The Accidental Treatment-Free Beekeeper

My Awesome Dad!
Gardner Vaughn

I have been actively keeping honey bees for 4 years now. This is not my first exposure to beekeeping though. I want to tell you the story of how I became a beekeeper, but at the same time I want to tell you how I became a treatment-free beekeeper and why I remain treatment-free. My story may resonate with a few, may stir up anger in others, and may just be boring to others. Yet, its my story nonetheless.
My story starts with my grandpa on my mom's side. He bought himself a Langstroth Hive and some frames and foundation back in the mid to late 70s. He ordered himself a package of bees and viola he became a beekeeper. That lasted maybe a year, but I'm not sure it even lasted that long. The bees either died or absconded and that was the end of his beeking.
My grandpa's attempt apparently inspired my dad because the next year my he was buying a book, a box, frames and foundation. I recall helping (watching) him assemble the components to his new hobby. He would tell me things he had learned in his book about the bees. I found much of it very compelling, but I really wondered if my dad was only interested in the bees as a way to "one-up" his father-in-law. Dad never would confirm nor deny my suspicion even when I became an adult. Still, I believe it was a friendly competition in my dad's mind.
I was 10 or 11 years old at the time. I, like my dad had a real fear for things that sting....I still do actually. I believe that this fear may have been another of the reasons dad got interested in keeping the stinging monsters. As kind of a therapy to aid in overcoming his fear of the sting. I never got around to asking him, but I do know that it was a huge part of the reason I began beekeeping. It hasn't worked fully yet, but I retain hope!
Anyway, let me get back on track here.
Dad got his book finished and also finished building and painting his hive. Then after what seemed a lifetime, dad's package of bees arrived at the post office. To mom's dismay, dad was not able to leave work and pick up the bees and the post office was very demanding that someone get up there and get them. So she and I took a trip to the post office to grab the bees in our family station wagon. She put the screened package of bees in the back of the car and we headed towards the house. Now, I have no idea how the bees got out other than to say Murphy's Law came into play, but get out they did! I was so terrified!! I was begging mom to let me out and let me walk the rest of the way home. She would have none of that. Thankfully we made it home without a sting. Thankful because I was on the verge of jumping from the moving car, had I gotten a sting that may have actually happened.
Shortly after we got home with the bees dad got home from work. I don't remember what exchange may have taken place between dad and mom, but dad quickly got on his bee suit and proceeded to shake the bees in the hive body.
Fast forward a few days. I had been going to the hive a watching the bees everyday after school, but this particular day I saw the bees in a ball on a limb above the hive. I knew this was not a good thing so I went home a told mom. She called dad's job and he came home. But they were gone. All of them.
A couple of years later dad tried again with a similar outcome. We never really knew why. But he gave up never to try again.
So, what does all of this have to do with why I became an accidental treatment-free beekeeper? Well, in 2015 I asked dad if he still had the books from his days of beekeeping. All he had was a book he had copied onto copy paper with a xerox copier and a staple in the corner of the papers. It was called Beekeeping for Beginners. Catchy title huh!? In that book it told all about buying a Langstroth Hive, how to put it together, paint it, buy frames and put them together with foundation, and all sorts of other things I needed to know. It even told me to be careful of the dreaded trachea mite that was gonna kill of the world's bee population.
So with all of that information from that book printed in 1973 I went in search of bees. I had not done any other research on bees. I found a guy a couple of hours from me who was selling complete hives of bees for $275. I call him up and get directions to his house, drive there at night and buy the bees. Instantly I are a beekeeper!
Now mind you, I'm the kind of guy that gets an idea in his head, starts doing said idea, and then starts trying to learn how to do said idea properly. Yes, I am backwards! Always have been. That being said, it is at the point of purchasing a hive and having them in my backyard that I start learning all about bees from the internet. I start watching YouTube videos and reading articles about bees. All of these people keep talking about mites and how they are going to kill all the world's bees. I remember reading about that same thing in the book I got from dad. 45 years after that book was printed the bees were still around so I didn't get overly concerned. Then I read on Michael Bush's website that we had figured out years ago how to keep our bees from getting tracheal mites by using natural size comb in the brood chamber. So suddenly I became an expert on treating for mites. Tracheal mites that is. But then I started hearing every now and then about Varroa mites. Honestly, for two years I ignored the word Varroa everytime I heard or read it because in my mind I assumed that it was just the scientific term for the tracheal mites. Yep, that the kind of guy I am (LOL).
For those who don't know, Varroa was not an issue in the U.S.A. until the mid to late 1980s. I don't really know when the exact moment was or what the exact statement was that made me realize that Varroa and tracheal mites are two totally different monsters, but my reaction to that dilemma was, "well, if my bees haven't already died maybe they don't have mites." So I learned how to check for mites. Yep, my bees had mites. By now I was into my third season and had not killed my bees by not treating them for Varroa.  I have been making splits each year and I know that some people will say that doing so is doing a treatment. Maybe so, but they do that treatment naturally if allowed, I just do it in a controlled way as not to lose the bees.
As far as losing bees, I have had a few losses. This winter I lost 3 of 12 colonies. Two of them I lost because I tried to make a couple of two frame mating nucs in September to see if they would overwinter that late. They didn't. The other was a two frame walk-away split I did the same day. It didn't make it either.
So far the losses I have had were not from anything but my own experiments it seems.
I am continuing my treatment-free beekeeping stance at this time. For me it has been working. I guess ignorance is bliss. We all have to keep our bees in the best way we know how. I don't fault anyone who puts chemicals in their hive for the protection of their bees. However, I am glad that I didn't learn this from the beginning. It is late January 2020 and I currently have 9 colonies. I am only worried about one of them because the hive was turned over in a strong wind last week and they appear to be queenless because of it. Not only that, but it was rained in heavily that night. There are plenty of bees in that box, but they are loud and angry. I will let you know in a later post whether that colony requeens itself or not.
Thank you for taking the time to read, and thanks dad for accidentally making me a treatment-free beekeeper. I love and miss you very much!