Peter asks:  Where is your area?

Jackson County located in the northeast corner of Alabama.

If you look at the satellite view of the county on Google Maps you will see that the majority of the landscape is wooded and it has the Tennessee River running through it.  I believe that the large expanses of wooded lands along with exceptional floral diversity have provided the opportunity for a feral population to become adaptive to varroa.  I feel the chances are pretty good that this is taking place all through the southernmost part of the Cumberland Plateau.

Another factor I feel has been helpful with respect to our local population making strides with respect to adapting to varroa are the Alabama Apiary Laws, which prohibit the shipment and movement of bees into the state.

"Section 2-14-4

Honeybees shipped or moved into state to be accompanied by certificate of inspection; packaging requirements for shipment or movement of honeybees into state generally; shipment or movement of bees in packages or cages containing honey.
(a) All honeybees shipped or moved into the State of Alabama shall be accompanied by a certificate of inspection, signed by the apiary inspector or other official performing similar duties of the state or country from which shipment is made, certifying that the bees and the combs and hives from which the bees were taken have been inspected by such official and that said bees, their combs and hives are apparently free from contagious and infectious diseases. The inspection provided for in this section shall be based upon an actual examination of the bees and their combs and hives, such examination or inspection to be made during brood-rearing and within a period of 60 days preceding the date of shipment. The inspection certificate required under this section shall be attached to each parcel or package of each shipment or movement in a conspicuous place, plainly written. All shipments or movements of honeybees into the State of Alabama shall be in combless packages only, and shipments or movements of honeybees into this state in violation of the requirements of this section shall be unlawful.

(b) It shall also be unlawful to ship or move into, within or out of the state a queen bee or other bees in packages or cages that contain food, any part of which is honey.

(Acts 1965, No. 794, p. 1488, §3.)”

from:  http://agi.alabama.gov/divisions/plant-protection/alabama-apiary-laws

Because of this law we do not have large holding yards being used by migratory beekeepers for overwintering in our state.  This may be reducing the opportunity for the spreading of pests and pathogens while at the same time decreasing the influence of non adapted genetics. 

Another area in which similar successes are being reported with mite-surving bees exhibiting good survival and honey production is the Ozark Mountain regions of Arkansas and Missouri, (personal communications with beekeepers in those areas). I don’t know about their state laws, but I would expect that region to be too far north to be suitable for migratory overwintering.  

My main purpose for reaching out to the scientific community is because all I have to offer is the field reality of what we are experiencing here, and as compelling as I may find that, nothing could replace experts taking an objective look at what is going on.  The hope is that if there is something special taking place here, then perhaps it could be parlayed into something for benefit to beekeeping at large.

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