Allen writes> Moreover, the resistance is not reliably heritable.  

We could have a very interesting discussion on this. I believe that breeding bees is to a large extent an exercise in futility. At the very least, one can say that it does NOT follow the rules of breeding that apply to plants and other livestock. Insofar as disease resistance goes, it is very likely that a particular colony may be resistant due to microorganisms in that particular colony, or to behavioral factors that they have successfully developed which cannot be passed on to a colony that simply has a queen raised from a larva from that same colony. Following this logic, it may make better sense to simply divide the colony in two, and see if both halves retain the resistance. Finally, it is entirely plausible that the traits of a *particular* colony depend on just the right combination of queen and drones, which produces a distinctly unique colony that has the *right stuff*. On the other hand, there may be combinations that are particularly susceptible.

PLB

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