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Date: | Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:18:28 -0400 |
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Writing on this topic, R. O. B. Manley had this to say (he's referring to tracheal mites here):
The idea of simply letting the disease rip, has been advanced by some enthusiasts who believe that by this means natural selection would give us a resistant strain, as it doubtless would. What these gentlemen don't tell us is what we are to live on while this process is in course of action. If any domesticated stock is let go wild like that, we certainly get a hardy strain; but the trouble is that hardy wild strains are of no use to us for domestic purposes.
Probably, the fundamental fact is that it is impossible to produce a strain of any domesticated animal having those characteristics especially developed which make that strain particularly useful to civilized man, without at the same time sacrificing to a large extent the qualities that have enabled that species to exist in a state of nature. Natural selection will promote those variations which are useful to a species under wholly natural conditions, while selection, as practised by man, chooses out those qualities that are most useful to him. Let us not too hastily decide to rely upon natural selection to produce the type of bee we want.
My opinion, after a good many years of experiment, is that we should try to prevent the mites from getting hold of our bees by the use of prophylactic treatment of a not too drastic nature, and that any stocks that do not readily prove amenable to such preventive measures are best dead and done with; if they don't die out themselves they should be destroyed or at least re-queened before any further attempt is made to rid them of mites.
from HONEY FARMING by R. O. B. MANLEY
First published in Mcmxlvi
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