Swarming makes bees healthier!

Professor Tom Seeley spoke at a Symposium organised by the independent NGO Mellifera e.V., at Fischermühle in Germany in August 2016.

by Wolfgang Ritter

Panel discussion about the topic swarm intelligence with Prof. Dr Thomas Seeley, Dr Johannes Wirz (presenter), Thomas Radetzki and Dr Wolfgang Ritter.

Photo: Ute Schneider-Ritter

With heart and commitment, the Mellifera e.V. team had planned the Symposium on the theme of Swarm intelligence, forest bees and Varroa tolerance giving German and French beekeepers many new ideas about the world of bees.

The well-known American bee expert Professor Tom Seeley is famous not only for being a brilliant scientist and author, but also for his thrilling lectures. His appearance with “Mellifera” was somehow similar to a pop star. It is not only the young audience that is delighted when he dares to do away with old traditions and thinking. Also highly experienced beekeepers are challenged to disagree with his words, because Seeley continues to counter their repeatedly-parroted expert knowledge - with the manifold results from his sound, scientific experiments.

A key insight for participants at these three days was that everything progresses – including knowledge about bees and beekeeping! Perhaps eventually even old stagers will have to get accustomed to new ideas.

It is obvious that in our local beekeeping custom, swarming ranks at the top of the list of no-go things: it is considered by conventional beekeepers to be absolutely unwelcome. Indeed, being named a “fan of swarming bees” is considered a stigma rather than meaning something positive about a beekeeper!

First Tom Seeley made us familiar with the swarm and its collective intelligence that enables the swarm to efficiently identify and select a new nesting place, as described in his book Honey Bee Democracy.

His recent research on the advantages of swarming for bee health make us curious. Not only are the bees in the swarm healthier, but also the bees in the mother colony! It is quite logical of course: while swarming, the bee colony loses Varroa mites, and by interrupting the brood cycle, Varroa development is reduced in both the swarm and the mother colony.

Keeping bees with a high density of honey bee colonies also greatly contributes to the spread of diseases. Indeed, keeping a large distance between colonies may alone decide on the life or death of a colony, and this must alert even the most convinced user of medical treatments.

When moreover Tom Seeley explains that the ideal nesting place is high in a tree, one begins to wonder – how can all of this be realised in practice? A swarm catching tree, following the African example, could solve this problem. However, swarm boxes cannot just be any old hives - this would open the way for the spreading of pathogens. Proper solutions are requested, allowing everyone to see from the outside that pathogenfree hives (without combs or foundation) are being used as swarm boxes. Honey bee colonies living in these swarm boxes can put an end to one of the arguments by opponents - that honey bee colonies cannot survive without us beekeepers.

Finally, it has to be added that I could underline some of Tom Seeley’s statements with further details from my experience in East Africa with the native bee Apis mellifera scutellata. By following the African way to healthy bees generally practised there, which fully includes absconding and swarming, they have succeeded in keeping Varroa mite infestation at a low level. Damage only happens when people try to suppress these natural instincts. Therefore, the challenge now is to protect the African beekeepers from wrong influences and ‘consultants’. In industrialised countries, on the other hand, we have to change our thinking, as proposed already in my recent articles in Bees for Development Journal. We will enlarge upon this topic and the African way in future editions.

By his exact research and his often ingeniously simple test designs, Tom Seeley has not only confirmed the ideas of some mentors but he has helped also to reduce the old prejudices and to break new ground.

Dr Wolfgang Ritter

ritter@bienengesundheit.de