A possible cure (partially) for Bee Colony Collapse

Just ran into this article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-19137-5

A bit early to say with any certainty, but if this pans out there could be an effective control for Varroa mites, which would help considerably with the problem.

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Wow!! Good find, good news. Could you post that in Beekeeping here I come, also. Thanks

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My grandpa was a bee haver, not a bee keeper. He didn’t understand much about bees just expected them to make honey every summer with no care. I think that’s how it used to be before mites. Hope this helps cure the issue.

In reading some of the follow ups in the beekeeping forum where I first saw this, I am unfortunately less optimistic. Seems that these initial tests were done on brood-less bees (swarms, new packages, etc). An expert posted on the forum that Li is quite toxic to bee larvae. So it seems unlikely to be a solution for established hives. But might be useful in halting the spread of mites in bee packages.

It could also be used in situations where the majority of the brood is removed from the colony such as early spring splits as, if I recall, these treatments only need a day. Packages would be the best way though, good to start with no mites.

That was how it used to be. Bears could be a problem, but other than that the bees took care of themselves. The beekeeper was more an annoyance to them than a necessary part of the team.

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