Justin said, "What ability does the average beekeeper have to contribute to this?"

I think by and large you are correct that major break thrus in mite tolerance or resistance will not come from the small breeder for exactly the reasons you suggest.  But still there are a few things you should consider.  First, progress will likely come on the back of those stains that today show some promise such as MH, VSH or Russians.  So, if bee keepers would strive to maintain those bees at least there is some back ground genetics generally spread around and given time those traits are going to work their way into ferals and result in some overall improvement.  Perhaps if nothing else reducing the incidence of mite bombs.  Second, if there is some single valuable mutation that would be a significant step forwards added to what we have today that mutation can happen anyplace.  If anyone sees some hive that seems to perform exceptionally with regard to mites getting some of that genetics into the hands of people like Latshaw who has massive numbers of hives and who is in the business of testing resistance is important.

Example:  I know a treatment free fellow who seems to do quite well yet he has very high mite counts that in my hives would result in hive death over winter for sure.  So, does he have some good virus resistance genes that allow his bees to tolerate his high mite load?  Or does he just happen to live in a place where local conditions allow him to do what he does?  Without skilled testing it is pure guess work.

I am puzzled by my own bees.  I run MH queens I raise mainly from a II breeder queen.  I do have four or five MH queens purchased as open mated queens from two breeders besides the guy that produced the II queen I am using to reduce inbreeding.  Both last year and this year I whacked every hive in mid March with a single strip or apivar.  Last fall in Sept my mite counts were zero to 2% so I did not do a fall mite treatment and had excellent winter survival.  I just washed several hives last week.  Again this year I am seeing zero to 2%.  Yet, I read over and over about people on this group that see fall mite counts jumping like mad.  I am not really convinced my fall counts are the result of the MH genetics.  It could be something else.  And, I am not willing to go run two or three local feral swarms of bees in my hives to do even a rough cross check to see if it is the MH that is helping or is it local conditions.  I have run enough local ferals to know they have major mite issues and high winter deaths untreated and really do not want to repeat the experiment and risk exposing my hives to mite bombs and more feral drones to mate with my queens.  As you said it is enough problem to just get rid of unproductive queens.  And, I sure do see quite a range in productivity.  Some hives seem to have enough population but somehow it does not result in much excess honey.

Dick


" Any discovery made by the human mind can be explained in its essentials to the curious learner."  Professor Benjamin Schumacher talking about teaching quantum mechanics to non scientists.   "For every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong."  H. L. Mencken

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