A theoretical calculation of the effectiveness of various methods of combating varroatosis, in comparison with new APIVOX method of keeping bees in new hives, clearly shows the reasons why no other method is able to completely suppress the development of varroatosis in the world.

And here again the APIVOX project is doing what scientific organizations directly related to beekeeping should have done for a long time, and what they should have told beekeepers about at every corner! We made simple calculations of the effectiveness of using various methods of combating varroatosis, and realized, that most likely their results are hidden from beekeepers in order to provide profits to those who produce chemicals that poison bees, honey, and you and me! These results indicate that the chemicals, with all their effectiveness, are just enough not only to prevent the mites from killing the bees, but to ensure the survival of both them the bees and the mites, in order to keep this rich market for future sales ...

In order not to be unfounded, we will now consider all the variants we have calculated for keeping bees with and without the use of chemicals and other drugs and techniques. We chose a simple figure of 100 mites per colony at the beginning of the first year of control as the baseline. In total, we will consider three years if the bees, according to our calculations, will be alive to see it ...

 

The first variant - This is a classic variant that was used by old beekeepers at a time, when not much was known about Varroatosis. This variant is characterized by the fact, that no methods and preparations are used to reduce the number of Varroa mites in the bee colony. What parameters in the seasonal life of bees we can see here ...

        1. As a rule, at the beginning of the season, the colony releases a swarm, with which the old queen and flying bees of all ages leave the hive, reducing the overall mites' colony size by about 20%. This is an ideal figure based on the assumption, that about 80% of mites are always in the brood and only about 20% could be found on the bees of all ages.

        2. During the summer season, the mites population approximately doubles every month. Taking into account the fact, that the season lasts from April to September, this is approximately 6 months. Thus, the mites population increases 64 times by autumn.

        3. Creation of an offshoot from a strong family to expand the apiary or replace dead families. New families in summer are usually made on the basis of 4-6 brood frames, which, as we think for simplicity, takes about 40% of the mites from the family.

        4. Finally, wintering. Scientists, on the basis of their observations, believe that, on average, 5% of the total number of mites perish per winter month. For simplicity, we assume that wintering lasts 6 months and in general, up to 30% of Varroa mites die during this time.

So, we can clearly see, that without treatment against varroatosis, the death of a family in this case can occur in the second or third year of its life, depending on the circumstances. Earlier, when keeping bees of Russian breed, the mite breeding season was not so long. Now, with the use of the bees of Grey Mountain breed, such as Carnica, this season is further lengthened by two winter months - March and February. This allows the mites to become even stronger by the spring and, in the absence of any chemical treatments, allows them to destroy the bee family even before the honey harvest begins. In addition, the family is a constant source of infection for the surrounding families and apiaries. Previously, the death of a family after 2-3 years was compensated by the annual capture of 1-2 swarms from each of the bee family of the apiary. This made it possible to maintain the number of families in the apiary or even increase it.

 

The second variant -  is the classic use of acaricidal chemicals with the treatment of bees with three different drugs during the season. We are considering an option with three-fold processing of bees - at the beginning of the season, before honey harvest and in late autumn. Consider the parameters specific for this method ...

1. In this method, we take into account that two chemical treatments are used at the beginning of the season. BUT, the fact is, that in spring, bee colonies already have brood and 80% of the mites are located there. Thus, two successive treatments reduce the mites population by 20% and 20% in successionly. This means, that they are 100% effective, but realy their effectivness is close to 96%. For the sake of simplicity, we will assume, that this in total, is equal to a 40% reduction the mites population.

2. During the summer season, the mites population approximately doubles every month. Taking into account the fact, that the season lasts from April to September, this is approximately 6 months. Thus, the mites population increases 64 times by autumn.

3. The repeated autumn chemical treatment is carried out at the end of September or in October, when there is no brood in the bee colonies. Therefore, all mites could be found only on adult bees and the efficiency of chemical treatment in this case reaches 96%. All data in clauses 1 and 3 are fully consistent with the heat treatment of bees in special chambers.

4. Finally, wintering. For simplicity, we assume that wintering lasts 6 months and in general, up to 30% of the mites die during this time.

So we can see, that using this method of working with bee families infested with Varroa mites, we are essentially maintaining the status quo. Bees do not die, but the mites does not die either! A slight increase in quantity of the mites could be compensated by the periodic creation of offshoots or by the departure of swarms. It is enough for this to happen once every two or three years. And companies producing chemical preparations will be forever grateful to you! You will feed them all your life! They are not interested in the quality of honey and the health of people ... In addition, if we look at the number of Varroa mites in a family during the summer period, we will see, that there are thousands of individuals! And we will understand that such "treated against the mites" families and apiaries are a constant source of infection for all the families and apiaries around, which is also profitable for manufacturers of chemicals and bee-packages ...

 

The third variant - is developed by us on the basis of the German method of keeping bees. This is the most progressive and environmentally friendly for today variant. It is characterized by double removal of  sealed brood into separate colonies with young queens or with queen cells, followed by their treatment with formic acid after the entire brood has emerged. Let's consider parameters specific to this method ...

1. Using this method, the beginning of the season is characterized by the removal of sealed brood, which currently contains 80% of the entire population of the mites existing in the bee colony.

2. During summer season, the mites population approximately doubles every month. Taking into account the fact that the season lasts from April to September, this is approximately 6 months. Thus, the mites population increases 64 times by autumn.

3. The end of summer season, as well as its beginning, is characterized by the removal of sealed brood, which currently contains 80% of the entire population of Varroa mites existing in the bee colony

4. Finally, wintering. For simplicity, we assume that wintering lasts 6 months and in general, up to 30% of mites die during this time.

In this variant, we see that using this method of keeping bees, the growth of the mites population will go so slowly that formation of  broodless offshoots with further treatment of the bees in them with formic acid, will help to maintain a balance between the health of bees and the presence of the mites. The result is equivalent to the previous variant, BUT with a few essential caveats ... At first, you do not poison bees, honey and people with chemicals. Formic acid is a natural product. Secondly, the size of the mites population during the summer season is significantly lower than when they are treated with acaricidal preparations. This is due to the significantly more efficient spring treatment, where 40% effectiveness of treatment is replaced with 80% effectiveness. This means at the same time reducing the possibility of contamination of nearby apiaries and other families. But what is most important in this variant, you no longer feed pharmaceutical companies that produce dozens of types of acaricidal drugs that are dangerous to the health of bees and humans.

 

The fourth variant -  is a further development of the third one. Its main feature is the use for keeping bees of the new hive, made in the frames of Apivox Varroa Eliminator project. According to preliminary data, this hive should at least THREE times reduce the rate of development of the mites population in bee colonies. Of course, there are certain requirements for working with this hive, but they are quite feasible ... The parameters of this method are as follows ...

 

1. With this method, the beginning of the season is characterized by the removal of sealed brood, which currently contains 80% of the entire population of the mites existing in the bee colony.

2. During the summer season, the mites population approximately doubles every month. Taking into account the fact that the season lasts from April to September, this is approximately 6 months. Thus, the mites population increases 64 times by autumn. But, using a new hive reduces the rate of development of the mites population by about three times. Thus, the expected increase in the mites population by the end of the season will be approximately 21.3 times.

3. The end of the summer season, as well as its beginning, is characterized by the removal of sealed brood, which at the moment contains 80% of the entire population of the mites existing in the bee colony.

4. Finally, wintering. For simplicity, we assume that wintering lasts 6 months and in general, up to 30% of the mites die during this time.

In this case, we clearly see that a decrease in the growth rate of the mites population during the summer season leads to a radical suppression of the development of the mites population in the bee colony and to the possibility of its complete elimination in a few years. This is a major achievement even with such a low coefficient  of decrease in the growth of the mites population as 3 times. It can be seen from the table that such a decrease is possible when performing standard brood removal procedures, and with the formation of offshoots, the elimination of the mites population can be achieved even earlier. The only question is that the natural conditions are not ideal, and this process may take a little more time. In general, these are the results that were laid down in the very idea of ​​creating the Apivox Varroa Eliminator project ...

 

The fifth variant -  is in fact a confirmation of all of the above on the example of the death of our experimental family in the E-1 hive. This intermediate option is characterized by the fact, that it combines the use of the first and second modifications of the new hive and the absence of any anti-varroatous treatments. In addition, as we have already said, the weather conditions of 2019 were not at all ideal and the bee famoly in this hive was able to show a coefficient of decrease in the growth of the tick population in relation to the best control family by only 2 times. And there are only two items in the parameters of this method ...

1. During summer season, the mites population approximately doubles every month. Taking into account the fact that the season lasts from April to September, this is approximately 6 months. Thus, the mites population increases 64 times by autumn. But, the use of a new hive in design variants 1 and 2 reduces the rate of development of the mites population by about TWO times. Thus, the expected increase of the mites population by the end of the season will be approximately 32 times.

2. And finally wintering. In this case, we believe that wintering lasts only 2 months due to the warm winter, and in general, no more than 10% of the mites died during this time.

Calculations unambiguously show, that after reaching the autumn period with the number of the mites for about three thousand, and with starting of brood rearing already in February,  the bees of  Carnica breed, living in the experimental hive,  allowed the mites to develop secretly for 4 months preceding swarming, which led to the fact, that their population had grown 16 times by May, which ultimately led to its death in early June. This is exactly what happened with our experimental family in June. Thus, this confirms the correctness of our calculations both in this paragraph and in the previous ones ... of course, with certain assumptions.

Thus, we can say, that it is our method that is the most acceptable for beekeepers, and the least costly both in terms of money and labor costs. In addition, it is our method that not only suppresses the development of varroatosis in specific families, but also significantly reduces the possibility of infecting neighboring families and apiaries due to a sharp decrease in the number of mites both at the beginning of the beekeeping season and throughout the summer.

 

Thus, all that remains for us for today - is to confirm by mass testing the possibility of the new third model of our new Apivox Varroa Eliminator project beehive to achieve a mite suppression coefficient of at least three times under normal weather conditions.

 

Copyright Sergey Glebskij 2021 © All rights reserved

Brood Control mode - when to make control

 

On the results, achieved in Apivox projects, prior to February 2021.

  Dear friends. Apivox project has two main directions: the first is the acoustic control of bee colonies and the second is the development of a method of keeping bees, which should suppress the development of varroa mites. And we have been able to achieve significant success in both of these areas over the past five years.

I am often asked the question - how does the Apivox project fundamentally differ from other projects for remote control of beehives ... And I can say ... the main thing is that we thoroughly understand what is happening in the hive, what each sound means separately and what they mean in sum ... We not only understood this, but also developed theoretical aspects of acoustic control, which have been confirmed by 5 years of practical use in the apiaries.

In the process of work on the topic of acoustic control, it became clear that our Creator had put the same message encoding system into all living beings. As it turned out, we all, from the ant to the dolphin, the monkey and the man, use practically the same system for creating vibration-acoustic signals and messages based on them, and the system for understanding it. But at the same time it became clear that, in our understanding, only man possesses "language" ...

All other living beings have a limited set of signals that they use in a certain context - that is, to draw attention of "spectators" to certain actions at a certain moments of time and at the same time, to transmit the simplest information for them... With the simplicity of the tasks assigned to animals by the Creator, much more from their communication system is not required, no matter how smart they seems to us ... Therefore, the number of information signals is limited and tied to specific actions .. For example, a dog or a cat ... If a dog is actively barking at the door, then most likely someone is standing outside the door, if the dog is barking plaintively at the door, then it wants to walk, if it is barking near its bowl, it wants to eat.  At the same time, the sounds made by the dog can mean nothing by themselves, but they have intonational colorization, which help others to understand their meaning ... 

The bees' signals are also few and they are used mainly in the main business of the bees, which the Creator assigned them - in the process of pollination, which is hidden from us and from them under the guise of honey collection and its processing . The most obvious examples of several signals used at once, are well known "dances" of the bees.

But this is not the only time when the bees have to exchange messages. Until now, many such "words and phrases" from the language of bees are hidden from us, but in principle, we are able to recognize and understand them using the methods which we have developed, using observation hives and relatively simple equipment such as laser vibrometers and video cameras ... We think, that this will allow us to understand bees much better. But, this is so far only a project of work in the interests of science ...

In the practical area, we have also achieved excellent results. Apivox Smart Monitor app, which turns an ordinary smartphone into a device for understanding the events taking place in the hive, has shown excellent results. It is based on the theory of communication of bees developed by us and a system for analyzing the sounds that they create when performing certain types of work. This allowed us to accurately and unambiguously qualify several basic types of hive works and their combinations. There were discovered some previously unknown actions of bees, accompanied by specific sounds, such as emergency heating of the nest and care for an open brood. There were understood the reasons for the appearance of so-called signal of "queenlessness" , and it became clear why this state is so short ... only a few tens of minutes ...

Indeed, in fact, there is always a queen in the family, even if it is still in the form of a larva in the queen cell ! Now we can absolutely reliably talk about the strength of the work of bees on honey collection basing on the strength of their "negotiations" on the topic of honey collection. We can speak with a high degree of certainty about the presence of an open brood and its approximate amount, basing on the strength of signals issued by the bees when caring for an open brood.

We are able to determine the queenless part of the colony during division, we can insert new queen at the most convenient moment of time, when the bees are mostly inclined to accept it, that is, when they have not yet lost hope of her return and have not yet created new queens from the larvae of working bees. We can determine whether the bees are working on honey collection for themselves, that is, only to feeding the brood and themselves, or whether it is already possible to obtain marketable honey .

We can easily determine the beginning of swarming state of the family... 

And all this we can do without opening the hive. And we do all this based on the signals, which the bees themselves emit. In fact, they themselves tell us all this... and there can't be no mistakes in diagnostics. The only thing that is required from the beekeeper - is to understand how to proceed further... Exactly this requires their knowledge and experience ! ...

In addition we can say, that our algorithms are capable of working in remote control systems, and they can dramatically reduce the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over communicational lines, instead of gigabytes of information needed to be transmitted then you use direct recording and transmission of raw sound to the server for further analysis. This makes it possible to extremely simplify and reduce the cost of controllers for each hive and to ensure the transfer of data arrays, from large professional apiaries by simple and cheap means, without overloading the communicational lines ...

By the way, our technology essentially visualizes the sounds of bees and interprets them ... This allows people with reduced hearing or completely deaf, to improve their capabilities. Our device can also be used to help military personnel whose hearing has suffered during military service and who want to take up beekeeping at the end of the Military service. 

The introduction of our control methods into mass beekeeping promises great prospectins, allowing you not to disturb the mass of the bees which are in good working state, and do not have any problems, and at the same time allowing you to quickly respond to the deterioration of the condition of some families. The project will continue and develop, and we are ready to teach everyone who wants, to use our application and everyone who just wants to get new knowledge. We hope that such courses will appear in our association, and will gain popularity over some time ...

The second direction of our activity is connected with an attempt to solve the main problem of beekeeping for today - to overcome the Varroa mites. Believing that all living beings were built up by our Creator, we understand, that life on Earth was built so, that no one living being in its place in this world could receive total superiority over all others. This is the basic idea of ​​our universe ... Bees and the mites are not the exception. Only the destruction by human of the habitual places of residence of living organisms or the transfer of living beings to other conditions, makes their reproduction and strengthening uncontrollable. We can see this right now with the example of coronavirus.

Unfortunately, most of scientists and  most of simple beekeepers believe that observing bees living in a hollow of a tree, they observe bees in natural conditions ... Well, a hive is essentially the same hollow, only demountable ... Especially a multi-body hive... It was created especially for this purpose - to bring the life of bees closer to so-called "natural" life of the bees in the hollow ... I fundamentally disagree with this. And this is the basis of our theory...

In Spain, not far from Tarragona, there is an old Roman aqueduct Pont del Diablo. Once, when I walked around it, I saw a family of bees that made a nest in one of the pillars of the aqueduct ... Well, there was no other place for a small swarm ... But we will not say after this situation,  that an aqueduct is a natural home for the bees, and we will not start building aqueducts for them instead of the hives ... This only demonstrates the ability of bees to survive in a variety of conditions. 

So the main thing is that we need to remember, that the bees are not local creatures. They are aliens in our area. That is why, we set ourselves the task of finding such conditions and methods for keeping bees in the hives, so that in any place of their keeping, Varroa mites would not  feel themselves as comfortable as they feel  now ...

We see perfectly well, that chemical preparations have practically no effect on the mites now. It is already proposed to mix acaricides two or three together and to change these groups of acaricides from one treatment to another ... Varroa-tolerant species of bees and genetic researches today are just a fiction and deception of beekeepers ... Drawing out money from them ... Varroa mites are nowhere disappeared. If this were a reality, we would have seen the result long ago without any advertising ... But all this is a big business and a huge grants ... of which not a single crumbs fall on the real protection of bees ... We want to change this. We are confident that these results can be achieved. This is evidenced by dozens of scientific works found by us and confirming our idea. And not only scientific works, but also the results of decades of field observations and experiments with huge apiaries in all parts of the Earth confirm our idea ... The only trouble is that all these results were discarded by the scientists, since they could not be tied to the main topic of their researches in each of these projects. And sometimes, they simply refuted the results obtained by the scientists ... Collected together, these data became a real evidence base for our theory!

The first stage of practical testing of our technique and the hive, which is part of it, did not give a vivid positive result ... But this could not be expected ... As any developer knows, stages of corrections, improvements and debugging are required ... And then mass testing .... But the first stage of our work was not useless ... Using our theory and the help of the Apivox Smart Monitor device which we created, we were able to understand the principles of development of the mites' population in bee colonies. We understood the reasons for the phenomena, which were always only mentioned without much evidence ... We realized, that there are two main development peaks in the life of the mites population - pre-swarming and post-honey harvest ...

We understood the reasons for the appearance of these peaks, we understood what events in the hive generated them. It became clear, that the use of drone brood by the mites in spring arises precisely because of the swarming state of the family. At this time, the bees throw all their strength into heating the entire volume of the hive! We can observe the first queen cells, first of all, on the frames closest to the covering frames - on the second and on the eleven frames in the Dadant beehive. It is this heat that helps the mites to use for reproduction the drone brood located at the very edges of the nest. Hence comes the understanding that cooling of the nest by expanding it, will not only knock down the swarming mood of the bees, but also worsen the conditions for the reproduction of Varroa mites. The method of removal of the earliest sealed brood, also helps to significantly cleanse the colony from Varroa mites in the pre-swarming time.

In sum, this gives a good result.  Sealed brood, which was removed from all families of the apiary, is placed in a separate colonies with not fertilized queens or with queen cells, and after the young bees emerge, these colonies can be treated with formic acid.  They have no honey and no brood. Honey will not turn sour and the mites will not have the possibility to hide in the brood ... After processing, they will become an excellent healthy families. And there will be no losses of the bees in the apiary. Practically the same happens after removal of honey from the hive...all vacant space of the combs will be filled with the brood, and if the mites are not suppressed, then a second peak of their reproduction is guaranteed. And it is able to kill the bee family. This is what is often observed in non-professional apiaries ... A family having collected 2-3 supers of honey suddenly simply "dissolves" ... The hive is full of honey, but there are no bees. This is the result of an outbreak of varroatosis, which killed young bees. The bees, which were supposed to replace the old bees, which wear out at honey collection...

Both of these peaks in the mites' reproductive activity are capable to kill the bee family during summer time. And this is often observed precisely after a warm winters, during which, the bees staying in a warm hive finish brood rearing very late, and start it again very early. This is clearly seen in the graph, which is built annually on the basis of the collected data by the American organization Bee Informed ...

The graph shows that exactly in the years with warm winters it is mainly observed the summer death of bee colonies... What is the reason... The reason is that in the winter months, when it seems to us that there is no danger, the mites continue to multiply in the winter brood, quietly and imperceptibly increasing their numbers. But even in this case, on the basis of world experience, we understood how to deal with this without using any chemicals. This is a big step forward! 

We get to know our enemy better and better!  It is increasingly being practiced the method of cold wintering, which in warm winters is able to limit or completely inhibit the egg-laying of the queen in winter. And only with the arrival of spring and with the the beginning of flowering of early pollen-giving plants, the nests need to be insulated again, allowing the bees to quickly build up their strength. But at the same time, we should not forget about the removal of the earliest sealed brood, which at the moment, contains the majority of the mites population. These are general principles, that can be used with any type of the hive ...

Our own new method of keeping bees is more related to the summer season and it is very different from the classical keeping of bees, so the fact, that the use of a new hive does not kill the bees, was our first small victory. In addition, the first stage of research showed, that the new technique is capable of helping the development of bees. That it can seriously help those, who are engaged in breeding of the bees for the sale of queens and packages, significantly increasing the yield of marketable products, that is, the bees, the brood, and the queens ...

Positive results have also been obtained in terms of suppression of  the development of the mites ...

Figures, compared to control hives were good, but unfortunately, they have not yet given an absolute victory. The growth rate of the mites population in the new hive was significantly lower than that of similar colonies in standard hives, but the absolute values ​​were still too high...

We believe that the reason was the imperfection of the design of the new hive .... As a result, we improved the hive, added new elements to it, and are now ready for a new stage of testing ... As always, we do not have enough space, bees and control devices ... But, unfortunately, we could not get help from any structures of the European Union, or the United States, or from ordinary beekeepers for whom we essentially work ... Today it is easier for them to shower the bees from a watering can with chemicals five times per season, than to think about the future of the bees and their own children and grandchildren ...

But, despite all the difficulties and obstacles, the project will be continued this season ...