About Us

The Swindon Honeybee Conservation Group (SHCG) was founded in 2004 and are based at Stanton Park in Swindon.

I started my beekeeping over 65 years ago but this last decade or so has been the most testing, for beekeeper as well as the bees. I am not the only one of our group working on this project but to keep things simple I have been the one to collect and examine the mites.

Early in the 90's, when Varroa was first found in Devon, I attended a workshop where scientific officers from MAFF were advising the use of tobacco smoke and sticky floors to control Varroa.

I use a very fine 3 or 4/0 artist brush to gently collect and examine the mites in order not to inflict my own damage. The Electron Microscope pictures below, by a Swindon Beekeeper colleague show masses of hair growing on the carapace and the next picture, the legs, on the legs are pollen grains.

  
(See our Gallery Page for a larger picture)

In 2001, my colleagues and I made the decision to stop the use of chemicals to control the Varroa mite. This decision came from the knowledge that most chemicals being used at that time, and still, were the major cause of queen failure due to their adverse effect on the viability of drone semen. Queens instrumentally inseminated by me were being superseded within a few weeks of introduction.

At the time we had around eighty colonies between us which very quickly dwindled to nearly half that number despite the dusting with 'bee friendly' icing sugar to control mite numbers. (The mites have sticky pad feet that become clogged with the icing sugar causing them to drop). It soon became obvious to us the surviving colonies appeared able to 'deal' with Varroa and we needed to know how.

A new apiary of some thirty colonies was set up in 2004. All hives have wire mesh floors with deep under-trays. Hives and trays are numbered for record purposes. Mites were carefully collected from the trays on a daily basis on site, therefore free of hive debris and undamaged by us, placed into numbered mini-pots then examined at home under a dissecting microscope.

In just two years about 50,000 mites were examined for signs of hygienic behaviour by the bees. Many thousands of them were found damaged, typically with carapace damage or legs removed.

In 2007 a new discovery was made. One colony was discovered where the worker bees were able to detect that Varroa were breeding upon the larval bee within a capped cell.

My eyes are beginning to get the better of me so I now needed a lens to find the mites. I looked on Ebay and found a 3" hand-held 10x lens advertised in Hong Kong, 'Buy Now' for 99p (plus £5 postage). I bought one and though I don't feel it really is 10x it most certainly is stronger than my others.

Using the new lens one of the first things I noticed that I’d previously overlooked, were the almost transparent bee antennae. These had obviously come from immature bee larvae together with pieces of larval skins.

(See our Gallery Page for a larger picture)

As these parts are not to be found in other hives it suggested that the bees must be uncapping brood cells which contained Varroa mites and removing the larva and the mites. The head of the larva and its antennae are immediately behind the capping and would be the first parts to be tugged out by the workers. We use woven wire screen floors which allow these parts to fall through to the tray. The expanded cut-metal mesh are not used as they tend to allow debris to accumulate on the flat areas. The picture below shows workers having uncapped a brood cell.

(See our Gallery Page for a larger picture)

I now looked much closer among the floor debris and found very tiny baby mites about I/6th the size of an adult. These had fallen from the bee larvae as they were being taken from their cell. The picture below shows an adult mite for comparison with lots of nymph mites.

(See our Gallery Page for a larger picture)

Nymphs collected from one hive in August 2008 proved that this hive was really getting the better of Varroa. Others colonies were  doing it but not quite to the same degree.

By now we had around 50 hives that have seen no form of Varroa control, no chemicals, shook swarm or drone culling, since before 2003.

This removal causes a major set-back in the mite breeding cycle and dramatically reduces the potential build-up of mite population.

In 2009 lots of drones and more than 200 queens were bred and distributed around Swindon. Some were retained for our studies.

By late summer 2009 checks for hygienic behaviour showed 10 colonies now uncapping. Queens not showing hygienic behaviour would be culled and replaced with proven queens.

We are still sceptical that those who use Liquid Nitrogen to kill larvae can claim to have 'Hygienic Bees' because the dead larvae are quickly removed. The removal can be carried out by very few workers, even the daughters of just one fa1her. To breed queens from that colony and sell them as Varroa Hygienic is questionable to say the least.

By breeding queens from that first colony we now have seventeen colonies doing the same thing. The adult female varroa mite is capable of producing several generations; her daughters have the same potential. Therefore by the simple removal of baby mites, the bees have prevented a mite build up of thousands. They now needed no further help from man.

A message to Beekeepers local to Swindon

The time has now come where, with your help, we can involve more and more beekeepers, training them to conduct similar tests to those carried out by SHCG then to breed queens and build new bee colonies which in time will make Swindon & District an area of hygienic bees. The area will be continuously increased.

This will only be the start as we intend involving more and more beekeepers over wider areas year on year. This project is the only one like it in the UK, probably in the world, as SHCG are the only people known to have been able to selectively breed this bee and the achievement potential has been recognised all over the world.

 

Ron Hoskins