Einstein and bees

Einstein and bees

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Just a few of the problems raising bees. Long time beekeeper and bee expert Lynn Williams talked with me about the problems bees encounter with Varroa mites. "The mite actually attaches itself to the bee larvae for nourishment and that destroys that new bee. The mites repopulate 8×8×8×8. So it only takes a short period of time before the beehive is completely overrun with mites and you can no longer produce bees. The hive will collapse at that point.

They just don't have any replenishment of bees because she's laying between 1000 and1500 eggs a day. They turn around in 25 days, you've got 1000 to1500 bees coming off and that is the strength of the colony is to populate the colony with honey and the survival of the queen. If you cannot populate the hive, the numbers just keep diminishing to the point that there are no bees left. A good friend of mine who is a pastor who lives down the road knew I had quite a few bees and I was explaining to him the problem with the mite and the survival rate of the bees and told him the mites had become immune to the pesticides. For 17 years I refused to put pesticides in my beehives because it actually weakens the bees and subjects them to other viruses and problems related with that."

Lynn and his partner have developed a beehive system that completely eliminates mites from the beehive through controlled heat.

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