So I’ve do some of this with drone brood I’ve pulled out. And found no mites but there is a bit of white stuff in the bottom of the cell. But it looks more like the cocoon was attached there is this true or false?

I refer to myself as IPM since the term is more encompassing and less stigmatized than “treatment-free”. That said, I don’t agree with a “treatment-first” approach, essentially standing the IPM pyramid on its head.

100%.???? I’m out then! But nothing makes more sense than to requeen to avoid chemicals! But in Michigan we do have to make queen decisions based on the time of year as you suggested. Love these short informational videos!

When talking about treatment-free, mine own intention is to convey that my honey product would not have added chemicals. My audience would be my customer and they don't care about the hoops I have to jump through to do it. So I would vote our lable for "treatment-free" be only for the benefit of informing the consumer. As far as re-queening and breeding goes, the Russian bee is claimed to already breeded to resist varroa. I wonder if we're just breeding that bee all over again. If Italians were breeded to resist varroa, which they are famously susceptible to, would we still have a bee that makes that delicate fine comb honey? I think we're each of us on our own, and free to be on our own experimenting and trying to get bees that do exactly what we want. Before varroa, there were other pests, more destructive pests, and they're still here, and we still treat for them. We can't point to feral bees and say we should mimic them, they do so well on their own when their nests are usually small and are abandoned in a few years according to one research blog I read a long time ago. Just - do your bees your way and repect the code of your local bee club. Ask for a pass if you're trying to break out of the box. <--- see what I did there. They're your bees. Keep them your way. If you're wrong, you'll get the Darwin treatment. If you're right, you might be the one to bail all the bees out and prove those scientists types wrong that say, we'll never get rid of varroa, we have to learn to live with it. It never was a craft for the faint of heart.

Interesting information James, I applaud your tenacity.

0%, 62%, 72% in just 3 years is amazing! If you have to get an arbitrary number is a short time, you probably shouldn't start. And that goes for most things. Breeding programs even more so.

That's a good big of bees flying.

👍

I would have did a Demaree, on this last hive and shaken all the bees, down into the 2 medium brood boxes pulled all the capped brood frames out and replaced them with empty frames, put a queen excluder on then 2 honey supers and the brood box that had all the capped brood frames put it on top of the hive stack. Now the hive has space a place to put nectar and it will not swarm.

no queen excluders?

👍👍👍

Great video James!! Looking forward to seeing more 😊

Good morning James. Thanks for posting. Did you winter those 8 framers wrapped?

Poop on the pupa hahahaha

I firmly believe local gives a leg-up for year-over-year survival. Many of the first-year failure stories I hear start with an out-of-state nuc or (especially) package. I just split up a colony that came through its third winter after struggling a bit last summer. Preliminary wash numbers were disappointing, but something is helping them survive so we soldier on for now.

I've been making queens off the ones that get through winter the best for years now. My bees look great, haven't put a video up for a while now but you can tell from the ones I do have .

Rock on! They look so happy to be out and about! Can't wait to get going again next Spring after my back is healed fully!

I had an over wintered swarm catch colony. A friend gave me a Carni package with a 'northern' queen, and they were from Georgia. Those Georgia peaches waited for the temps to rise another 5-10 f degrees before they would become active. Local is real.

bees dont live forever. i have avg 50ish 60 % survival (real survival TF)then i am over loaded with bees the next season. swarms, cutouts , grafting, splits. 75% survival id be exploding with bees every year. im confused you saying 75% survival isnt sustainable. also i dont understand how TF was so much work and so time consuming for you. pretty damn easy for me, my proven genetics can do fine without me. dont have to do much at all. pretty easy , you get colonys that survive over 2 years then i graft and propogte them. mite counts dont mean everything, your totaly overlooking tolerance. i get bees with high mite loads that survive. but the premise here of 75% survival and the time isnt worth it. i dono man 75% is very easily overcome with propogating. and doing all the testing just seems like alot. vsh and low mite loads is not the only survival trait. i see it all the time. im in new england by the way. Goodluck!

Any recommendations on where I could purchase some good VSH bee mated Queens for my operation here in Iowa? I'd prefer VSH Carniolan (or other dark bees), if at all possible.

Keep up the good work. Wild bees don't need chemicals. Wer treatment free too 👍🏻🐝

Ya. I was treatment free for six years and chose to start using OAV in the fall-3 treatments 5 days apart-and it’s made a huge difference

Subscribe done 💪

Top job 💪 Thank you Cory 🐝🐝🐝

Thank you

I’ve been treatment free for 8 years on a smaller scale. 5 hives. I’ve lost many hives especially early on until a friend of mine gave me a swarm. That swarm outlasted every package and every NUC I bought for 3 years until I made a mistake with the queen. I lost a few swarms from it and put out a bunch of drones from it. This year I captured a few swarms from outside of my apiary. 2 of those swarms reminded me of the survivor hive I had for years. 1 of them was much more defensive than the other so I was forced to requeen it because of the location. I purchased a VSH queen. A week later they swarmed with her and so I put them in another hive and bought another VSH queen for the bees left behind. I’ve noticed some interesting behaviors with my survivor stock. They are more ‘vocal’, they gather more resources, build bigger brood nests, they display high hygienic behavior. I’ve also noticed that they keep a lower SHB population as well. My plan is to requeen my other 2 hives with the good genetics in the spring. My guess is that good controlled genetics flooding the area over several years improves all of the apiaries in the area.

Thanks Cory, thanks James, even Jo-Brice pucker brush can do it! No tumble weed in NH. Have a happy holidays!

Thanks James, keeping the word heard. Have a happy holidays, Brice

Nice camera work and the devil is in the details as they say

Excellent Job fellas! James, your camera work was top notch!!! Cory, your explanations were straight to the point. There occasionally comes along a video in the world of KZbin, that makes a permanent place in your mind, and for me, this is it!!! I will certainly be referencing this in all of my talks, as I know I couldn't have done anywhere close to as good a job!!!

Please hit the 👍 to help with circulation and subscribe if you like this content for more of the same!

I’m 5 minutes in and you are still asking the question over and over and over again! 😂

What benefits does bee venom possess?

Nice one! 😊

That was a nice easy swarm.

Mug up from New Hampshire James, Good morning! Indeed, the march is a sight to see. I had lots of swarms this year and was able to capture most of them, Wow! so cool. Thanks for sharing!

How cool! Thanks for sharing!

I was waiting for that pizza dude from monster House to grab that morel mushroom, stuff it in his mouth, chew with intense eye contact, and run out of the building.

Wow!!

James I like to only use one layer of news paper and put a couple of slits in it. I also will spritz it with sugar, water and a drop of lemongrass oil to get everyone smelling the same. This works well for me their united the next day. Good video 👍

Looks good around there, the most cost-effective mow of the year...last till spring. Thanks for posting

Notice that my queenless cell starters that I keep cycling brood frames in and out turn into virus problem like a virus battery.. i notice that the brood frames i cycle out after 8 days arnt very good bees for splits they tend to fall apart fail to take syrup in the fall.. takes time but thinking its supper charging the virus levels.. starters where i use double screen and only use their own brood don't have that problem.. theres master queen breeder in cali uses a queen right starter she produces the most amazing cells only puts her below a excluder. I've tried that and did get like 8 to 10 really nice cells. Sometimes none sometimes ill get more . Just had big unit vanish that was a starter .. i look at the family tree off that thing i can see the problem didn't stop there . I used bees out of it not thinking to boost mating nucs when needed too .. im on to it now think ill stop using that kinda starter ...

Definitely nothing wrong with the method you described. Randy Oliver uses a similar approach. The most important thing is that you removed the weakened colonies from the breeding population and that you mitigated their impact on the rest of your stock, should the weak colonies fail regardless. Keep up the great work!

Hoya😂 they are gone be PISSY!!! I get a kick out of them when they are grumpy they are such girls.🤣

Several questions - 1. What is this Harbo (spelling?) scale you mention? 2. For your 75% goal, how many hives did you have total, and over how many apiaries? 3. Did you achieve 75% at any individual apiaries, and if so, why cease the experiment at those apiaries?

That queen looks like a keeper.

To be sure - I have had both defensive and non-defensive VSH bee lines. So, the entire talk of VSH bees being extra defensive is of low relevance - they fall across entire spectrum of defensiveness. The idea of extra defensiveness most likely originates from the South where the presence of AHB is significant enough and it correlates with the resistance traits. But once you are far enough North - you start seeing the other perspective.

Are you planning in the spring to re-queen the few colonies that you treated this fall?

Okay, 75% survival??? I am thinking you are being really optimistic. I am thinking 50%-60% survival is great. I am including culling in the summer and fall. As it relates to accurate percentages you will needs many hives over a period of at least 5 years. I am thinking anything less than 100 hives and 5 years is just coincidence.

I appreciate your thoughtful approach. It is good you found some stock to breed from. My only concern is that your 75% target over three years sounds a bit too optimistic. I would be surprised if you could get there in less than 8 years. With the import of bees, maybe never. There is no shame in treating. I treat everything with OAV and retreat as needed based on mite drop ( I count every colony after treating). I have lost one colony over winter in three years. That said, winter losses are not really a thing in my area. I lose 10 to 20% in the late summer heat and dearth. That is the high stress time of year where I am.