Hello Garret & All,

>One thing that I see in my small apiary is it is pretty easy to work around
>the varroa and not need any treatments. I wouldn't say that they are
>resistant more like somewhat tolerant as long as I stick with the bees'
>natural cycles and processes.

I spent *years* testing hives for varroa tolerance. I had hives which you
could say were alive but were in a small cluster. I had one hive which
survived for around 4 years but I had to give the hive sealed frames of 
honey
to survive over winter.

My point is that *dinks* are worthless (and a liability) in a commercial
operation. In a test yard I tolerate and document.

I was taught by Dann Purvis about "added varroa pressure". What he used to
find varroa tolerant bees and what I went to using. Adding varroa infested
comb to bring the varroa load up simulates the pressure involved in
commercial beekeeping. Few survivor hives would survive. In a test of NWC
queens one survived out of 38.  The average ran about the same for most
*claimed varroa tolerant bees* *except* the Russian bee. The Russian bee and
Purvis Gold line bee did the best.
I tested some varroa tolerant Italian queens from Italy ( sent by way of
Australia) and they did not do any better than the others.

My conclusion was that a truly varroa tolerant bee *from U.S. stock* will
only be found by adding varroa pressure ( as Purvis did).  Our Italian &
Carniolan genetics as so mixed both so called lines are hard to breed true
with.

I have done many posts on the subject (in the archives) but not for a long
time.

Dann Purvis has the resources to come up with the varroa tolerant bee.

He is an expert on instrumental insemination (II). I personally shipped Dann
*claimed varroa tolerant queens* from Italy,France & England. Dann went to
Australia to install a II breeding setup and teach the employees of Browns
Bees to run a closed breeding system ( as used by Sue Cobey & Purvis) .
Terry Brown took my advice and brought Dann to Australia.

I applaud those like yourself Garret trying to free yourself from treatments
and will (if my health holds) test a queen or two with added varroa pressure
but the survivor is rare and in the case of Italian & carniolan bees the
offspring are usually not as varroa tolerant as the parent.

Control of drone source is a must in bee breeding so to be really serious
about bee breeding II is needed.

In the future I expect U.S. bees will become more and more varroa tolerant
thanks to the Baton Rouge Bee lab research. The same system they use (II) is
used by a handful of U.S. bee breeders but *for now* the addition of those
genetics keep needing brought in by beekeepers.

The Russian bee has been such a boost to those wanting to go treatment free.
The only drawback (personal experience) is you need to keep the Russian line
as pure as possible. Every attempt to change some of the traits I do not
care for about those bees by using outside the line genetics drops the good
traits of the bee. Most Russian breeders realize this and are trying to
improve the line by selection *within the line.*

II is really needed instead of open mating which most Russian queen breeders
use.

Dann Purvis is so good at II he can inseminate a queen in a few minutes. So
fast it takes several people popping drones ( for semen) to keep up with
Dann.
My eyes are failing so my days of II and grafting are about done.

The industry has a need for replacements for Sue Cobey, Marla Spivak & Dann
Purvis.

I will give you the formula for success.

By the book "Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding" by Harry Laidlaw & Robert Page"
Everything you need is in the book.

Take a II course from Sue Cobey
(or several as Dann Purvis did)

Buy the equipment Sue recommends.

A steady hand with excellent vision is best.

>Last year I bought two outside nucs on June 1st to add variety to the mix.
>By the end of Sept they were dead due to Varroa.

Did you test varroa load at all? With high varroa load come virus issues. If
the nucs crashed because of high varroa infestation then most likely the
nucs were made up with brood from hives with a high infestation which would
point to varroa. *If* was the case then most likely you should have been
able to find quite a bit of varroa in the newly arrived drone comb in the
nucs.

A really bad practice I have seen is commercial beekeepers making up nucs
from their *dink* colonies. A beekeeper south of me purchased 150 of these
from a Arkansas beekeeper returning from almonds. The hives are not
expanding and produced no honey.(personal conversation this morning with the
beekeeper)
 Those two were good friends but not now although the purchase price was
adjusted the beek which got the nucs still came up on the short end.

Good luck with your bees!

bob

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