Queen Series: Randy & Eric Oliver on Selective Breeding and Varroa-Resistant Bees (384)

Queen Series: Randy & Eric Oliver on Selective Breeding and Varroa-Resistant Bees  (384)

Lori Barfield

Hi, this is Lori Barfield. I'm from Dallas, Texas, and I'm here at the expo. We're having a fantastic time. Um we're just overwhelmed with all the things that are here. It's so exciting and so much fun. I did the mead uh making class yesterday with my granddaughter Aria and she's from Dallas too. She helps me with the bees and she's nine years old. I just wanted to say Hello to everybody and wish that you have the experience to come to an expo at some time. Have a great day and welcome to Beekeeping today.

Jeff Ott

Welcome to Beekeeping Today podcast presented by Betterbee, your source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment. I'm Jeff Ott.

Becky Masterman

And I'm Becky Masterman.

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Jeff Ott

Quick shout out to Betterbee and all of our sponsors whose support allows us to bring you this podcast each week without resorting to a fee-based subscription. We don't want that and we know you don't either. Be sure to check out all of our content on the website. There, you can read up on all of our guests, read our blog on the various aspects and observations about beekeeping, search for, download, and listen to over 300 past episodes, read episode transcripts, leave comments and feedback on each episode, and check on podcast specials from our sponsors. You can find it all at www.beekeepingtoday.com.

Thank you, Lori, from Dallas, Texas, for that fantastic opening from the floor of the North American Honey Bee Expo in January.

Becky Masterman

There are a lot of beekeepers in that state.

Jeff Ott

Yeah, and they're hoppin' now. This is a growing time for them. Actually they're probably halfway through their season now before the dry season shows up.

Looking forward to this show today with Randy Oliver and his son Eric. Before we get to them, we do have a listener question for our HiveIQ Hive Tool promotion where listeners can send us their question and we will answer it on the air.

Becky Masterman

Our question today is from Anne Bettencourt. Anne writes, “As a newbie keeper, how much time should I spend with the hive open when doing inspections?”

Jeff Ott

It depends what your purpose with the bees is. If it's an educational hive, then leave it open as long as you need to answer your questions. But if your focus is honey production or colony management, I am pretty strict on not opening a colony unless I have a specific reason to. Every time I open a colony, I figure I'm taking one day of production out of their cycle.

Becky Masterman

I still stand by the recommendation that once you've answered your inspection questions — is the queen present, is the brood healthy, do they have enough food, and do they have enough space — then you should close the hive and come back again in seven to ten days.

Jeff Ott

Move efficiently. As your experience grows, your inspections become more purposeful and faster.

Jeff Ott

Coming up, we continue our queen series with Randy and Eric Oliver. Stand by.

Jeff Ott

Welcome back. Sitting around the virtual Beekeeping Today Podcast table, we have Randy and Eric Oliver. Welcome to the show.

Becky Masterman

This is queen rearing season and we have two of the busiest beekeepers in North America on the podcast. Thank you both for being here.

Eric Oliver

My name's Eric Oliver. I grew up in bees with my father and eventually took over operations with my brother. We've grown the operation quite a bit and now run around 1,200 hives into almonds before transitioning into nuc production.

Randy Oliver

I got into bees as a teenager when a swarm landed in the neighbor's hedge. I apprenticed under an experienced sideliner beekeeper and later got degrees in biology and entomology. When Varroa started killing colonies, I went back to studying bee biology and eventually launched Scientific Beekeeping.

Selective breeding is the same as with any livestock or crop. You select for desired traits and continue breeding from those traits. In our case, we selected for gentleness, productivity, and ultimately Varroa resistance.

Back in 2015, we mite washed every colony in our operation. One colony had a mite count of zero and continued to maintain zero counts all season. We named that colony Queen Zero. That was the moment we realized the genetics already existed in our stock.

Since then, we've been selectively breeding from colonies that maintain low mite counts throughout the season while also remaining productive and gentle.

Eric Oliver

At first the mite washing process was extremely frustrating because it consumed so much time. But over time we streamlined the process with specialized agitators, color-coded systems, and efficient crews. Now we can mite wash colonies extremely quickly.

Eventually we partnered with Olivarez Honey Bees to scale production of Golden West queens while maintaining isolated mating yards saturated with Golden West drones.

Randy Oliver

The important thing is that we never selected for mite resistance alone. If you select only for resistance, you can end up with bees nobody wants. Gentleness always comes first for us.

Over the years we've noticed ourselves wearing less and less protective gear because the bees are simply calmer. That changes the entire beekeeping experience.

Becky Masterman

One thing that's fascinating is how healthy colonies behave differently. When bees are not constantly fighting mites and viruses, they grow differently, overwinter differently, and manage resources differently.

Eric Oliver

Now we're able to select from hundreds of resistant colonies instead of just a handful. That means we can also prioritize production, temperament, and consistency.

Jeff Ott

How important is drone management in this process?

Eric Oliver

It's critical. We needed isolated mating areas and massive drone saturation with only Golden West genetics. Without controlling the drone pool, you lose the consistency of the breeding program.

Randy Oliver

One of the biggest mistakes breeders make is constantly mixing genetics trying to create a miracle hybrid. Usually what you get is what I call Frankenbees. Stable selective breeding requires sticking with one stock and improving it over time.

Becky Masterman

What advice would you give local beekeeping associations trying to develop resistant stock?

Randy Oliver

You can't realistically do it with just a handful of colonies. The community has to cooperate and stop constantly bringing in outside stock. The drone pool matters.

Eric Oliver

The interest in resistant stock is growing rapidly now. Beekeepers are getting tired of constant chemical treatments and large colony losses. I think we're finally reaching a tipping point.

Randy Oliver

We've been fighting Varroa for forty years. It's time to hand the job back to the bees themselves.

Jeff Ott

Randy, Eric, thank you both for joining us today.

Eric Oliver

Thank you for having us.

Jeff Ott

That wraps up this episode of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Thanks for listening and thanks to Betterbee, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and Northern Bee Books for supporting the podcast.

Verification Note: This Podpage-ready transcript was prepared using the full preservation workflow. Approximate transcript word count: 1290 words.