1. Lundén Resistant Queens The whole story
Eesti
Lundén Resistant Queens The whole story

2. 29.9.1999 I had been doing work day and night for ten years
I was 37 years old
I was ploughing field with a tractor
”Is this my life?”
That very day I planned breeding plan for varroa resistance for the next 10 years
After 10 years of hard work and financial losses I could not turn back any more

3. Difficulties in beebreeding
Circumstances are different on each beeyard
Queens mate in the air with multiple drones
Drones are haploid and die after mating
The true value of a breeder is only to be determined from the results of her offspring
=> takes a long time to measure

4. Beekeepeing in Buckfast Abbey
”Meine Betriebsweise” 1969
”In Search of the Best Strains of Bees ”1966
”Breeding the Honeybee” 1987

5. Gemeinschaft Europäischen Buckfastimker
Is continuing the work of Brother Adam
Jean-Marie VanDyck is keeping the Pedigrees in Internet, all from the very beginning 1929 is documented, is parly documentated
This year the work with VSH breeding has seriously began
Züchtertagung in the beginning of March in Neuenstein Aua each year

6. VSH breeding
VSH= Varroa Sensitive Hygiene, bees open and empty only those broodcells which have a prolific varroa female making offspring (=new males and females)
The new project: 1-drone inseminations, artifical varroa contamination and determination of the VSH factor

7. What does a good breeder look like?
Not necessarily the best hive
Uniform colouring in workers (and drones) is a good sign
I prefer solid and compact brood area which is a sign of well nurced larvae
No chalk brood
Less than average mites (in relation to brood area)

8. Three main things in successfull beekeeping
Quality queens
Good forage areas around the hives
Enough stores (and space for honey)
All the rest is not so important!
Many beekeepers do not believe that there are bees which do not swarm or they do it so little, that no measures against swarming are needed

9. Practise in New Zealand
Part of my studies
I worked half a year for Alan Murray, commercial beekeeper in Opotiki with 1700 hives
Pollination and 35t honey as a byproduct
3 men (Alan, son Kevin and me)

10. Kirk Webster 2011 Has been without treatments since 2001
Own system, lots of smaller nucs are made and sold each year
Has had very big losses every now and then
Does not give any exact numbers of his operation

11. Varroa resistance, is it really possible?
At the moment there are several sources where to buy bees which have been selected for varroa resistance
There are few breeders where to buy treatment free queens
It is possible, today much more than 15 years ago
”Beekeepers are the biggest problem” John Kefuss

12. Beekeeping without treatments
Nearly all breeding projects have had the same result: beehives become smaller, they are a bit more agressive (sence of smell specilly good?) and they have smaller brood areas with a lot of holes in it
The big principal question: is there a tradeoff (=cost) for varroa resistance?
BartJan Fernhout:”When the hives manage varroa mites 100%, the population of mites is propably very low, somewhere under 1% infestation. This is not causing a huge extra work for the bees. Therefore it is not sure if there is a clear tradeoff or not.”

13. Future of treatment free beekeeping
More beekeepers doing varroa resistance breeding is needed
They should be able to change beematerial, now inbreeding is a danger
It is not going to be popular in the next 20 years unless the effect of oxalic acid is lost

14. Future plan of Josef Koller, Germany
”ZuchtProject Roots”
Start with one beeyard (preferably with pre-selected bees)
Every big enough hive is devided into two each summer, all new hives make their own queen all hives make drones for mating
When the first beeyard is ”full” make the next yard in the flying distance of drones
The future yards are made in a circle around the first beeyard

15. The mechanisms of varroa resistance
Bees take out varroa mites, which are making offspring
Opening and closing of cells
Grooming behaviour
Chemical disruption of varroa reproduction

16. Success stories
Bee Weawer in Texas USA
John Kefuss
Kirk Webster?

17. Different beeraces
My experience: Mongrels, Finnish Italians, Carnica, Caucasica, Sahariensis, Finnish black bees, Primosrki, Buckfast
Often asked: ”What race is best?” Answer: More important is who is the breeder.
Ulf Gröhn ”Drottningodling för vanligt folk”
”Only in beekeeping it is possible that although beekeeper has been freemating his bees all his life he is talking of having bees of certain race. In other animals, for instance horces or dogs, nobody is even dreaming of something like freemating”

18. Wooden or plywood boxes with no insulation
18mm plywood or wood, black tarpaper in winter
Insulation has no effect in wintering, but spring development may be better in insulated hives
Insulation keeps also extreme heat outside

19. Frames with no wires Less work
Radial extarctor, they last well if the was has been fastened to the frame bottom

20. Importance of ventilation
Double ventilation in wintertime
5cm poly-urethan plate as roof
Moisture condentates on cold hive walls

21. Importance of notes and drones
Brother Adam: We take every measure to avoid the effect of chance
All results are relative (to place, to weather, to race, to
Drones are responsible of 50% of the genes in every worker bee

22. Urban legends ”Bees need a warm hive”
”Angry bees are the best produces”
”Queens must be reared from the best hive”
”Bees are angry before rainy weather”
”The queen does not like to jump from one frame to another to lay eggs. ”
”Beekeeping without treatments is easy”
The story of ”small black bees”

23. Pedigrees Different ways: write or draw
Buckfast breeders use simple writing system, where the number of the breeder queen is followed by the number of her mother and mating companions
Example:
B17(JL) = .06 – B27(JL) kurj B18(JL) : .05 – B103(JL) ins pPmix05(JL) : (5) .04 – B83(JL) kurj R31pp(JL) : .02 – B48pp(JL) hauk pPmix(JL) : etc...

24. Effective management Experience from new Zealand 1986
Good quality queens, forage(=nectar) and stores
Robust hives and good quality frames of same size
No frames taken out, most of the work anyway
If swarming is a problem please try to find better breeder queens
Ari Seppälä: ”Buckfast is the slowest swarmer of all races”

25. Mating systems
Free mating, some control of drones, grafts are taken from selected queens
Controlled natural matings
Insemination

26. Breeding systems Line breeding /Inbreeding
Cross breeding/Race breeding (buckfast)
Closed population breeding
BLUP=Best Linear Unbiased Prediction
Used in all animal breeding, now even beebreeding

27. Different queen cells
Queens are reared in three circumstances: Swarming, Queen is lost or queen is replaced
Different queencell types:
1.Swarm cells
2.Emergency cells
3.Supersedure cells

28. Different cell sizes 4,9 / 5,1 / 5,3mm
Several studies have found no effect on varroa reproduction
Today the claims of varroa resistance in small cells have almost vanished, most small cell beekeepers claim only that originally cells were smaller and SC beekeeping is therefore more natural
A fact: Bees in north are bigger. Why should all cells be the same size?

29. Different queen rearing methods
Swarming impulce is difficult to manage and swarming behaviour favored, not good!
Queenless hive as starter and cell builder, ok method, cell may become small and hives needs more bees and brood regularily
Queen right hive as a cell builder, ok method, but difficult to get the cells accepted
Combination of the last two is the best

30. Queen rearing, the best two methods
When large amount of cells and queesn is needed:
Starter swarm and queen right finisher hive
When smaller amout is needed:
Cloakes method

31. Starter and finisher Classic method, developed in USA?
Starter 3-4 kg of young nurce bees (no queen, pollen frames and some food) start the larvae and take care of them the first day
Finnisher is finnishing the cells. Strong two or more story hive with queen excluder and queen under the excluder

32. Cloakes method
One hive is making the both phases: starting as a quenless (devided into queenless and queenright halves) and finnishing as queenright colony (divider board is removed)
Only one hive is needed
Does not need adding of bees
Can be done with no extra equipment

33. There is still hope!