>
> All great points, Bob!



>
> >The first real genetics to help commercial beekeepers *in my opinion* came
> with the Australian import.
> Crossed with our Italians they produced hybrid vigor, flew earlier in the
> morning and even will fly in a light rain.


The Aussie bees often put on their main honey crops during winter in cool
weather, since that's when Eucalyptus blooms.  I watched Trevor
Weatherhead's bees a couple of weeks ago, in the dead of winter, whitening
comb and ripening honey--in cool weather.

>
>
> >To be honest we loved the bees we had before mites. The arrival of the
> mites
> culled many of our best lines. Varroa culled hard some of our best lines
> gone forever.


Bob, this fact has not been stressed enough.  I lost my best lines of bees,
and have since only ocassionally seen any to match.

>
> >Beekeepers want these queens but do not want to pay extra for such queens.


There is little percentage in it for any breeder nowadays.  Breeding for
resistant bees must be a labor of love or of challenge.


>In a COMMERCIAL setting when the hive is being moved from one pollination
to
another and placed on up to five flows in a season there is not a bee on the
planet which can survive varroa without chemicals in my opinion!

I'm sure trying to find this bee too, Bob!  That's why I do not sell queens
commercially--I have not yet found a line of bees that I am happy with,
despite bringing in stock from all over.  I need bees that build up huge for
almonds, then can recover from heavy splitting, and still make at least two
honey crops or pollinations afterward, and then winter well. Before varroa,
I had bees that would do so.

I have just set up an isolated yard of pure Russians, of several queenlines,
to give them a fair shake for several years.  I will run them as a group,
and return them all to the same yards for matings.

However, I am still optimistic, and find that overall varroa tolerance of
various lines is improving.  This year I again purchased breeders from
various survivor stocks, and will be following their progress.

Randy Oliver

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned 
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html