I found this article over a year ago. Because it is a translation from its original German, I am having a hard time finding it on the web. Because I can’t find it, I am posting the English translation here. It was written by Torben Schiffer, Research Assistant at University of Würzburg, Germany.
• Many beekeepers believe the biggest threat to their bees is the Varroa mite
• The mite, however, only becomes a danger if bees are already weak
• If the bees were kept in an appropriate manner, we could give the all-clear
People say the biggest threat to the honeybee is the so-called Varroa mite. However, what actually makes the mite dangerous is the fact that we, the beekeepers, are failing to provide our bees with the right husbandry. And this is due to our appetite for honey.
It’s true that the blood-sucking Varroa mites not only weaken the bees, they also infect them with diseases. Every year, beekeepers sometimes lose more than a third of their colony, despite going to great lengths to treat them with formic acid. We often hear that the bees are dying out and all our countermeasures are in vain. We beekeepers continue to treat bees with formic acid, even though it’s no longer helping. We seem to be thinking along the lines of ‘the more the merrier’, which is a problem because the bees are still dying anyway.
It doesn’t seem to occur to anyone that the means used to prevent the bees from dying are a part of the problem. The root cause of the problem, however, is the way bees are kept. I know a lot of beekeepers who chose this hobby for idealistic reasons. Their aim was to help the bees survive, but they’re actually often having the opposite effect. During their training, beekeepers learn how to produce as much honey as possible, they’re not taught anything about natural bee husbandry. These two objectives are a world apart. Nowadays, we keep honey bees much like we house milking cows. And this is what’s causing the bees to die out, not the Varroa mite. Let me explain.
We take from the bees the very thing that ensures their health.
The first problem are the hives where we keep the bees. Our honeybees live in boxes made of polystyrene – or in wooden boxes without any insulation, often with open mesh floors. The bees have to produce heat to survive the winter. Not only do they expend extreme amounts of energy in doing so, they also sweat and exhale water. The humidity in the hive rises, which leads to the formation of mold on the honeycomb in colder areas of the boxes. Once mold is present it can spread throughout the entire comb structure. The bees open sealed honeycomb cells with their mandibles and become infected. The only thing that could help them with such an infection is the honey because it’s not only nutritious, but also antibacterial and antifungal, making it a good remedy for fungal infections. But we take the honey away from the bees and replace it with sugar water. However, honey contains vitamins, proteins, amino acids and minerals, which the bees need for cell renewal. Sugar water contains none of these substances, so we’re essentially preventing the bees from being able to recover from disease.
In addition, the toxins produced by the mold are immunosuppressive. When a Varroa mite bites a bee, it transmits viruses and bacteria to the weakened bee. Beekeepers also use organic acids such as formic acid to combat Varroa mites, but this also hurts the bee. If a bee colony dies, people always blame the Varroa mite, but it’s seldom the cause of the colony dying out.
Most of the mites could be eradicated by swarming.
The mass appearance of the Varroa mite is mainly attributable to the honey industry, i.e. the beekeepers. Honeybees living in tree hollows keep the mite population in check by way of natural processes. The breeding area is usually a lot smaller than in man-made hives due to the limited amount of space, meaning that the mites can’t produce as many offspring. In addition, the majority of the mite population is carried along by the annual swarms. Due to the brood break after swarming, the mites undergo physiological transformation and become infertile. This infertility affects up to two generations beyond the break. During this time, the mite population naturally decreases by about one percent per day. Following the reproduction break, which lasts for around eight weeks, the Varroa mites are generally unable to reach populations that could put the bees at risk or lead to the collapse of colonies.
Furthermore, in a tree cavity the formation of mold on the honeycomb is prevented by the tree’s natural insulation. And the bee’s colony is surrounded by an entire ecosystem of hundreds of insects, microorganisms and mites, including Varroa mites. Beekeeping systematically prevents this ecosystem by disinfecting the hives and sweeping out the bees’ natural debris. Another aspect of this stabilizing ecosystem are the “cleansing animals” of the bees, the house pesudoscorpions which also hunt and eat the Varroa mite. These ant-sized pseudoscorpions are found in wild bee colonies all over the world where they fight bee pests and eat them. Unfortunately, due to our regular use of chemicals in beekeeping, and the widespread adoption of totally unsuitable damp hives, we have effectively wiped out the entire microfauna along with the house pseudoscorpions, and this can be said for most of the beekeeping practiced in the world today! The fact that neither established bee research institutes nor beekeepers have taken much note of these extraordinary facts beggars belief. When I began my research on house pseudoscorpions in 2006, they’d already been long forgotten about for decades. It’s not just the microfauna that combat Varroa mites, the bees are also perfectly capable of doing it themselves.
My work as a research assistant at the University of Würzburg involves examining wild bees. Mite infestations were significantly higher, yet there were far more dead mites in the hive debris than in the beekeeper hives. Upon closer inspection, the mites had bite marks and it turned out they had been bitten to death by the bees. This shows that the bees are resistant and in fact able to combat the mites. However, to do this they need us to adopt forms of bee husbandry that suit their natural habitat.
Only a fundamental “rethink” by beekeepers can save the bees.
If beekeepers want to do something for their bees, they need to become guardians as opposed to owners. Bees can survive. The first step is to relocate them to isolated dwellings similar to a tree cavity. The second step is not to steal their valuable food. Foregoing the mass production of honey will enable the bees to swarm again. To produce a lot of honey, beekeepers need big hives. Swarming a bee colony will divide it into several smaller colonies, so beekeepers try to prevent this because they fear they’ll harvest less honey as a result.
If we all change our way of thinking, if beekeepers become bee guardians, if we learn to attach more importance to the health of the bees rather than the honey yield, our bees will survive. We can live with less or no honey, but the bees can’t. We need bees for pollination, otherwise our entire ecosystem, indeed our own survival, is at risk. Let’s start by giving them what they need.
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