Honeybees able to immunise themselves against varroa virus (Ron Hoskins / BBC)

A VIDEO EVERY BEEKEEPER SHOULD WATCH! (Ron Hoskins / BBC Points West)
Finally, some scientific proof and reassurance that not putting chemicals inside your beehive is a good thing (as if we really needed it anyway)! Bees are able to 'immunise' themselves against viruses causes by varroa mites, and the blanket treatment of varroa miticides destroys their own abilities to heal themselves, and adapt.
For more information about Natural Beekeeping, please read my blog:
beethechangeproject.org/index....
Or go to www.beethechangeproject.org

[@FrederickDunn]

It's excellent to see these partnerships between lab studies alongside advanced hobby keepers who practice natural resistance over chemical treatments. Varroa groomers and hygienic behaviors are critical when culturing survivor lines of honey bees. I didn't expect the virus resistance to be key in raising their defenses against deadly virus strains that "should" otherwise be killing off the bees. We definitely need more practitioners like these. Thank you for sharing and educating.

[@saucywench9122]

Why not? It's an immune response, same with any animal.

[@FrederickDunn]

@@saucywench9122 Honey bees cannot produce antibodies individually.

[@michaelhall7921]

What a fantastic piece of research. I will get my wife who dusts cakes to a 'fine degree'. She's no adverse to helping in that process. I noticed that in seconds our Buckfast bees are intent on cleaning every bit of liquid off the hive and each other when I give them the calming 'treat' you advocate Frederick!

[@lishaji]

I am from Saratoga, NY. USA. I think I have found a way to get rid of Varroa mites naturally. I have modified my hive to have high humidity microenvironment in the brood nest compared to honey supers. This has led to precipitous decline of mites naturally without any treatment whatsoever.

[@skipstreet]

How are you doing now?

[@SpenserRoger]

This guy's speech has really grown on me after a couple minutes.

[@saucywench9122]

Big Bang theory Barry.

[@benca6151]

So my dad who kept bees in ohio, and did so for 20 years, never treated. He ended up with no mite problems. The bees were bred over time with his own hive raised queens and was able to keep some queens for 5 years. We as humans must understand evolution is real. And in some living things it can happen much faster than others. Why do some plants or insects no longer respond to a certain herbicide or pesticide? They've evolved. The honey bee as we all know are very smart insects. You think they haven't evolved? Yea rite. 1000s of years old and they've evolved more than we will ever know

[@Shakingstevesallotment]

being a pest controller, I was loath to use any treatments on my bees when I became a keeper 4yrs ago, to date I've never treated with anything, and my bees are doing great, and some are the same colonies, I do feel all bees have this ability in them, it's just most newbies are told to treat yearly as a matter of fact, and as the video explains, this keeps the bees at risk, it's crazy, using chemicals to kill a small insect on a slightly bigger insect, good work fella

[@Shakingstevesallotment]

forget being lucky, try thinking natures way

[@maxmagnus777]

where do you live, what breed of bees do you own?

[@joncotn]

Year on year I notice my non treated hives dying out over my treated hives. What bees do you have?

[@LtDan-ni5rw]

@@Shakingstevesallotment nature's way is unfortunately a thing of long past. You, like the man in this video have been lucky indeed. As stated in the video, had his or your bees been infected with type "a" verroa they would certainly not survive without intervention. I do believe though that years of over use of chemicals is what led to our unfortunate situation and had it been left to the bees to sort out we would not have the need to intervene. We are beyond that point now in many situations and chemical intervention of some form is needed many times. Not to say we can't get back to that point though. With proper testing of verroa, we could quickly identify a type "a" from a type "b" invasion and along side breeding techniques for hygienic stock we could indeed get back to nature. Best of luck to you, and good on you for taking the risks of going treatment free. Folks like you are what will make the difference in the future of beekeeping.

[@kaiserhundkek2531]

Yeah, just use the natural predator of those mites, the book scorpion

[@timarheit7272]

There is a lot of old information here. We do know the origin of Varroa Mite, and they eat the fat body of the bee, not the bee's 'blood'. The behavior of uncapping and removing infested larvae/pupae is called Varroa Sensitive Hygiene and has been known about for many years and there has been several breeding programs in the US and elsewhere working with it as well as other behaviors detrimental to the mites. The virus information is interesting. Hopefully, it amounts to something, but there really isn't a cure here yet that I see working currently with commercial beekeeping. There needs to be a lot more money spent on research. Unfortunately, this may encourage many hobbyists to not treat thinking that it's better than treating. Short of having a genetic lab to verify your virus loads and types, not treating will likely result in dead hives.

[@birthcertificate7223]

I hope they win against those pests 🐝🐝🐝

[@fu3go865]

Morgan Kneeshaw 😃

[@AA-sg2py]

Update: Ron’s hives has been burned down by 3 IDIOTIC teenagers in March 2020. In 2021, Ron is disappointed that they dropped the arson charge.

[@inharmonywithearth9982]

That figures...

[@shaunbarker9201]

Hi Ron,we are novice 2nd year keepers in Somerset.

[@amesfarm9312]

Hygienic behaviour in honeybees was discovered by Marla Spivak at the University of Mn almost two decades ago. Not all bees have this behavior naturally but the behavior is genetically transferable. So colonies can be tested and then bred from. You can't assume all honeybees act this way.

[@ronhoskins8706]

There is a major difference here which should not be confused with Ron's grooming bees discovery in 1995 . Am I wrong in thinking that what Maria did at the time was to kill patches of brood in more than one hive with liquid nitrogen then returned the frames to their hives.If the workers cleared the dead bees out quickly they were deemed to be more hygienic than those colony's which took longer? That did not make them Varroa Sensitive and they were not taking action against Varroa.Old beek

[@samsa1020]

Very interesting. Though the virological DNA research doesn't explain his bees' grooming behavior. I've read that it's grooming that allows the Asian honey bees from which varroa comes to survive the varroa; and that European honey bees get sick because they lack the ability to pull mites off each other. This British man's bees are essentially behaving like Asian bees. That seems as important as the virology.

[@davefoc]

I was glad you brought this up. It should have been mentioned in the video. So did some Asian bee genes make their way into Ron's bees? Did the genes that drive this behavior get reactivated in Ron's bees or did Ron's bees evolve this behavior independent of other bees that have this behavior?

[@abdullahalrasheed394]

@@davefoc It might not be as complicated as you said. When you have tens of hives, you will notice that some of them are better than others at certain traits. For example, some may bring more honey than others, some may tolerate heat more than others, some produce more brood and so on. In this case he got a hive that does more grooming than others, and then by "selective breeding" he kept reproducing the same trait over and over again until he got the results in the video. Selective breeding in bees is surprisingly easy, you can do several generations in one year, a few years later and with enough motivation you will get what you want. Now you may ask, if this is as easy as this, why nobody is doing it? The answer is it's easy to breed a certain trait, but it gets much more difficult to breed for several traits at the same time (too difficult to breed bees for good grooming and good honey collection at the same time). Hope this answers your questions.

[@davefoc]

@@abdullahalrasheed394 Thanks for the response. I was binge watching bee videos at the time I wrote that and it was nice to be reminded of that time in my life. It is a pretty amazing behavior and I wouldn't have thought it could have been evolved from scratch in just a few years. But maybe or maybe he got some Asian bee genes into his hives or maybe it's a capability that exists in low numbers in British bee populations and he was able to concentrate it with his selective breeding.

[@mellifera6247]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oomnn2NpltppkLs

[@aliseyed3298]

Thank you for such a nice video and educational subject to the public.I would like to share with everybody the angle I look at : 1- Even though the video was published 2015, but the Varroa mites are not consuming Hemolymph from honey bees according to Dr. Samuel Ramzy that Varroa mites consuming Fat Body of honey bees not Hemolymph. 2- Grooming Dance or behavior is not an effective way to get rid off Varroa mites. This type of Grooming Behavior just moving varroa mites from one bees to other. I think Purdue University discovery about fighting Varroa mites ( Ankle Biters as a hygienic Behavior is much effective ) . Also, some people are thinking when one bee jumped on the Thorax of other bees , she is doing Grooming . To my opinion it is not TRUE. Grooming Dance required receiver invitation . That means , one bee should vibrate or shake her body to invite other bees to do Grooming on her. 3- We should relalize that honey bees do not have Adaptive immunity system like human does.

[@felipegomez5084]

Really nice video. Thanks for posting. New lights on Interaction between varroa-bees-virus I'm a Chilean beekeeping since 2004, I'm planning to stop using chemicals and breed My bees for grooming behavior. Thanks again Kind regards from Chile

[@marcogallazzi9049]

Hola Felipe, hace tres años que tengo mis colmenas sin tratamiento de ningún tipo. Solo reproduzco las que sobreviven al invierno. El desarrollo ha sido lento pero creo que de a poco han logrado cierta resistencia. Espero que esta primavera tenga buenos resultados, habrá que ver. No soy apicultor profesional, esto lo estoy haciendo por tincada como decimos los chilenos :) pero realmente creo que hay que darles el espacio para generar sus propias defensas y así tener colonias que puedan controlar sus patógenos de forma natural. Saludos!!

[@reneebrown5598]

It sounds to me a bit like antibiotic resistance in disease. I've always thought that the best way to deal with viruses and bacterial infections is to keep the body at optimum health and high immunity and the body will fight it off alone. I would rather spend as much time as possible keeping my bees as healthy as possible without chemicals. My main reasoning is if shtf happens where are we all to buy all those chemicals? I would rather enduce them to propolize their hives( which has now been proven to immunize the bees from several diseases) and feed them up anytime we do not have a flow of nectar or pollen. Ultra bee bee pollen substitute has been said to be the best and I will use a homemade brood builder when feeding.

[@kencassidy6879]

The new BEE Movie looks exiciting

[@Sabrina-rn9dn]

You need to update this video cause it isn't sucking the bloodtl study is showing they are feasting off of a organ tissue

[@saamamerat1061]

It is people like this that cause science to advance. Both these men should be included in the queen's honours list.

[@Comodusprimus]

Mites tiny? Given their size ratio to bees it would be like humans walking around with fleas the size of our hands clinging to us.

[@BeeHive8282]

新たな発見か。非常に興味深い。

[@KlrRaptoR]

It is natures way of keeping balance, been this way for 1000's of years. We the simple human think we can change everything with a quick fix and stand in the way of Mother Nature......but as always she will prevail.

[@babysheep9426]

Nice

[@pauldow1648]

Lovely my dear boy. Would you care for a spot of tea ? 😊

[@airsoftworldltd6846]

Is there any update on this research? This video is three years old and almost every beekeeper I know in the UK is still using one form or another of chemical varroa treatment.

[@airsoftworldltd6846]

I'll answer my own question: www.swindonhoneybeeconservation.org.uk/research/

[@jwilson1444]

Interesting! A lot of questions come to mind, but as this story is a year old, can we have an update?

[@Kryochrysalis]

Now 3yrs... Have you come across any updates in your research?

[@lewwilliams7659]

So where do I get one of his queens in the US

[@lynnemcintyre]

Glad to see my providing you this information was beneficial, Mr. Williams.

[@wholelover]

The most important video for bee keepers

[@reneebrown5598]

I would pay 100$ easy for a queen from this lineage. And breed as many queens as I could and spread them as far as I could. It could be the only thing that saves the European honey bee.

[@inharmonywithearth9982]

In 2017 we discovered a fossil of the European honeybee in a desert lake bed in Nevada USA. It is EXACTLY the same as the European Apis Mellifera Mellifera (the black bee). Smithsonian decided to name it Apis Mellifera neoartica to support their ice age extinction theory. The bee that was imported to North America was the Apis Mellifera Lingustica ( Italian bee).

[@jonathanluizdeandrade9198]

pena nao estar em portugues

[@HealthcareHelp1]

So much more to this work than the brief newscast showed. Shame incorrect terminology used. Shame two completely different approaches (hygienist vs virology) were merged as though one. I see the virologist as a measurement tool (yes I know everyone swallowed his theory as fact) but I was disappointed the man who did years of work was not given more time to review the data from the virology lab. His reflections may have been insightful.

[@shadowsruss5748]

Amazing. Just wondering now - is it wise to stop using chemicals?

[@2011klausesbees]

klausesbees - we have stopped chemicals for years - bees seem to be surviving stronger than before. the strongest survive (Darwin) - the bees need to check their own needs and find their own way ~ with a little help .... little ~

[@shadowsruss5748]

Good to know. I'm about to become an urban beekeeper...

[@2011klausesbees]

check our klausesbees fb - too much breaks down the immunity - there are more natural ways to assist bees but there is no rhym or reason as to why or how as one hive with will be outstanding while another with none is dying or vice a versa - the same as one hive brings in food while the one standing next to does not - good house cleaners vs not - hygenists vs not ~ but cutting down any use of chemicals can only serve the bee better as her immune system then is challenged to SURVIVE - (darwin) - that doesn't mean one stops feeding when starving or medicating when other issues - just non chemically. powdered sugar / oil treated paper towels / ......

[@shadowsruss5748]

Thx for the advice Erika. I'm in research mode now in preparation for becoming a beekeeper.

[@paublusamericanus292]

we need to breed a bee type, that has better leg choppers for mites. and bees that recognize mites on other bees, and remove them from each other, like guard bees look for danger, have nurse bees find varroa anywhere in the hive. Not sure about hive beetles, bees need to kill the adults somehow, just not sure how, maybe turn them over like with sea anemones being turned over by fish.

[@MakotoWright]

i see your name.. i see what u did "be the change" it means

[@beebob1279]

The issues with mites in my area continue to decimate colonies. I've treated for mites both chemically and naturally. The result this year (along with some colonies poisoned by homeowners applying lawn treatments) have been dismal. I'm seriously considering leaving my hobby of over 20 years. I had 32 colonies in August with low mite loads (2 or less per 100). Today 10/20 after inspecting my colonies, they suffer from parasitic mite syndrome, deformed wing virus, and overall low populations. Where I live the hives will not survive I'll be lucky to come out of winter with seven. These seem to be the best of any and are only mediocre in population and strength. I seem to go through this every few years. I raised my own queens for years (except this year with no time due to a death in the immediate family) hoping for that special characteristic. It's likely my hives have been robbing out other beekeeper hives in the area only to bring back mites, and viruses that just cause problems.

[@alex-adrian]

Bee Bob i doo feel you mate. I'm in love with beekeping and i also lost all my 5 hives in a month due to varroa. Queens stop laying, altho i treated and i found them dead. I almost cried :(

[@olegrndahl1733]

Bee Bob Hi. Drop chemical, and all other treatment, including acid. Make queens from your best survivers, ore make nucs with the old queens, and let the mother hive make their own queen. Only nucs for some year, and honey from a few, and you continue to make nucs from the survivors of the best nucs, also when they grow tobig for the nucs. Soon you will have many hives again, from your best survivers, bees with the best genes for surviving. Stop buying queens. They are not suitable for the beekeeping of the future. Also very important, make your bees ssmallcellbees 4,9mm. Different ways, but if you do as described, you will be beekeeper, also in the future. Resistantbees.com Kind regards from Denmark. Ole Grendahl.

[@baddestbees5924]

bee Bob study up on regressing your bees to small cell.u can't just stop doing anything like some say or THEY Will DIE. But- u CAN eventually ...learn how to help ur bees along the way because this IS a process ,use drone comb to cull,reg mite checks,hygienic queens ,learn how and when to requeen to outbreed mites...u CAN stop doing anything but will have HEAVY losses before u get survivor stock that will defeat varroa,they can and its far better beautiful thing

[@hornesbee]

@@olegrndahl1733 Yes....Small Cell Bees DO work. I've had bees for almost 9 years now and have never used standard size foundation, ONLY Small Cell foundation 4.9mm. I have lost some hives in our winters, but it was not varroa mite related. I have screen bottom boards and see no live or whole mites on the boards, just a shell or part of it.

[@joannarii7377]

Heard thermal heat treatment to brood kills varroa..Also #Butcherscorpion ##pseudoscorpion

[@ApiaryManager]

Lets see how observant you all are....How many of you noticed that the insemination syringe was empty?

[@crgaillee]

it wasn't I saw about a 1/4 ounce of fluid in it. not much, but I imagine enough to do the job. A drop is as good as a bucketful.

[@ApiaryManager]

It looks empty to me kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoapdYuibbt6rNUm25s You would be able to see the semen from even a single drone. That pipette is empty.

[@reneebrown5598]

It would be awesome to be able to graft a lot of queen cells from this resistant hygienic stock. Spread them throughout the world would remove or beat down the CCD going on throughout the world and especially in America.

[@LtDan-ni5rw]

Based on the what they are speculating, that alone is not the answer. American beekeepers essentially need to also stop the over use of chemical treatments which kill type "b" verroa and allow lethal type "a" proliferation. It's akin to taking an antibiotic which serves the function it is intended for, but also has the nasty side effect of killing the natural gut bacteria needed for a healthy digestive system. It requires the right pest to fill the gap in order to prevent the bad one, but also a hygienic bee colony that can thrive along side that less harmful pest. At least that's what I understood from the video.

[@reneebrown5598]

@@LtDan-ni5rw I'm planning on getting a hygienic queen and using essential oils and washes to keep the varroa at bay.

[@LtDan-ni5rw]

@@reneebrown5598 best of luck to you. I do admire treatment free beekeepers and their efforts at reducing chemical use. I too am an advocate of treatment free, but when/ if necessary I would not allow a colony to die off with so many safer soft chemicals available today. I don't believe there is any one single approach that is good for every colony. Good bee management is and always has been the key to success and that does sometimes call for soft chemical treatments. It's far more important to keep an open mind and learn as much as you can about each of your own colonies. I'm assuming of course you are not a commercial operation and it is possible for you to do so. Best of luck to you and your bees!

[@reneebrown5598]

@@LtDan-ni5rw well I'm not rabidly against treatments that are absolutely necessary. But my wish is to be treatment free. I'm trying to ensure there are plenty of different kinds of nectar and pollen sources for them and to feed them when necessary. Right now because I just got my bees I'm forced to feed with sugar but in the future that will be limited to emergency feeding. I intend to let them eat exactly what they need. Honey. I would rather feed them back every drop of their own honey than to feed them junk food (sugar). I would rather calm them with smoke or sugar water and lavender oil. This will calm them with the lavender oil and kick in hygienic behavior with the sugar water. So long as it's warm ( I live on the gulf coast so most any day) anyway. But make no mistake if everything I try to help them fails I will treat. But I would like to not.

[@johnpurdy7962]

Honey bees do not have an addaptive immune system and your should not use the term "immunize" mites also feed on adult bees, this is misleading

[@greghill9958]

the Russians are good to rid them selves of varroa mites but treat for mites anyway because i said good not great.

[@electricheartpony]

Varroa Virus?

[@FlakeyPM]

Yes of course! The Varroa mite carries a virus that was unknown so they called it Varroa Virus. The high level of "b" virus protects against deformed wing virus.

[@christopherwhite1648]

The first good choice is not treating. Depending upon how many and how close other beehives are, he would probably have even better results with his bees. Open mated Queens that are well bred and well fed are nearly always better than Queens that are artificially inseminated.

[@MegaDavyk]

This guy has been a beekeeper all his adult life and he is artificially inseminating his own Queens, why is he being referred to a an amateur. WTF

[@kevinandkjt]

Olympian athletes are amateurs. No slight is intended, I'm sure. Amateur means he isn't a commercial bee keeper as his main financial support.

[@user-rr9gh5ko1c]

@@kevinandkjt : sure that could be one use, what about professional then ?

[@Hawaiian_Grizzly_Bear]

Does he make a living as a beekeeper?The definition of a professional is simply that someone who makes a living as, or one who engages in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime he is an hobbyist I think I'd be ok with being called a hobbies if I was him.

[@MegaDavyk]

@@Hawaiian_Grizzly_Bear In one of his apiaries shown in the video I counted 20 hives, it is very unlikely that he is not selling his honey and bee products. Professional also means a person who engages in a profession and he clearly is. Amateur means a person who engages in a pursuit, especially a sport, on an unpaid rather than a professional basis. Considering this man is clearly a proficient beekeeper and has made a signifiant contribution to beekeeping it is inappropriate and insulting to call him an amateur.. Any beekeer who is inseminating his own queens and has developed important traits in his bees beyond that of his peers is clearly not an amateur and entitled to a little respect. The words Notable, Eminent or Venerable for example would be more fitting than Amateur.

[@Guy4UnderDog]

Ron isn't loading his bees on a lorry and touring the country either.

[@HoneyMarketingBoard]

Veroa feed on the fat bodies not the heamolymph.

[@kevinandkjt]

The recent update by Mr Hoskins isn't good for bee keepers: 6th January 2019 "I am amazed - I have found it impossible to raise funding to further my research as it seems money goes to research labs where there may be an end product. I am an 88 year-old living on a low pension needing much money to “Roll-out” my very special Chemical-free honeybee."

[@inharmonywithearth9982]

I read that some young hoodlums vandalized and burned all of his hives.

[@fegeleinthemanofantics9748]

It's called genetic mutations

[@privatebubba8876]

It's called evolution.

[@linr2870]

@@privatebubba8876 I would think without genetic manipulation evolution would take at least hundreds of thousand yrs. Evolution takes a long time.

[@privatebubba8876]

@@linr2870 What is evolution but genetic mutation? Just like Apis Cerana.

[@mlpfanboy1701]

private bubba evolution is just mutation that is beneficial.

[@kstu8560]

Interesting video! but why does the narrator sound like Elmer Fudd?

[@noayoutubechannelnomore8734]

Poor bee :-;

[@peterorourke1128]

Spi

[@josephvogel7234]

This is inaccurate. Varroa mites feed on fat cells, not blood.

[@ChristianDaenaCoulon]

ok but f artificial insemination - this oughta have pleeennny natural selection so why not let bees be bees?

[@beethechange2415]

+Christian Daena Coulon Hey Christian. I'm no fan of AI either - it's a real shame its part of the finding. None the less, some great news for not treatment of honebees

[@ChristianDaenaCoulon]

+Bee The Change totally! sorry to focus on the negative! great news, and great news for treatment free organic keepers!

[@TashiRogo]

Something about the explanation smells of fuckery. They had a theory, Ron's example didn't fit the theory, they made up a reason for why. What bollocks.

[@ReptileRob]

CRISPR will beat this. lol