The Shiny New Beekeeping Idea

As an editor of a bee farming magazine (called Bee Farmer, would you believe?), former director of BeeCraft, author, blogger, podcaster (sometimes) – you get the picture – I’m always interested in communicating valuable information on keeping honey bees to others. There are many others doing something similar, and probably better. The challenge that we face is that, in a nutshell, not a great deal changes in beekeeping. There is a temptation in some circles to latch onto anything shiny and new, if only to have something shiny and new to write about. The shiny new beekeeping idea of the moment, being furiously pushed as if life itself depends on it, is treatment-free beekeeping (TFBK).

Incidentally, the urge to communicate what I have learned to other beekeepers is not something that results in financial reward, and it’s not altruism. In truth, it’s a bit like keeping a diary, where the act of organising one’s thoughts into something approaching a coherent article is a good way of ensuring that such knowledge is retained in my aging brain. Furthermore, anything I say on here is my personal view, not representative of any other person or organisation. If you think it’s difficult to make money from beekeeping, I can assure you that making money from writing books is, with very few exceptions, even more unlikely. There are actually people who derive their entire livelihood from keeping honey bees. Several of these are friends/acquaintances of mine, and some appeared in my first book. It’s always interesting to get their perspective on beekeeping matters.

Cutting edge

So, back to TFBK. The rapidly expanding number of preachers of this gospel are well-meaning folk, I’m sure, and no doubt they believe that they are on the cusp of something grand and revolutionary. Words like “sustainable” get thrown about with glee. I get it. There is something thrilling about being on the cutting edge of discovery, and article-starved editors will clamour for anything shiny and new. Anything but the same old thing that they have been re-wording and re-presenting every season. Books are written, workshops delivered, speaker tours organised – it’s all very exciting.

Tropi is coming

You may detect some cynicism in my tone. I can’t help it; there is a whiff of snake-oil about the whole TFBK thing. What’s more, when Tropilaelaps arrives, as I’m sure it will, the game will change again. Yet another nasty critter that comes from Asia and jumped from its original host (Apis dorsata) to a new and vulnerable species (Apis mellifera). Bats and COVID-19 spring to mind. My understanding is that, without beekeeper intervention, colonies of honey bees will not have a hope of surviving Tropilaelaps infestation. It has even been suggested that hygienic behaviour, which can help reduce varroa mite reproduction, could exacerbate the impact of Tropilaelaps on honey bees.

Spread the love

My cynicism also comes from my discussions with bee inspectors, very experienced beekeepers, and my reading of the science. However, that last one is tricky because not all research is perfect, and with cherry-picking you can justify almost anything. Bee inspectors regularly see colonies managed by treatment free beekeepers that are “on their arses” but the beekeeper does not seem to know or care. They are alive, aren’t they? Very few TF beekeepers will let curious folk like myself try their queens, which I find odd. If I had a fantastic line of super-bees that did not need treating and made loads of honey, I’d be happy to spread the love. But no.

Local or bust

The latest thing, which helps to justify the demise of bees which were supposedly headed by a resistant queen bee, is that it only works with ‘local bees’. As far as I can tell, local seems to be within mating distance – maybe a radius of 7 km or so. That’s convenient; if you use these incredible bees outside this tiny zone, the resistance is lost. Your only hope is to start from scratch in your little area, wherever that may be. Don’t worry, after about five years of outrageously heavy losses, you might get it down to about 30%. You’ll be spending your time making bees rather than honey, but it will be SUSTAINABLE, as long as you don’t move outside your area. How wonderful!

Is there a need?

A recent article by Karl Colyer, who keeps bees in Cheshire, as do I, appeared in the BBKA News (Jan 2026 issue). He correctly points out the devastating impact of varroa, saying, “Left unchecked, a varroa-infested colony will usually collapse within two to three years.” He then goes on to explain why the “traditional approach” is failing. The traditional approach, by the way, is the one advocated by the government-funded body responsible for honey bee health in the UK (National Bee Unit aka NBU). The reasons for the failure of us old-fashioned beekeepers, who like to treat for mites and produce tons of honey, are:

1. Varroa mites are developing tolerance to synthetic miticides. Yes, in some places and with some miticides, this appears to be true, but there are organic products that work and for which mites have no tolerance. So why not use an organic treatment, like oxalic acid, rather than go treatment free?
2. Chemical residues build up in wax. True, again for synthetic miticides, and to some extent with thymol. Not so for formic and oxalic acids; both effective and organic.
3. Chemical treatments disrupt natural selection. This is an odd one because so does improving honey bees by selective breeding, feeding bees that are starving due to prolonged drought or rain, and no doubt lots of beekeeping actions. As soon as we put bees in a box, we have intervened. If you want natural selection, why keep bees at all? Why not let nature get on with it?
4. Treatments are a never-ending expense. Welcome to beekeeping! The cost of not treating is likely to be orders of magnitude higher than a couple of pads of Formic Pro and a squirt of oxalic acid. I’m happy to incur the costs of treatments to have healthy and productive bees, and the resulting honey more than compensates for the cost of treatments.
   

I don’t think the case for TFBK has been made by those four points above. Regardless of what follows – whether it works or not – there surely need to be better reasons than this to march off on a tangent and keep infested bees that spread their mites to neighbouring beekeepers (like me). This must especially be the case for new beekeepers, such as many BBKA News readers.

Natives again

Some TFBK advocates manage to sneak in a ‘native bee’ argument into the picture, believing that if you keep breeding from local bees, they will magically revert to the native bee. That’s just silly. Our bees are all mixed up, regardless of how native you think they look, and that’s OK. Traits and behaviours matter. Being ‘native’ is extremely rare in England, and impossible in the USA. Honey bees are not native to the USA, so now what? By the way, at one time, they were not native to the UK either, and nor were we. Obviously, in tiny, secluded places, native bees do exist, but that is not what 99% of beekeepers are dealing with.

Not so shiny and new

I had a conversation with Michael Palmer about this earlier today, and he reminded me that Kirk Webster, in Vermont, has been preaching about TFBK since 1995. So this thing that seems shiny and new is not. People have been trying to breed varroa resistance for decades. Despite occasional successes, the overall picture is pretty gloomy, especially once you start open mating queens and looking at the resulting daughter-queens. You can find hygienic bees, VSH, and now the UBeeO assay, in which the aim is to breed for bees that can identify certain odours associated with unhealthy brood and then remove that brood. Mike has been working with UBeeO since it came out four years ago. He is still trying, but has found that daughter queens of 100% VSH breeders are “all over the place”. It’s a real slog.

Impressive 50%

Previously, I have written about the TFBK breeding programme run by Randy Oliver in California. He’s now hooked up with Olivarez Honey Bees as well. After many years, Randy’s highly selective breeding has resulted in approximately 50% of daughter queens having the resistant trait. That is mighty impressive. They can go a whole season without mite numbers getting too high. He has thousands of colonies, does regular mite washes on them all, and is a very experienced and competent beekeeper. All that selection pressure over seven years to get a 50% success rate, and people think they can achieve something similar with their five hives in the garden! I know you want it to be true, but when your bees die, will you honestly believe it was due to varroa? Rose-tinted spectacles are everywhere.

Walrus thoughts

Here’s what I think: people who want to practice ‘natural beekeeping’ or whatever it’s called, are free to do so. Beginners, and inexperienced beekeepers, should really be encouraged to follow the advice of the NBU, which happens to be what most good beginner books advocate (Ted Hooper, Haynes Bee Manual, etc.). I don’t think it is responsible to sell a TFBK dream to new beekeepers when they already have so much to learn. It’s hard enough at first anyway, without adding that extra layer of complexity.

You might think I’m ignorant, offensive, and have no right to lecture anybody. We are all beekeepers trying to do what’s right for our bees, so at least we have some common ground. Happy holidays to everyone who reads this – may next season be your best ever!