Before I took over my first hive in 2006, I joined the local beekeeping association to get some hands on experience.  I also did a beginner’s beekeeping course to learn the theory.  At the time it was generally believed all the feral or wild colonies of honey bees had been wiped out by varroa and without beekeepers treating bees they would die out.

For the first few years I treated with Apiguard – trays of a thymol based gel.  The bees absolutely hated it.  As soon as the treatments went on the hives you could hear the contented hum of the hive change to an angry buzz.  I learnt to stay away from the hives whilst the treatments were on because the bees would be tetchy and likely to sting. 

I attended a couple of integrated pest management days and a talk on oxalic acid really concerned me.  If we needed to protect ourselves so carefully before using oxalic acid, why were we using it on the hives?  Treating for varroa seemed a bit contradictory.  Bees were facing a lot of problems, stress we were told was making those problems worse, and yet we were stressing the bees with the treatments we were using.   The more I learnt about honeybees the more uncomfortable I felt putting chemicals into the hives.  I had also heard a view that maybe beekeepers are breeding weaker bees by propping up weak colonies which would have died out under natural selection.  

I decided to stop treating for varroa.  I took the rather harsh view if a colony did not survive maybe it was for the best.  I didn’t mention this to other beekeepers as it was not a popular view at the time.  I avoided discussing varroa levels in colonies, treatments etc.  I had no idea of the varroa level in my colonies.  I wasn’t going to be treating my colonies so I didn’t see there was much point in knowing the varroa levels.   It was just something else to worry about. 

Surprisingly my colonies didn’t all die out, in fact my colony losses seemed to be lower than the average.

Four years later I doubted my decision.   A couple of times at beekeeping meetings I had mentioned I didn’t use treatments and been asked “Why wouldn’t you help your colonies?” “There are treatments out there for varroa.  Why wouldn’t you use them?” “Do you want to lose your bees?”. 

I decided I was a terrible beekeeper and really should treat my colonies like everyone else around me appeared to be doing.   That autumn I treated one colony before I was called away due to a family bereavement.   I didn’t get to treat the other colonies.  I had one winter loss that year - the colony I had treated.  All the others were thriving.  I haven’t treated a colony since.

The most colonies I have kept is 8, but usually around 4.  I have lost colonies during the winter, but not many.

For a lot of years I have been interested in long hives and top bar beekeeping.  A couple of years ago I decided to shake things up, switch to long hives (although mine have frames), stop using foundation and maybe try breeding a few queens (something I haven’t done before).

After avoiding discussions on varroa and any talks about varroa, I went to Steve Riley’s talk at The National Honey Show – The Honey Bee Solution to Varroa.  It was amazing to discover there was a reason other than just luck my bees had survived my lack of treatments. 

Since then I have been to quite a few workshops and lectures about varroa resistance in honeybees.  I now monitor for signs of varroa resistance in my bees and plan to breed from the colonies which show good varroa resistance.

For more information about treatment free beekeeping and varroa resistance please see Varroa Resistance UK website.