Alternative treatments for Honey Bees

 " Our study suggests that the increased energy overwintering bees use to maintain hive temperature reduces the energy available for immune functions, which would leave overwintering bees more susceptible to disease infections; all leading to higher winter colony losses." Link to article

Link to guide Includes instructions and cautions about Thymol and Hop products

 " using fumagillin has adverse effects on human health, as well as on honey bee physiology. Therefore, there are trends to develop non-antibiotic alternatives with already existing therapeutics. The present work attempts to emphasize the natural compounds now available for treating nosemosis." Link to paper

  Although treatment in either the spring or fall did reduce nosema abundance in the short term, it did not eliminate the infection, making continued monitoring necessary. Colony strength was improved by spring treatment in some locations but not consistently, possibly due to the treatment timing or low dose. The combined spring and fall treatment increased colony survival over winter in one of 2 yr. Wintering method did not interact with treatment to affect nosema abundance in the spring. There does not appear to be a significant residual benefit of fall treatment as it did not reduce spring nosema abundance or increase colony population. Therefore, spring treatment should be applied to reduce spring  V. ceranae  abundance rather than relying on residual efficacy from previous fall treatments. Link to abstract

  Honey bee colonies frequently suffer from high over-winter losses attributed to various factors, including management, poor nutrition, pests, pathogens, and parasites. Most beekeepers have only limited control over these factors. This study looks at the role of the number and timing of hive inspections in relation to over-winter losses, which beekeepers can largely control.   Results suggest that more frequent hive inspections are associated with higher over-winter survival rates across most U.S. regions. Unexpectedly, this also includes having relatively more inspections during the winter months in every region. Also, surprisingly only one of the nine climatic regions had significantly different average over-winter survival rates despite the significant geographic and climate difference across the continental U.S. This finding suggests that other factors like management actions may be more important to over-winter survival rates than climate. Finally, this inspection analys...

 "We investigated the effects of brood interruptions on honeybee colonies and the mites naturally infesting them. Reproduction parameters, brood infestation and recapping frequency were monitored over 60 days after brood interruptions of varying durations. Our results show that recapping frequency and mite non-reproduction increased during the interruption of egg laying. The duration of interruption and the time elapsed afterwards additionally affected the occurrence of reproductive failure. Hence, the reproduction of mites was affected by brood breaks immediately and in the long run." Link to paper

 " America’s honey bee population faces enormous stress. During 2022, nearly half the nation’s managed colonies were lost. A central threat is the Varroa mite, a parasite whose spread of viruses regularly triggers catastrophic colony loss. However, new research findings by a group of scientists, including Husker entomologist Troy Anderson, could provide a breakthrough in combating the threat." Link to article Link to scientific publication

 Can only be sold in Canada, best used in dormant phases Purchase here Video "Hops Guard II is a natural miticide derived from hop compounds, providing a safe solution for beekeepers. Approved for use in various hive types, it helps promote bee health without the harsh chemicals found in traditional pesticides. Food-grade and safe for bees, honey, and the environment, HopGuard II is a reliable choice for beekeepers seeking natural alternatives."

 " Sometimes, even honey bees need help with “housekeeping”—especially when it comes to tidying up their combs once the honey’s been removed. Research by  Agricultural Research Service  scientists has shown that fumigating combs with ozone gas can eliminate pests and pathogens that threaten honey bee health and productivity. Recent results suggest that ozone fumigation may also help reduce pesticide levels in combs. " Link to article

 " Normal and acceptable mite loads are 3 mites per 100 bees.   My hives have 3 mites per  200 bees .  Yeah. The county inspector said to keep doing whatever it is that I’m doing.  This stuff works. " This  article  has three techniques for controlling varroa mites without chemicals: 1. Split your hives " when you “split” a hive, you are dividing a well-established beehive into two or three new hives.  By doing this, the “mite load” will be split 2 or 3 ways. " 2. Eliminate Drone Cells 3. Powdered Sugar " As they clean the sugar off of themselves, the varroa mites are naturally dislodged and drop to the bottom of your hive.  "

 " Paints are prone to being a food source for fungi, and in an effort to protect the paint (which is protecting the wood), virtually all modern latex paints are dosed with fungicide. Yes, fungicide! Fungicide-free paint does not exist because commercial paints cannot withstand fungi.  In the case of bees, exposure to fungicides has been linked to dangerous effects on development, foraging and learned behavior, orientation, social interactions, reproduction, and memory retention. Studies suggest that honeybees that have been exposed to fungicides demonstrate compromised immune systems as well.  " also: " By planting lavender and thyme in front of the entrances, the bees brush against them as they enter the unpainted hives, and unintentionally paint their hives with the herbs’ oils.  Studies on the control of the Varroa mite , which is a threat to honeybee colonies, have shown that the oils of lavender and thyme lead to an increase in dead mites. " Link to article

 " What if the bees could gather their own medicine?  Could that lead to more resilient hives?"  Article I read an indepth scientific paper  that explained: " In addition to their innate immune system they developed several behavioural defence mechanisms, called ‘social immunity’ 5 , including foraging and storage of highly antibiotic plant products. Nectar, pollen and resin (propolis) are used for self-medication on the colony- and individual level 6 . Plant nectar, which is processed by honey bees to storable honey, is particularly full of secondary metabolites and the self-medication potential of honey (inhibiting pathogen growth and/or reducing pathogen loads) has been shown repeatedly 6 , 7 , 8 . " I am researching if anyone has studied if planting Thyme near beehives results in reduced mite counts...

 " Washington State University entomologists joined forces with an Olympia, Wash.-based business and others in a  two-year effort  to breed a strain of  Metarhizium , a common beneficial fungus found in soils, to work against the mites. Metarhizium anisopliae  has been used for decades to combat numerous soil-dwelling pests around the world, including the sugarbeet root maggot and the Japanese beetle,  according to  the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service." " The team’s next tasks will be to develop delivery methods for beekeepers to apply the fungus in hives and get approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use it in agriculture, according to the university." Link to article

 " Baton Rouge, La., April 7, 2022—Pol-line honey bees, a type of Varroa mite resistant honey bee developed by the Agricultural Research Service, are more than twice as likely to survive through the winter than standard honey bees, according to a study published in Scientific Reports https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08643-w" Link to article Purchase Pol-Line Queens:  https://vpqueenbees.com/buy/vsh-breeder-queens

 A very good source of information on both chemical and natural treatments. https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/resources/varroa-management/

 " the research has also indicated NZ’s varroa is developing a unique strain of resistance to the flumethrin insecticide, not seen overseas. " Article

 Very interesting idea, as the bee enters the hive, the thymol coats them and protects them from mites. Link to news article Image from Forbes

 "The pollen and nectar of sunflowers (and some other members of the Asteraceae family) are protein-poor and generally considered a subpar source of nutrition for bees. From an overall health perspective, however, sunflower pollen and nectar look like great food because they may help reduce parasites. Evan Palmer-Young, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Maryland, is lead author on the new study." Link to article

 This guy's site has tons of articles to educate others how to raise bees in a commercial environment, without using any pesticides or chemicals.  Very interesting https://kirkwebster.com/ Here's an excerpt from one of his articles: " Despite two years of terrible weather, and no treatments of any kind since 2002, the stability and resilience of the apiary continues to slowly improve. The cycles of collapse and recovery (now caused primarily by extreme weather rather than by mites or diseases) in the end help to build the apiary rather than tear it down. Doing the queen rearing work during the rainy summer of 2009 was not as pleasant as other years, but the results were surprisingly good, and the colony count grew from 340 to 1000 during this time. (Remember, many of those colonies are nucleus colonies intended for overwintering.) The last cycle of brood was very healthy looking, and only about 20 colonies were deemed non-viable and blown out in December. Severe weather ha...

 BeeHero, a startup founded in Israel in 2017, is part of a multifaceted effort to slow or reverse this growing disaster. The company has developed technology that is helping beekeepers, farmers and researchers understand colony collapse disorder by using hive sensors that provide real-time data. Details here

  An organic, sustainable miticide,  Mite Away Quick Strips  (MAQS) target varroa mites where they reproduce, under the brood cap. Manufactured in ready-to-use strips, it is a quick one-week treatment and can be used with honey supers on. Company Website

 Protect your bees from Cell Tower radiation! Excerpt:  Honeybees uses the magnetic field of the earth to to determine their direction. Nowadays, the rapid spread of electrical devices and mobile towers leads to an increase in man-made EMF. This causes honeybees to lose their orientation and thus lose their hives. Link to study

  The health of a colony may be mirrored in social signals that bees exchange during their sophisticated body movements such as the waggle dance. To observe these changes, we developed an automatic system that records and quantifies social signals under normal beekeeping conditions. Here, we describe the system and report representative cases of normal social behavior in honeybees. Our approach utilizes the fact that honeybee bodies are electrically charged by friction during flight and inside the colony, and thus they emanate characteristic electrostatic fields when they move their bodies. These signals, together with physical measurements inside and outside the colony (temperature, humidity, weight of the hive, and activity at the hive entrance) will allow quantification of normal and detrimental conditions of the whole colony. The information provided instructs how to setup the recording device, how to install it in a normal bee colony, and how to interpret its data. Link to Art...

  Alternatives to the antibiotic fumagillin for the control of  Nosema ceranae , a gut parasite of the honey bee, are needed. The prebiotics eugenol, chitosan, and naringenin and the probiotic Protexin ®  ( Enterococcus faecium ) provided in sugar syrup or protein patty either in spring or fall were evaluated for their effects on  N. ceranae  infection, colony population, honey yield and winter survivorship using field colonies. Link to paper

 Research done in the Ukrained on using UV light on the hive entrance to control mites ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF ULTRAVIOLET IRRADIATION ON VARROA MITE Link to Paper

  A trio of teens has now developed an automated system that can detect — and track — mite-infected bees as they go in and out of their hives. This could help beekeepers know how many bees are affected — and when it’s time to treat the hive with mite-killing chemicals. Link to Article

 Everything you wanted to know about Varroa Mites and using Thyme Oil for treatment: Link to article