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The story of Avignon and survivor bees is often brought up in natural and treatment-free beekeeping circles as an example of resilience and adaptation. Here’s the background:

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The Avignon Beekeepers

In the Avignon region of southern France, a group of beekeepers resisted the heavy use of chemical treatments against Varroa destructor that became widespread across Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. While most commercial operations relied on miticides to keep colonies alive, these Avignon beekeepers allowed natural selection to work in their apiaries, even at the cost of losing large numbers of colonies in the beginning.

The Die-off and the Survivors

Initially, the losses were severe, much like the dire warnings you hear today when people argue against treatment-free beekeeping. Many colonies collapsed, leaving only the strongest with traits that allowed them to survive in spite of Varroa pressure. Over time, however, these survivor colonies adapted, and their genetics stabilized within the local population.

Why It Matters

The Avignon example is often cited to show that:

• Natural selection can work, even in managed settings, if beekeepers allow it.

• Colonies can develop mite tolerance and resistance traits such as increased grooming, hygienic behavior, and shorter brood cycles.

• What was initially feared to be the end of beekeeping in that area actually created a stronger, more resilient bee population.

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Lessons for Beekeepers

The Avignon story illustrates both the cost and the potential of treatment-free management:

• Yes, there is usually an initial crash when treatments are withdrawn.

• But once those losses are absorbed, the surviving colonies form the foundation of a self-sustaining, resilient stock.

• It stands in contrast to the chemical treadmill where colonies remain dependent on treatments and resistant mites evolve anyway.

Would you like me to also give you examples of scientific follow-up studies on the Avignon survivor bees (there have been a few genetic and behavioral studies on their resistance traits), so you can use them as references in teaching or presentations?

 

 

Key Figure: Yves Le Conte (INRA, Avignon)

The central figure in the Avignon survivor-bees story is Yves Le Conte, who emerged as a pioneer in studying bees that survived Varroa mite infestations without treatments:

• Le Conte, an entomologist, began working at the French national bee research lab (INRA) in Avignon around 1990France 24+15beeculture.com+15American Bee Journal+15.

• During his early PhD years at the University of Paris in the 1980s, he focused on the emerging Varroa destructor problem, which was devastating wild and managed bee colonies across France beeculture.com+1.

• In 1993, during a visit to a farm near Le Mans, he discovered feral colonies still thriving in chestnut trees and chimneys long after Varroa had swept through the area beeculture.com+1.

• Intrigued, he established a research apiary in Avignon and collected local survivor-stock bees from beekeepers who had never treated their hives France 24+15beeculture.com+15meamcneil.com+15.

• He then launched collaborative studies (developing pheromone research, behavior, genetics, pathology) with "hundreds of collaborators" to better understand what made these bees resilient beeculture.com.

 

Other Beekeepers or Collaborators?

Based on the available literature, no specific beekeeper names (apart from Le Conte himself) have been prominently mentioned in connection with the Avignon survivor-bee movement. The documentation focuses on Le Conte's scientific efforts and mentions “beekeepers that had never treated,” but does not list their identitiesbeeculture.com+2meamcneil.com+2.

Additionally, early literature (e.g., a 1997 mention) references the INRA station near Avignon in general terms—indicating a collaborative research environment—but again, names are not provided Apis Information Resource Center.

 

Summary

• Primary figure: Yves Le Conte (researcher at INRA Avignon), who recognized and studied survivor colonies starting in the early 1990s.

• Beekeepers involved: Unidentified local beekeepers who refrained from treating their hives and whose bees survived Varroa—but no names are publicly documented.

 

Would you like help finding academic papers authored by Le Conte or others on this topic? Or perhaps you'd like examples of well-known survivor-stock beekeeping programs in other regions, such as Gotland (Sweden) or unmanaged feral populations?

 

 

Papers

Avignon survivor-bees: core papers

• Le Conte et al., 2007, Apidologie. Original Avignon study. Identified untreated survivor colonies near Le Mans and around Avignon, then tracked their performance. Some survived 11+ years without treatment, average 6.54 years. Annual mortality of survivors was not significantly different from treated controls across 7 years, though honey yield was lower. Authors and affiliations listed the INRA Avignon team and collaborators. Academia

• Locke, Le Conte, Crauser, Fries, 2012, Ecology and Evolution. Avignon and Gotland compared. Shows host adaptations that cut mite reproductive success. Avignon had particularly high rates of infertile mites. Wiley Online LibraryEurope PMC

• Martin et al., 2001, Physiological Entomology. Early Avignon work on behavior and electroantennography. Survivor bees showed stronger antennal responses to Varroa-related compounds, consistent with more effective detection and removal of infested brood. Academia

• Navajas et al., 2008, BMC Genomics. Gene expression differences tied to tolerance. In Avignon survivors, genes linked to olfactory cognition and neuronal excitability were upregulated, a plausible basis for improved detection of infested brood. BioMed Central+1

• Mondet et al., 2020, Int. Journal for Parasitology. Broad review with Avignon as a key naturally selected population, alongside Gotland and Arnot. Summarizes multiple resistance mechanisms and the multi-trait nature of survival. ResearchGateScienceDirectBVS Saúde

• Hernández-Rodríguez et al., 2021, Scientific Reports. Across several resistant populations including Avignon, higher recapping of infested cells correlates with lower mite reproductive success. Useful mechanistic reference. Nature

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