Treatment-Free Beekeeping- Why so Controversial?
So there is nothing more controversial in beekeeping quite like talking about not treating your bees. Traditional beekeepers put so much blame on their hive collapses on these “Treatment-Free” beekeepers. Why?
First off, what is treatment-free? For the sake of this article, we are going to call treatment-free as a beekeeping tactic where the beekeeper uses no chemical or organic compounds to fight against Varroa Destructor mites. There are some beekeepers known as treatment-free that have a no-hands on approach and let the bees do their thing and never intervene. In this case I am not talking about that beekeeping method.
Traditional beekeepers are described as a beekeeper that is heavily involved in managing their bees, via several methods and using chemicals (organic and synthetic) in keeping the bees alive with the use of chemical treatments within the hive, and this method is far more popular than the latter.
The Argument-
Traditional beekeepers accuse over and over, that treatment-free beekeepers are negatively affecting their hives. Now, this may or may not be true, but the theory is that as a colony is robbed by another hive in the fall, which is a common occurrence, and one where nectar flow is low or done for the season in plants and trees, hives search out for other hives to steal their honey for their hives. During this process, the treated hive bees enters the treatment-free hives and “spread” the diseases and pests within the chemically treated hives.
The Theory-
To make this argument the traditional beekeepers claim is that because there is a hive that is untreated, which assumes that these hives have high disease/ pest loads (more on this below), within the 5 mile (often only 2 miles) flight range of hives. That their bees get diseases and pests from the untreated hive and brings it back to their hive, where the hive then collapses because of the other treatment-free hive, which has been coined as a “Mite Bomb” when suspected collapse from Varroa mites.
I will not name anyone, but I’ve heard this over and over and have read a few studies on this, which I am yet to see compelling evidence to prove a Mite Bomb as something that is real to hives that are further than 20 feet away or more. As an example, a study done at an air-force base in Germany placed a mite infested hive in the middle of the base, and traditionally treated hives where spaced periodically away from this mite loaded hive. The furthest being 1.5km away, the closest a meter away. All test hives had the same mite load after the study, which some point out as evidence that the mites where received from the mite loaded hive.
Well, common sense would tell you otherwise. The further a hive gets away, assuming bees flew out in all directions, the fewer those hives would have bees flying in the path of that hive let alone in its direction at all. So it seems quite obvious to me, what do I know though, that the mite load was presented purely the good old natural way, from the surrounding forage in ALL directions. That would be why the mite loads where identical. In fact, Tom Seeley did a similar study and found that the “Mite Bomb” affect was quite limited on proximity. Now I may be tipping my hat on my personal opinion, which is purely based off science. I also understand the immediate need for treating, which we will get into.
Why Treat Bees?-
Treating hives can help commercial beekeepers keep a business operational and your backyard bees alive. And is often done out of necessity, but it’s been well documented that the treating of bees continues to isolate the genome of the honeybee that would otherwise die off due to the natural evolution of a species response to a pest/ disease.
So with that, it would be absolutely crippling to anyone that relies on bees to make a living to go treatment-free as it would kill ~90% or more of their bees in the first year leaving little to no colonies to make a living on the following year. This is simply an unreasonable request to make, and people that make a living with bees often have very strong reactions to treatment-free conversations and beekeepers and I feel its un-responsible for even the TF crowd to ask this of commercial beekeepers.
Why Go Treatment-Free?-
I personally lean this direction because of what I outline below in the next section, but I also work very hard to shape my thoughts from an empathetic standpoint and try to identify the reasoning. And in my conclusions, it’s mostly derived from a short term economic standpoint, which often is understandable. However treating bees greatly provides a crutch for these wild bees. Honey bees (Apis Mellifera), are a wild animal and not a livestock animal. They are free to go at anytime from the hive, and often do in swarming.
This crutch, keeps hives alive that normally would not survive due to their inability to adapt to their surroundings. Darwin may be rolling over in his grave over this, and unless we are discussing livestock, a wild animal needs and must adapt to its surroundings to survive.
What does Science and Evolution Tell us?-
I’ve listened to my share of podcasts, read papers, and watched educational videos on Youtube. And it has become apparent through sources like the U of M, Tom Seeley, Ralph Buechler, and many many others that genetic selection is how we get past the Varroa mite and other pests. The bees have shown even in our last 100 years or so, which is only 0.01% of the species existence on earth, that they can overcome pests and common disease on their own, and they have with other pests in the past 100 years and are now showing signs of evolving behavior to get past the Varroa Mite.
By continuing to use the solution of chemical warfare will only continue to weaken the bees gene pool. It is only through high losses and natural selection will the honey bee survive without human interaction. There are many many beekeepers successfully raising treatment-free bees with Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH). This is a well documented trait that bees have evolved to manage within their own hives the mite loads. Through this behavior, the bees notice where the mites are and opens closed brood cells to remove the mites.
How Beekeepers Should Move Forward?-
Moving forward, I think we need to be empathetic to each beekeepers needs and treatment choices because of their immediate needs. And that we recognize that bees cannot be treated forever. After all, the treated hives continue to get mites in them and mite populations continue to increase, and if treatments where working mite populations as a whole would be decreasing.
And I think the traditional beekeepers need to recognize that unless their hives are directly next to an untreated hive, their hive is almost with absolute certainty getting disease and pests from other outside factors. And the treatment crowd needs to understand, that at some point we need to stop treating for varroa and start thanking the people breeding queens for VSH properties, which is mostly done through programs that do not treat their bees with chemicals and ofter sought out by the beekeepers treating their bees.
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