival traits as well as tolerance to the mite. Over the years he bred them for specific reasons mite resistance just one of them. Now his bees are one of the highest resistant bees. Infestation rates of 25% or higher are associated with damaged production to the colony and buckfast bees (Brother Adam's)tested at only 10% compared to the 45% of the "other bees". Born and bred fighters. He saved the best of the natural bee's that survived the ordeals and worked with them, as well as the kindest and gentlest bees of each species. His techniques and his bees are now being bred with other bees and the same techniques used for our 'days' and operations. His bees have been said to have developed a natural equilibrium with the mite's existence.
Another one out there is Bee Weaver who also have resistant queen bee strains. They raised colony after colony, tens of thousands of them. And for long ages suffered loss from the mite. They were after control of the mite without pesticides or artificial chemical methods, they wanted bees to both survive and thrive in the presence of mites. In order to survive and keep bees in population they had to use chemicals at first for the near death bees. But they isolated strains that didn't need them and survived anyways. They bred the best and progressed other strains as well and stopped using chemicals all together many years ago. Since they still advance new bees and strains they still infest new colonies with mites, so that they create genetic diversity in order to expand their traits into other bee species, so they do have some loss still. But only with new bees. The loss of queens they raise is less then 5%. That is without treatment of any kind and with new genetic creation. At first they were losing everything without chems and a lot still with them even. Expensive treatments too they say.
Another breeder scientist who raises bees has also gotten quite a fuss and his research has been implemented into the knowledge bases and thoroughly tested is that many bee colonies have different hygiene rituals. Some colonies bees will pick off the mites and crush them to the ground, and even stop infected bees from entering the hive if they see them infected. Making a big fuss of it in front of other bees to enforce the law, then they will even shake the bee around and remove all the mites before he enters. This action passes around to the other bees who then begin cleaning rituals. They see it is a learned behaviour and so they pass it on to others and the bees that do this have considerably less rate of infestation. Also they remove infested larvae or contamination. Some bees can see them hiding inside of cells of the young before hatching and remove them. These bees have often beaten contamination through this awareness. This breeder raises this quality into his bees he raises, selecting the best fighter bees. He hints at other breeders to look for it and see it as well, and they did/do. Not all bees it seems are raised as fighter bees, or were at least.
Some fighter colonies now raised are up to a 74% survival rate for two years from the beginning of the test(not including new bees) whereas only 40% of the other non-fighter bees remained alive in the same testing conditions. Obviously all of these breeders and methods are now being used but the process of getting these genetic traits into all the infected world is slow. It's progressing though faster then ever now. And the results will only get better. Most of these tests are new, but Brother Adam's are not, but his bees have been just recently tested and are now being used by governments etc. Yay for bees!
here is a quote i liked "WASHINGTON — On a farm on the outskirts of Frederick, Md., Kelly Rausch and Adam Finkelstein crack open a wooden beehive whose design dates to the 19th century. Inside, they point out a superbee they have made for the 21st century...." hehe
Another one out there is Bee Weaver who also have resistant queen bee strains. They raised colony after colony, tens of thousands of them. And for long ages suffered loss from the mite. They were after control of the mite without pesticides or artificial chemical methods, they wanted bees to both survive and thrive in the presence of mites. In order to survive and keep bees in population they had to use chemicals at first for the near death bees. But they isolated strains that didn't need them and survived anyways. They bred the best and progressed other strains as well and stopped using chemicals all together many years ago. Since they still advance new bees and strains they still infest new colonies with mites, so that they create genetic diversity in order to expand their traits into other bee species, so they do have some loss still. But only with new bees. The loss of queens they raise is less then 5%. That is without treatment of any kind and with new genetic creation. At first they were losing everything without chems and a lot still with them even. Expensive treatments too they say.
Another breeder scientist who raises bees has also gotten quite a fuss and his research has been implemented into the knowledge bases and thoroughly tested is that many bee colonies have different hygiene rituals. Some colonies bees will pick off the mites and crush them to the ground, and even stop infected bees from entering the hive if they see them infected. Making a big fuss of it in front of other bees to enforce the law, then they will even shake the bee around and remove all the mites before he enters. This action passes around to the other bees who then begin cleaning rituals. They see it is a learned behaviour and so they pass it on to others and the bees that do this have considerably less rate of infestation. Also they remove infested larvae or contamination. Some bees can see them hiding inside of cells of the young before hatching and remove them. These bees have often beaten contamination through this awareness. This breeder raises this quality into his bees he raises, selecting the best fighter bees. He hints at other breeders to look for it and see it as well, and they did/do. Not all bees it seems are raised as fighter bees, or were at least.
Some fighter colonies now raised are up to a 74% survival rate for two years from the beginning of the test(not including new bees) whereas only 40% of the other non-fighter bees remained alive in the same testing conditions. Obviously all of these breeders and methods are now being used but the process of getting these genetic traits into all the infected world is slow. It's progressing though faster then ever now. And the results will only get better. Most of these tests are new, but Brother Adam's are not, but his bees have been just recently tested and are now being used by governments etc. Yay for bees!
here is a quote i liked "WASHINGTON — On a farm on the outskirts of Frederick, Md., Kelly Rausch and Adam Finkelstein crack open a wooden beehive whose design dates to the 19th century. Inside, they point out a superbee they have made for the 21st century...." hehe