Joe is a long term non treatment beekeeper currently running a conservation project covering 90 free living colony nest sites in woodland and urban areas local to him. He has developed a simplistic technique to hunt free living colonies and works alongside Prof. Grace McCormack’s Galway Honeybee Research Centre for monitoring and research. As part of the Varroaresistant.uk team, he uses his knowledge of free-living colonies to encourage natural selection and natural dynamics alongside colony management in National hives to select for varroa resistance and self-reliant colonies adapted to his location.