Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 37 - Let the Die, The Case for Doing it the Hard Way, Clark County Beekeepers Association

Drones (the case that drones are not PALTs)

Unlike what you may have been taught, drones are not just partially autonomous loafing testicles (PALTs) hanging around the hive eating up honey and being a drain on the colony. They are actually useful and cultivating a natural amount of drone comb is good for the hive, especially the treatment free hobbyist's hive.

One of the major benefits for the TF hive is that drones are a sink for varroa. Varroa are naturally drawn to the larger meatier drones with their longer development times. If the bees can successfully keep varroa in the drone brood (through smaller worker cells) then the damage the varroa do is confined to the drones. Damaged drones are then removed and ejected from the hive, costing little more than the bit of pollen and honey it took to make them, but saving a worker who would have cost not only the construction materials, but also the loss of a worker to do the work. I have seen hives that didn't have much hygienic ability but because they were confining the varroa to the drone brood, were able to successfully maintain operations with a relatively high mite load.

Secondly, I see drones as very useful for influencing the surrounding genetics to your location. It has been said that drones raised in more naturally sized cell hives fly faster and are healthier than extra large treated drones. That means your drones can have a much better chance of getting out there and mating with new queens in your area, and if your drones are TF survivors, you are pulling up the genetics in your area to match yours. That means even treated hives that swarm (or supersede their queen, which they often do) can have a measure of TF survivor genetics which in turn can re-benefit your operation when your queens mate.

As far as the food drones are supposed to be eating, bees eat relatively little. We all know that a single worker will only bring in about 1/20 of the teaspoon of honey (about one worker cell volume) in its lifetime, but may bring in sixty times that much weight (40 times the volume) in pollen. All the drones produced in a hive in a year may cost the hive only a couple pounds of honey and a couple pounds of pollen. Many times that are spent making workers. So do we reduce the number of workers? Of course not. It does cost the hive to make drones, I estimate it takes the honey production of one or two workers to make each drone. But if that drone prevents a varroa from infesting a worker, then you have pretty much made that worker-equivalent back. And how valuable is having a good drone to mate with your virgin queen? And let's remember that there are 4-9 times as many workers as there are drones, even in the worst of times. And the workers know how many drones to make, don't forget that.

Fourth, numbers from the Bee Informed National Survey show that removing drone brood does little to nothing for the survival of the colony, ostensibly due to varroa. You may be removing some varroa, but then the rest are going to have nowhere else to go but into worker brood, further damaging your hive's ability to deal with varroa and in fact selecting for varroa that infest worker brood, which we absolutely don't want. Every action we take in the hive selects for something. We are TF because we want strong bees and weak mites. Let's not muddy the waters by selecting for mites that like worker brood, that only hurts us.

In conclusion, I would say that you're not helping yourself all that much by getting rid of drones or drone brood, and in fact, the bees are going to want to build that drone brood back anyway, so you've perhaps cost yourself time and energy to build that comb again. You are hurting yourself by removing drones due to the selection of worker brood infesting mites, limiting your beneficial effect on the surrounding colonies, and by not sacrificing those drones to the mites which will protect your workers.

Ethical Dilemma

I have a dilemma I'd like to discuss with you. You see, medical science has shown that local honey cures allergies no better than placebo. However, medical science is also now using the placebo effect to treat actual conditions, usually involving pain.

It goes like this, for the past century or so, medical science has tested new medicines against a placebo, sugar pill, fake medicine, whatever you want to call it. Medicines that have more effects than the placebo are shown to be effective. Medicines that are shown to be around the same as the placebo are tossed out, assuming they don't work, since the placebo has no actual medical effect.

The problem is, the placebo works, lots of times, maybe in around a third of the population. There are many people here who believe in homeopathy who will be happy to tell you that the placebo works (though they'll call it homeopathy).

I have for the past several years, avoided saying that local honey helps with allergies because medical science has demonstrated that it does not work better than placebo. But we know that the placebo still works in a portion of the population. So lately, I have taken to saying "that's what they say" when people bring up this folk remedy. The other day, I went a step further. I sold some honey to someone who after they bought it mentioned something about allergies. The problem was, I never told them it wasn't local honey. They never asked.

So, since local honey works no better than placebo, but placebo still works, and I sell honey (local or otherwise) I am effectively administering a placebo. People believe it works, so it works. I don't want to lie to them, but the very nature of a placebo requires that the patient assume effectiveness, or even in some cases, knowing it's a placebo, they will effectiveness into it.

What do I do? I am a very honest and forthright person. But I also want to help people and sell honey.

New Podcast Host

For those of you still coming here for the podcast, thank you.  However, I have found a more reliable and utilitarian host for the podcast files.  You can find the podcast at tfb.podbean.com.  The new RSS feed for your feed reader is tfb.podbean.com/feed/

If you are currently subscribed to the old feed, no worries.  The old feed is currently reading the new feed, so you should still be getting automatic feed updates.

Podbean offers some excellent tools for me as the producer, but also for you as the listener.  You can now listen to episodes directly from the page without worrying about download problems.  The player is built into the page.  Also, each episode has its own Facebook powered comment section.

Enjoy!

Solomon

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 20 - Michael in Nebraska

Michael Bush returns to talk about his Bee Camp and answers questions from the Facebook Page.

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-Ep20-Michael%20in%20Nebraska.mp3

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 19 - Jason in Ohio

Jason talks about his aspirations to become a commercial treatment-free beekeeper.

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-EP19-Jason%20in%20Ohio.mp3

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 18 - Aaron in Louisiana

Aaron and I talk about his plans to become a treatment-free commercial beekeeper.

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-EP18-Aaron%20in%20Louisiana.mp3

Show Notes:
Aaron Jennings on Instagram:  @jenningsapiaries
Website:  jenningsapiaries.com

As promised, here's me on my first day of beekeeping, April 26, 2003:

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 17 - Aaron in New Zealand

In this episode, I talk to Aaron, a freshman beekeeper in New Zealand. 

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-EP17-Aaron%20in%20NZ.mp3

Pictures: 

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 16 - Phil in the U.K.

Topbar hive guru Phil Chandler joins me to talk about beekeeping in the U.K.

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-EP16.mp3

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 15 - David in Tennessee

This episode, I talk to David LaFerney, a sort of avid hobbyist like myself who engages in the excellent practice of making and selling nucleus hives.

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-Ep15-David%20in%20Tennessee.mp3

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 14 - Gary in New Zealand

This episode is an outstanding interview with Gary Fawcett of Kiwimana.co.nz who has his own podcast about beekeeping in New Zealand.  Subscribe to his podcast, I did.

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-Ep14-Gary%20in%20NZ.mp3

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 13 - Michael in Nebraska, Part 4

As we wrap up the conversation with Michael Bush, we answer some more questions and talk about some more beekeeping stuff.

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-Ep13.mp3

Treatment-Free Beekeeping Podcast - Episode 12 - Michael in Nebraska, Part 3

In the third part of this conversation, Michael Bush and I continue to answer questions from the Facebook page and talk about some other broader aspects of keeping bees in this time and place.

http://www.parkerfarms.biz/Podcast/TFBP-Ep12.mp3