(translated from documents written by Lionel Garnery for his project Beehope and published in An Beachaire)
Dr Lionel Garnery is a very respected scientist/lecturer specialised in the study of the evolution of Apis Mellifera Mellifera. He is setting up conservation areas for the French Black bee which is the native French species. This project is called beehope and he hopes to setup AMM conservation areas in Europe. These might be backed up by an EU legislation. Therefore, making it an interesting project. Honey bees are in sharp decline in France and Lionel Garnery points out some important factors/stressors:
1. Pesticide overuse and lack of forage due to intensive farming.
2. Parasites and diseases spreading are linked with the global trade of bee queens.
3. Climate change is adding more stresses to the colonies.
4. But Beekeepers create even more burdens: – Selection for honey production = reduction of the bio diversity in the gene pool/homogenisation of the stock. – Selection on criteria such as docility, swarming and steadiness on the frame that suits the beekeeper but not necessarily the bees. – Changing the queens every year accelerates the selection/homogenisation of the bee population by 3 or 4 times. – Grafting because the beekeeper picks up larvae from a few colonies which further reduces biodiversity and bees can select specific types of patrilines while the beekeeper with his big fingers will select random larvae. – Importing more intensive queens (buckfast, carnolians) not in tune with the weather but kept alive by the beekeeper by syrup feeding.
In France more sugar is used to feed the bees than honey produced. This creates an inverse effect by sustaining very weak strains of bees which would not survive otherwise. – The imported alien stock will genetically pollute the native AMM causing its demise in the middle term. It is becoming nearly impossible to find pure strains of AMM in France (outside the conservation areas) and even AMM from remote parts of France like the Cevennes are mongrelised. – Problems with all the hobby/beginner beekeepers following the same intensive practices as professionals. Lionel Garnery thinks that hobbyists should or could be extensive beekeepers. – Professional beekeepers starting to move bees to wild areas to find more forage for their bees but then they start to genetically pollute the wild strain of AMM. – And above all, use of honey bees that are not adapted to their environment. – A black bee conservation is not only a place where beekeepers keep black bees. You will see that it is clearly a place where bees can be rewilded. It would be great to start some places like that in Ireland. The black bee conservation book of rules below will enlighten you about an apicentred system inspired by the latest scientific experiments.
Book of rules of FEDCAN (Fédération Européenne des Conservatoires d’Abeilles Noires) ( European Federation of Amm conservation) Aim : To maintain genetic diversity of local strains of Apis mellifera mellifera using beekeeping methods that are as close as possible to natural conditions. The conservation must maintain all strains of bees that were present at the beginning of the project.
There will be a minimum number of colonies in the conservation and they will be split to allow for losses due to natural selection. It is sometimes called Darwinian beekeeping. Structure : Prior to any conservation, there must be an agreement between all the beekeepers professional or not. It is obvious that most of them must be willing to work or are already working with apis mellifera mellifera. The conservation is a non-profit organisation. They are part of the French beekeeping association. It is a tool that can be used to promote the use of AMM for both beekeepers and in communities to educate people on the importance of the native black bee. Territory : It must have a good diversity and a good forage for bees, enough that the bees can stay autonomous. A conservation is zoned concentrically, and you have three zones:
1. The heart of the zone has to have a radius of a minimum of 3km but it will be extended gradually to 7 km (in order to get the area flooded with AMM drones). This is a black bee sanctuary. The colonies of black bees have to be as pure as possible.
2. A buffer zone of 7km around the heart in order to reduce the pollution from the outside. The black bees have to be pure but not as pure as in the “heart”.
3. An assessment zone of 20km radius. The centre being the “heart” of the conservation. At least two hundred colonies of that entire zone will be assessed using wing morphometric geometrics (apiclass) and within three years at least two hundred colonies will be DNA sampled (one bee per colony). The results will determinate if it is worthwhile to establish a conservation in that specific area. All the beekeepers are part of the project. This work is done prior to any conservation establishment. The 3km zone defined as being the heart of the conservation is a special place where: The bees have to be as pure and diverse as possible. It is called a bee population (genetic population) where there are many strains of native locally adapted AMM.
Each colony has to be tested, if possible, using molecular analysis. The purity must be above 80%. Mitochondrial analysis will be done minimum every 5 years and microsatellite analysis every 10 years. The bees must belong to the M West Mediterranean lineage. There must be at least 150 colonies in the 3km zone that might be extended gradually to a 7km heart later on with 300 colonies. Beekeepers must be willing to cooperate because at the moment there is no law protecting the native French black bee. Beekeeping practices advocated inside the “heart”:
- Type of hive: not determined
- Type of frames: Starter strip are recommended and it is recommended to add a lath across the frame from one of the top corners to the opposite bottom corner. Bees will draw all the wax.
- Queen excluder: not determined.
- Wax: recommended to be autonomous, no use of foundations allowed.
- Management: must allow natural selection (Darwinian selection)
- Feeding: stimulative spring feeding not allowed, not allowed to feed colonies that are not adapted to their environment. Small colonies can be fed until they are able to make it alone. The feeding can only be used as a winter complement.
- Swarming: by splitting only. Some natural swarming has to occur and it is recommended to leave some colonies unmanaged. The swarm will colonise the available cavities and there will be no space left for swarms coming from outside the zone.
- Selection: no selection by the beekeeper.
- Queen rearing: the split must be done just before swarming. It is then possible to get the swarm and split frames with queen cells. Grafting and AI are forbidden to multiply queens inside the heart but grafting can be used to provide nucleus outside the heart. Especially to provide colonies on the zone just outside the heart.
- Swarm: if there is a swarm of unknown origin, it has to be tested if possible with mitochondrial analysis. A morphometric test can be done first.
- Treatment: varroa. Done with products that are not liposoluble so that there is no wax contamination.
- Moving hive for forage: forbidden but hives can be moved inside the heart if they are split.
- Clipping: forbidden
- Marking: recommended but not an obligation.
- Late crop harvest (ivy, etc): the honey must be operculated and there must be enough stores left for the winter.
- Queen and colony rearing/production: to be sold locally. 17. School/ teaching/AMM promoting: An apiary will be devoted to welcome young people and beginners and to explain the importance of AMM for all the members of the community. I have tried to translate the most important points underlined by Lionel Garnery during some of his talk that I was able to watch on Youtube.
Lionel Garnery clearly sees the intensive beekeeper as being a big threat for the honey bee. He is not the only one. Tom Sealey has made some interesting comments on that topic. I keep bees myself in a system very close to the one described above. Despite no feeding , no grafting, no selection, no frames and no varroa treatment, I had winter losses of 6% (1 hive out of 16) in 2018. The yield was between 10 to 20kg per hive, so not so bad. It means that breeding from strong local colonies that were not artificially sustained and are in tune with the weather is very important. Varroa do not seem a problem anymore in my Warré hives. It might be link to epigenetic. Starter strips or top bars allow the production of clean wax which is the base of healthy colonies. Shook swarming will change the wax every year for the good of the colonies.
It is striking to see that in my Warre hives all the colonies with yellow bands collapsed. I am now left with bees that are very black and very tame. I guess they are quite pure AMM. I bought some queens a few years ago from Coolmore and Aoife Nic Giolla Coda. It has been the best thing I have ever done. Since then, I split and shook swarm but I never replace the old queen nor select. I know of 14 feral colonies in Laois or Kildare and all these colonies are black bees. I am just wondering if the amm are not making a comeback. I mean that some colonies are certainly well able to deal with the varroa by now. It is amazing to still read in some articles that the Irish black bees are not coping with the varroa. It is very bad marketing and it might mean that intensive beekeeping is a plague for our lovely Irish black bees.