Breeding Varroa Resistant Bees

Once a sustainable varroa resistant apiary is established, new queens and colonies can be raised quickly.

The varroaresistant.uk team has identified a strong heritability of varroa resistant traits through queen lines, which is very helpful to those wishing to breed varroa resistant colonies.

Key points to consider:

• • Varroa Resistance must be a key selection trait, and as with any trait, keep selecting from the colonies with the best varroa resistance.

• • Aim to profligate the area around your apiary with drones from varroa resistant colonies, so encourage drones in the best colonies as well as breeding from them.

• • Consider working with other local beekeepers and helping them re-stock to build a wider varroa resistant area.

• • Use local bees adapted for the local environment as well as native or near-native bees, where there has been the continuity to adapt to varroa.

• • Ensure any mite-susceptible colonies are re-queened or replaced throughout the season by re-queening or raising new colonies and uniting.

BIBBA has a range of resources available to help you with bee breeding and queen rearing.

BIBBA also encourages the formation of local queen rearing groups to aid the improvement of local, varroa resistant bees and to support the objectives of BIBBA to improve and propagate native and near native honey bees. A group could be formed as part of a local club or association or be a network of beekeepers working to a common purpose.

Benefits of Local Groups

• • Many beekeepers only have a small number of colonies, so they find it easier to work with others.

• • A group will have beekeepers with different expertise that can be pooled. Even the newest beekeepers can have a useful role until they gain knowledge and experience. A local group can pool expertise of different disciplines (e.g.) honey bee management, record keeping, queen rearing, equipment making, administration, etc.)

• • More beekeepers means there are more colonies to select material from and to provide good quality drones, as well as maximising the number of colonies under management, evaluation and study.

• • Groups can liaise with one another and with scientific institutions.

• • They can distribute genetic material beyond their own confines to wider circles of beekeepers, thereby improving bees overall.

You can register as a BIBBA group here. Joining gives access to a wider network, material to help group set-up and management, access to material to help with aspects such as bee improvement and queen rearing, as well as regular chances to communicate and reflect with other like-minded groups across the country.