Neil Keeble, owner of Little Feat Apiaries and secretary of the British Columbian Bee Breeders Association rears local queens and nucleus hives to sell in Revelstoke. Varroa mites are the largest pathogenic threat to honeybee health and transmit viruses, such as deformed wing virus (DWV), that shorten bee lifespans and lead to colony collapse. The Varroa mite has nearly wiped out wild honeybee populations in Europe and North America, but some small subpopulations have survived without mite control, showing that bees can be bred to be resistant to the mites and associated viruses.
This led to the creation of the Southern BC LVG (Low Varroa Growth) Program, founded on the belief that selective breeding is the long-term solution for controlling Varroa mite infestations and DWV infections in honeybee colonies. The program’s goal was to identify honeybee populations within participating breeders’ stock that exhibit resistance to Varroa growth rates to inform future selective breeding. To meet this goal, Little Feat Apiaries applied for funding through the Bee BC Program, allowing participating breeders to purchase equipment for evaluating Varroa growth and high performing LVG queens from the University of Guelph.
The equipment included orbital shakers, which are used in a technique called mite washing. In this method, bees are collected in a container with a solution and shaken to dislodge the mites attached to the bees to be counted. Additionally, Varroa-Nator screen boards were used to monitor mite levels by allowing mites to naturally fall off the bees, preventing them from returning to the hive and ensuring more accurate counting for further assessment. The queens from the University of Guelph served as comparisons for evaluating their stock and provided the opportunity to breed, helping to spread their desirable traits.
The equipment allowed the program to evaluate and identify the top 5% highest performing LVG colonies. The results from this were used to make informed decisions about which colonies to breed from. Neil Keeble presented the program at the BC Bee Breeders Field Day, introducing the concept of ‘Low Varroa Growth’ to over 40 provincial breeders. The program provided valuable insights into the potential of selective breeding for creating honeybee colonies resistant to Varroa mites, offering a path toward sustainable beekeeping practices and healthier honeybee populations.
“The beekeepers involved in the ‘Southern BC LVG Program’ have been discussing the long term solution to Varroa through selective breeding for a few seasons now. The Bee BC funding that was provided to us was the foundation we needed to launch the program and give us the financial support to purchase all the equipment. Selective breeding requires years of constant work, but now the process has been started we hope to build on it each year and improve our stock.”
