SBGMI Presents: Troy Hall of Hall Apiaries, Coming Back from the Brink-Commercial TF Beekeeping

In the spring of 2021 Troy lost 90 percent of his apiary. He will share his thoughts around what caused the collapse and how he built back up to his former colony numbers and then some. Is there something new out there in the ether? Can we continue to keep bees without treatments?
Troy is from Plainfield, NH. He manages 650 colonies. 300 to produce honey and 350 nucleus colonies to overwinter for replacement and sale. He raises over 1200 queens in a season. The back bone of his apiary is queen breeding. In particular to mite resistant queens through natural and open mating without treatments for mites in aid for selection.
Checkout The Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of Michigan: www.sbgmi.org
Checkout the Michigan Treatment Free Beekeepers Facebook Group: / mitreatmentfreebeekeepers
Need Free Honey Bee Swarm Removal: www.mibeeswarmremoval.com

[@aCanadianBeekeepersBlog]

Loved the kid interruption ! You guys are genuine

[@sbgmimedia]

they make sure to keep us humble!

[@moebees3060]

So this is basically a talk about how a treatment free beekeeper became a chemical treatment beekeeper. Wonderful.

[@farmer998]

your thoughts on mite tolerance is spot on what I think has happened is that with the failure of the treatments that are being used indicates to me that we are raising (stronger)super mites and weaker bees (to the mites) by using treatments the mites that survive are stronger and make mites that are more tolerant to the treatments being used and bees that are weaker to the mites along with there offspring but more tolerant to the treatments we need stronger bees and weaker mites. treatments are not the answer. we are just making our job harder in the future when we will have to do something drastic to accomplish our goal.

[@18Yoav]

Completely agree…beekeeping has turned into mite breeding

[@lambbrookfarm4528]

This is the second of your presentations that I have viewed. Thanks for posting. Troy spoke at my home association, the Winnipesaukee Beekeepers Association this fall. Take care and be well. Brice

[@18Yoav]

Hi Troy. We used to meet yearly at Kirk Websters apiary when we drove in from Canada. Sorry to hear about what you've been through losses like that are like an existential crisis. I hope we can catch up soon and talk about what we're doing different.

[@beefitbeekeeping]

Great video, thanks for posting! ♥️

[@sbgmimedia]

Thanks Emily. Good to see other Michigan beeks popping in! :)

[@farmer998]

quickest way of getting VSH is to saturate your area with VSH drones you know how to do that

[@moebees3060]

Why is it that they are always apologizing for being treatment free and the default is to poison the bees and ourselves with chemicals. It's absolutely insane!