A Visit to Betta Bees Part 2 – More than Meets the Eye

While instrumental insemination of queen bees is one of Betta Bees Research’s main points of difference as a honey bee breeding programme – as Maggie James described in A Visit to Betta Bees last month – there’s more going on besides at the Otago business. This month in part two of the profile, we explore how they manage varroa alongside breeding for resistance, including their management of the male side of the equation – drone populations.

By Maggie James

My education into instrumental insemination having taken a big step forward thanks to the detail provided by Betta Bees owners Frans Laas and Rob Waddell, our discussions turned to their attempts to ‘control the neighbours’ during my recent visit.

Betta Bees partner Frans Laas in the home apiary at Invermay Farm, Otago. They flood the area with their own hives and drones, but finding more areas where they can control the drone bee population and thus genetics influencing their breeding programme is a challenge. Note the much-loved ride on lawnmower obtained 2025 – a real time saver! Photo: Maggie James

“Not far down the track in our breeding programme an isolated area where we can control drone populations will be essential,” Waddell says.

With virgin queens willing to travel up to 7.4 kilometres to mate (90% of matings take place in under this distance, with 50% within 2.5km according Jensen et al. 2005), finding an area where a drone population can be controlled is very difficult in New Zealand. As we learned last month, instrumental insemination of bees is a labour intensive and delicate process though and complimenting the practise with open-mated bees is required.

“We do have a 15km open area in Central Otago, but unfortunately this site is frozen solid in winter,” Waddell says.

The Invermay Farm where Betta Bees is located is 1500ha in size and so they have the ability to “swamp” the area with their drones, if not control them entirely. One nearby beekeeper is provided queen cells to try and further regulate the genetic offerings.

They are exploring other isolated areas of five to six square kilometres, which they hope will be suitable to hold ten frame 20-40 full-depth nucs each.

Varroa Programme

The isolated mating areas are desired to help progress advancement of Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) traits in their stock. VSH sees worker bees detecting via smell and then uncapping reproductive varroa infested cells, three to four days prior to bee pupae emergence (pink eye stage). Discarding of pupae and mite follows, thus interrupting the mite’s breeding cycle. How Laas and Waddell treat their colonies for varroa therefore piqued my interest.

We learned last month, following their instrumental insemination runs, that Bayvarol is inserted into hives in February, which is also post-honey harvest. After that Apivar is used to treat hives in late May, a period of major re-infestation in Otago when a lot of feral colonies collapse. After that, Betta Bees do not treat in spring. This is a time to watch varroa infestation growth-rates by practising alcohol washes.

“We measure mite levels in December with alcohol wash and, if necessary, use Formic Pro. In February we again use alcohol washes, and these levels on average are the same as December,” Laas says.

“Over winter, May to June, we use two Apivar strips per box. However, we need to be aware that bees move away from Apivar and that winter cluster moves to the sunny side of the box.”

The pair are not fans of oxalic acid treatments, believing it not as effective as a single control method as some beekeepers maintain. They also worry oxalic acid has a negative effect on colony growth rate, slowing the rate of buildup, potentially to one less frame of brood per brood box. They consider it a nasty chemical for bees and humans, but agree oxalic acid is a useful adjunct if users understand what it can and can’t do.

Where you have honey bee colonies growing in strength, you will also soon have honey and – despite its focus on breeding and genetic improvement of their bees – Betta Bees harvest around three tonne of honey each season from 120 hives extending from Invermay to Balclutha, and Central Otago. Contract extraction is undertaken by Blair Dale in Middlemarch with viper’s bugloss and high-grade clover the predominant varieties.

It’s selling queen bees that they hang their hat on though and, despite a major downturn in the apiculture industry, they are encouraged thanks to some loyal customers and interest from new clients looking to tap into their queens’ potential and get “Betta Bees”.