Laurence Edwards checks a small-cell bee colony in its first year without varroa treatments. No visible disease or deformed wing virus. One frame of chalk brood and some bald brood, which Edwards reads as a sign of varroa-sensitive hygiene rather than a problem.
But I'm not seeing any issue kind of with the bees in terms of their buildup, and I'm not seeing any disease. I'm not seeing any deformed wing virus. So at the moment, it looks like the bees are managing it well. But for me, for this colony here, this is just the first year of no treatment. So we'll just have to monitor that and see how we get on. Right, I've taken down the 2 cells on this frame, but look at that brood. Absolutely beautiful brood. See if you can spot the single frame of chalk brood and a tiny bit of bald brood in there as well. Now, bald brood can indicate wax moth issues. It can also indicate VSH tendencies, so varroa-sensitive hygiene. I'm not looking at that and thinking, oh, that's an issue. I'm looking at that and thinking, oh, that's a potential trait for these bees, and that they're good at cleaning out the varroa, and the bald brood is maybe a byproduct of that. I'm no expert, but I'm not looking at that and seeing it's an issue. So you can definitely see why they swarmed.
