Hi All

I just love it when Bee-L turns to issues where folk exchange experiences and learn together.  The mix of expertise and experience here, and the willingness to be open, is what makes this list great.

Bob, you said: 'If all beekeepers made an effort to control nosema than we would gain ground.'

I wonder.  Everything I read about Nosema ceranae tells of a rampaging epidemic which pops up due to factors we don't understand and rips through apiaries and whole operations like a forest fire.  Yes, sure, people have to treat to at least try to stay in business.  Yes, if your neighbours keep things under control you might benefit.  Yes, fumigation of comb - carefully if you're using a strong acid - may be necessary.  But would coordinated treatment really hold back such an apparently virulent pathogen?  It was tried here (UK) for Varroa (as most places I guess), a more slowly spreading and less virulent pest, and didn't work.

The long-term solution for Varroa, simply put, is complex but includes breeding from survivors.  Maybe your own survivors, or those from a local forest, or the VSH survivors that Harbo and Harris first identified, or the survivors in Primorski that were shipped to the US and developed for your queen and package industry. 

Same for tracheal mites - in the UK not a serious problem because our bees are descended from the survivors.

If N. ceranae is such a virulent pathogen then treatment is even less likely to hold it at bay in any long-term sustainable way.  Breeding from survivors has to be the key.

I forget who it was, but one operation at least was mentioned which is deliberately building up again from its own survivors, and I guess that is what Dee may do from her 1/3 survivors in her affected yards which came down with something that might have the same cause (do you know Jerry?).

Does anyone (I'm sure Dee has) have experience of those survivors - did they seem to survive for random reasons (eg they happened to have enough sealed brood to get through a sudden devastating wave of infection) or are there any signs that there may be genetic variation for survival traits?

all the best

Gavin

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