Intro

00:25 New book by Dorian Pritchard on conservation of native bees

01:10 Argument for conservation of native bees, legally protected areas should be created

02:40 Is the black bee really the best bee for all people? I think not, but each to their own.

04:40 Sue Coby's New World Carniolan project could be a template to follow

05:00 Examples of human interference in nature to domesticate wild animals into farming livestock. Also BEAGLES!

07:20 Modern commercial bee farming, selective breeding of honey bee queens

08:15 Good things about bee farming, pollination increasing crop yields

09:15 Some negative things about bee farming: miticides, reduced diversity, competition with wild pollinators, spread of pathogens

11:20 EU policies to assist apiculture and pollinators

11:50 Selective breeding - objectives and methods, isolated mating, instrumental insemination

12:55 Natural selection - survivors pass on resilience

14:10 Advantages of natural selection

15:00 Downside to natural selection, low honey, unpredictable temperament, short term high losses

15:55 Conclusion - we can have both

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Intro

including reference to Ian Steppler YouTube video just posted on varroa treatments, using Randy Oliver spreadsheet model. https://youtu.be/Z2FLoAq6LDc

02:20 Recent apiary inspection of nucleus colonies

03:50 What causes swarming?

06:40 Impossible to eliminate, but we can influence

07:10 Genetics, personal experience, Paul Horton's bees, sub-species

11:25 Queen pheromones, age of queens

12:35 Brood nest congestion

15:10 Climate and weather

16:30 Poor weather in spring 2024 reduced swarming

18:20 Prevention rather than control of swarming

20:20 Selective breeding, selective pressure - leaving a single queen cell in a swarmed colony pushes it in the wrong direction, using cells/queens from breeding program is better, using over-wintered queens

24:55 Re-queening, younger queens are less likely to swarm

26:20 Gruff Rees YouTube interview "No Weekly Inspections" with David Wainwright - a less intensive style of beekeeping

28:40 Regular hive inspections 7 to 10 day rotation, checking for eggs, space for bees, space for queen to lay, swarm cells

30:50 Space for bees, brood, and stores. Staying ahead of the bees. Supering.

33:15 Frame swapping, making splits or cell builders, space in a Langstroth brood box

37:20 Reversing boxes, double brood, brood and a half

40:00 Adding a brood box of foundation overhead, then splitting, combined with oxalic mite treatment

43:55 Demaree, adding space while keeping the colony together - not a split. Lots of heavy lifting, might be problematic with foundation in the bottom box and the changeable UK weather

49:00 What works for one person may not work for the next person

49:40 Checkerboarding, small book on the subject published by Northern Bee Books

53:45 Summary

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00:30 Importance of both good queens and low mite levels

01:40 How Steve's thinking on varroa treatment regimes evolved from 2 times per year to three.

02:20 Alcohol wash on all colonies as per Randy Oliver, treatment threshold

03:15 What to do with infested colonies in summer when supers are on, what causes outlier colonies with more mites than the others, benefits of winter oxalic acid treatment

04:50 Shook swarm - the drastic option

05:50 Treatment free approach, for optimists and people in isolated locations, or people who have a closed population of bees

06:50 The problems with a "live and let die" approach

07:30 Randy Oliver's method for breeding resistant bees that are good bees for commercial bee farming

08:50 Quotes from Randy regarding going treatment free

09:40 Progress towards resistance is still a win, fewer chemicals, lower costs

10:30 Latest advice on dealing with varroa in honey bee colonies, below 2% infestation and below 1,000 mites total

11:30 Importance of continual monitoring for treatment-free beekeepers, natural mite drop problems, alcohol wash

12:30 Survival versus thriving bees, compare traditional to treatment free

Latest science on treatment-free:

Mondet, F., Beaurepaire, A. McAfee, A., Locke, B., Alaux, C., Blanchard, S. and LeConte, Y. (2020) Honey bee survival mechanisms against the parasite Varroa destructor: a systematic review of phenotypic and genomic research efforts. International Journal for Parasitology, 50.

DOI:doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2020.03.005

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0:00 When oilseed rape (OSR) first arrived in the UK

00:50 The UK has moved from being a net exporter to net imported of rapeseed oil, costing the UK economy £1 billion

01:10 List of the main cooking oils ranked by healthiness

03:10 Rapeseed oil is the most consumed oil in the UK

04:00 OSR is useful to arable farmers as a rotation crop

04:40 OSR downsides, cabbage stem flea beetle, neonics

05:20 The neonic ban in the UK, lower crop yields

05:50 Sources of rapeseed oil imports

06:15 EU emergency derogations (the loophole)

07:20 Emergency derogations are also allowed for so-called organic crops

07:50 Offshoring of neonic usage

08:20 OSR Reboot - plans for the future by the main stakeholders in the industry

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