Do not kill good mites - Ralph Büchler

We talk to bee scientist from Germany. He has been longtime head of the bee research Institute in Kirchhein. Ralph Büchler's research activities, among others, focus on the selection of western honey bees for resilience for diseases, including resistance to varroa mite. He also works with promotingalternative concepts for varroa mite control including only bio-technical management with no use of chemicals whatsoever. He is currently retired, but that does not mean he does not work with bees and is not creatively involved in scientific projects. One such is an international European program Varroaresistenz 2033 | Varroa 2033 aimed at making our bees varroa resistant within 10 years (!) - also for commercial use. Is this possible in Europe and especially in Poland?

Ralph Büchler in his apiary with bees

Polska wersja 🇵🇱. You can find more interviews in English here.

I conducted the interview with Ralph Büchler together with Bartłomiej Maleta in Cracow during the conference "Opportunities and Challenges Facing Beekeeping Organizations" in October 2024. Many thanks, Bartek, for your help! Check out his blog.

We start with Ralph's story about bees. Then we ask our guest about the beginnings of varroa in Germany, what treatments they used and we compare this situation with the one in Poland. Our guest talks about how biotechnological methods can free the bees from chemicals and combined with the associated breeding in cooperation of all beekeepers, lead to varroa-resistant bees by 2033. Is this possible in Poland? Ralph has experience with such bees in his own apiary. He is a hobbyist bee breeder, but he has also studied both bred by humans and naturally evolved populations. Bartek, on the other hand, is a strong advocate of treatment-free beekeeping in a Darwinian version. Personally, I changed my views on this topic quite a few years ago. Ralph Büchler is also skeptical about the effectiveness of such methods in Poland. So you can imagine that we had an interesting discussion. We end it with philosophical reflections on the biopower that humans exert over bees. Does human-beekeeper have too much power over bees? On one hand, Ralph considers himself a neutral scientist regarding the assessment of effective methods, while on the other hand, Christian values matter to him when it comes to responsibility for bees. Listen by Yourself, because I think it's worth it.

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