Hello Mr. Villa,
I read with interest your post regarding the slow adoption of mite resistant stock.
I have been a commercial queen breeder for over 25 years, out of which 3 years, I spent in the USA working for queen companies at both California and Georgia.
Given my commercial background, my perspective is obviously different than yours. Over these years selling queens domestically and exporting them to many foreign countries, I came to the conclusion that it is not neither realistic nor possible to impose a strain of bees on any customer.
Commercial beekeepers are far from being feeble minded. First of all, they need to stay in business and to make money. To do so, they will use a honeybee strain that meets their productive goals.
According to my experience, most genetic stocks advertised as mite resistant are indeed so. However, they are resistant at the expense of other valuable traits demanded to run a profitable bee business.
A commercial beekeeper today must have quite strong colonies to pollinate almonds by early February in the northern hemisphere. Nevertheless, mite resistant stocks are poor brooders. Of course, lack of brood or a scarce amount of it will mean lower mite infestation levels.
However, if a beekeeper adopts such stock, he/she will not be able to rent his bees for pollination. Do you understand now why beekeepers are reluctant to demand such mite resistant stock?
I could go on with further examples of beekeepers who tried to produce decent crops of honey with these bees getting awful results. These bees seldom reach population levels of over 60,000 workers.
At the end, it makes more sense to treat for mites and to make money than not treating and going bankrupt. I wish researchers devote part of their time not only to raise resistant stock, but to find alternative and effective mite treatments.
Sincerely,
Martin Braunstein
www.malkaqueens.com
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