alt Hacker News> We would still sometimes treat for varroa, but making it easier for the bees to handle varroa how they had evolved to was the first line of defence
I thought this was very dependent on the species -- European honeybees did not evolve to deal with varroa mites, because the mites originated in Asia. Asian honeybees, and honeybees bred with them, do have better ways of dealing with the mite; you said regular Italian bees, were they really not hybridized?
I don't have any actual field experience here, just curious!
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kaikai • today at 6:05 PM
One of the characteristics bee breeders look for is hygiene- more hygienic bees will remove more of their own mites. It’s not entirely dependent on the type of bee.
I don't really know the bee science, but a) our bees were just the generic European bees and b) the bees on sentinel duty at the hive entrance were pretty good at noticing whatever didn't belong. Varroa mites are very noticeable, especially at the bee scale.
That said, varroa absolutely could overwhelm a colony. Then you had to report it, burn the infected colonies and wait for the inspectors. Not fun.