Think I'm going to keep harping on this to try to get beekeepers, no matter at what level, active in queen selection.   What was previously written was:  "what attributes were lost? I have used 3 deeps for ever, and raising my 
own queens, ended up with queens that work fine in this system."

I'm going to repeat a question I posed in earlier posts, "What, if anything, are you doing to try to incorporate hygienic behavior into your colonies' genetic structure?  How are you testing for this?"  I think, hope, that the major way we, incorporating all beekeepers no matter what level, can overcome the varroa mite problem is to develop bees that are resistant/tolerant to mite infestation. 


Personally, for any future queen rearing operations, I'm going to use the pin prick procedure to test for hygienic behavior of any queens I raise.  The same will be true for any queens I plan to use for drone production.  All other traits, for the time being, will come in second for selection.  I will be encouraging all my beekeeping cohorts in my neighborhood to also test and select for this one trait.  Time will tell how it goes.  And....   I welcome any discussion on how to go about this, either differently or incorporating additional test methods.

 
Mike in LA

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