>
> >I worry this thread is devolving (yet again) into the realm of
> "professionals know better" vs. "hobbyists are threats" fiction that I
> vigorously protest.


That is not where I want to go either.  But the "treatment free are
threats" is the clear message now being promoted by the best data set
available--that of the BIP.   This does not appear to be "fiction," and may
I suggest that we drop such inflammatory and dismissive terms from this
discussion.  And by the way, BIP makes clear that a number of commercial
beekeepers are no better at varroa management than many hobbysists.

It may be different in Ithaca, but the BIP survey suggests that the
majority of recreational beekeepers indeed perform zero varroa management.
And the data strongly suggest that surrounding beekeepers then pay the
price.

My personal goal is to someday be able to be a treatment free beekeeper
again (we all were until around 1990).  But this isn't going to happen by
millions of hobby beekeepers buying package bees each season and then
allowing them to die from the varroa/virus complex.

Treatment-free, as a breeding strategy will only work if one keeps breeding
from survivors.  It is not a breeding strategy to keep restocking hives
with stock that will die each year.  If you want to help with either the
natural or artificial selection process towards mite resistance, you gotta
improve the stock.  Which means that you can't just keep repeating the
mistake of restocking the hive with a stock that is doomed to fail.

The criticism of some of today's treatment-free hobbyists is not their good
intentions, it is about their misunderstanding of how selective breeding or
natural selection actually work, and the fact that they are actually
screwing up progress in this direction by repeatedly flooding the landscape
with mites.

The next series that I intend to write for ABJ will be a vision of how we
can start to work towards truly becoming treatment free beekeepers.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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