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Breeding Varroa-Resistant Buckfast Bees in Russia

Writer's picture: Konstantin TregubenkoKonstantin Tregubenko

Landing in the editor’s inbox this month was mail from an international subscriber – Konstantin Tregubenko, who keeps 40 beehives in the Krasnodar region in the South of Russia. Despite a mild winter, snow is currently dusting Tregubenko’s hives and so he takes the opportunity to introduce himself, explains some of the peculiarities to keeping bees in Russia, and how he has been undertaking promising efforts to breed a line of varroa-resistant Buckfast honey bees.

By Konstantin Tregubenko

Kia ora dear colleagues and like-minded friends!

Russian beekeeper Konstantin Tregubenko removes honey from a beehive in a warmer time of the year than the current mid-winter conditions.
Russian beekeeper Konstantin Tregubenko removes honey from a beehive in a warmer time of the year than the current mid-winter conditions.

Greetings from distant Russia where one day it is 15°c and the next a snow flurry at -2°c comes through. Today, I’d like to share my beekeeping journey – from my first childhood experiences to today, where caring for bees has become not only a way of life, but also my contribution to preserving nature.

I first became acquainted with bees when I was a small child. My relatives had five colonies and when we came to visit I really enjoyed watching them, how they brought pollen, how they worked on flowers... even then I knew that one day I would become a beekeeper. But the path to this dream took more than 20 years.

In 2014, at the age of 26, I finally got my first bees. There was very little information at that time, and I had to look for it bit by bit. Every day I devoted a couple of hours to self-education. At that time there was a local population of bees in my region, very swarming and vicious. Sometimes I even had to run away from the hive! It wasn’t without its benefits though – it made more than 150 queen cells at a time.

By 2017, I managed to buy an artificially inseminated, Buckfast queen bee. This event radically changed my understanding of beekeeping. I never thought that bees could be like this – with excellent development, honey production, good honeycomb construction and a reduced swarming instinct. And also with a very, very gentle character. It was love at first sight.

This colony remained in my memory as a standard bee. For me, it seemed ideal, except for one thing – it attracted varroa like a magnet. Then there was a stage when I bought genetics from different breeders and compared them in my apiary. And then I decided for myself that I needed to master artificial insemination in order to maintain good combinations.

So, in 2021 I did my first artificial insemination and a new world with new opportunities opened up for me. Due to the peculiarities of honey bee mating, controlling which drones mate with your queens is extremely difficult. We need to know which colony is maternal and which colonies are paternal. Without controlled mating, this cannot be achieved and breeding work cannot be built. Knowing who the paternal colonies and maternal ones are through artificial insemination, we can now evaluate them.


Despite an unusually mild winter in Krasnodar region in the south of Russia, Konstantin Tregubenko’s beehives were dusted with snow mid-January.
Despite an unusually mild winter in Krasnodar region in the south of Russia, Konstantin Tregubenko’s beehives were dusted with snow mid-January.
Look closely and you can assess the colony strength by the size of snow melt on top of these hives in the Russian winter.
Look closely and you can assess the colony strength by the size of snow melt on top of these hives in the Russian winter.

Colonies of potential Buckfast breeder queens are assessed by 14 main characteristics: vitality of bees and brood, winter hardiness, character, swarming, fertility, behavior of bees on the frame, honey yield, amount of propolis and construction of bridges between frames, hygienic behavior and resistance to varroatosis.

Each characteristic is assessed in points from 1-6, where 1 is the lowest point, and 6 is an exceptional characteristic.

The goal of breeding is to create the most balanced bee. If the bees are swarming we will not get a good honey harvest; if they are angry it will be uncomfortable to work with them and they will take too much time to maintain. Each characteristic is important for obtaining the maximum amount of harvest.

To me, colony testing is somewhat reminiscent of the excitement of sporting competitions – which colony will be the winner? There’s no gold medal, but they get to advance to breeding.

In 2022, I started working with like-minded people on breeding varroa-resistant bees. Surprisingly, no one could have imagined earlier that bees would be able to resist varroa. Now it is becoming a reality. There are not many such colonies yet, but the fact that they exist, and you can see for yourself, is very motivating for further work.

A frame of brood which has been tested for the VSH trait. Bee pupae are inspected for sign on non-reproductive varroa.
A frame of brood which has been tested for the VSH trait. Bee pupae are inspected for sign on non-reproductive varroa.

The first year of work was probably the most difficult. Due to lack of experience and knowledge, almost fifty percent of my apiaries died before the New Year... I started treating the colonies for mites too late. It was a harsh lesson.

In the second year, work was done on the mistakes, the apiary was restored and I tried to consolidate the varroa sensitive hygiene trait in my colonies as much as possible. A couple of colonies died during the winter. Now I have 30 colonies that have been living without treatment for over a year. To be honest, this is very exciting. There are still two months until the beginning of the calendar spring.

I believe that one day we will be able to forget what varroa is and focus on other aspects of beekeeping. In the meantime, we continue to learn, share experiences and inspire each other.

Wish me luck, because I hope everything will be just fine when I lift the lids again. In turn, I wish you, dear colleagues, a good season and success in your business!

If you have any questions regarding this contribution, Konstantin Tregubenko can be reached via email: p4elowood@gmail.com





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