> I talked him into letting me have his queen.  I am on the fourth generation
> of this line.  From the start this queen and her first generation queens
> hygienically tested superior to all my other lines.  All my lines pretty
> close, now.  I am interested in seeing how the three SMR queens from Glenn
> will compare.
>
> Call it luck-call it what you like.  I just know it is working.

Hi Dan -

I would call it nature doing what nature does best. If feral bees are such a
prized item for their natural ability to survive varroa, then what does this
say about our current efforts to breed better queens? I think we end up
propping up an artificial system that quickly falls apart when one stops
buying the queens. Why do we always look to some other place or some other
breeder for "better" queens? Is there something wrong with the ones our own
bees raise? I think not. In fact, I'd rather have bees that have figured out
for themselves what is best for my local area than some outside queen being
shipped from miles away. Give me the local swarm, that's the kind of bee I
want.

I also find it interesting that many are jumping right in line for their SMR
queens without 'critical analysis', which has been attributed to those
interested in employing the 4.9 cell size, even when so much is unknown
about how and if this trait will work in the long run in real life
situations. How will secondary infections be tolerated? Who knows. Lots of
speculation but until many give it a try, we won't know. Too bad we can't
have more of these beekeepers willing to try other methods that are working
on a much larger scale.

Regards,
Barry