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to his pictures.

----------------- Original message (ID=3B38A4B2) (80 lines)
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Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 15:35:07 +1300
From: Bob Russell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re:[Bee-L] Super Varroa
To: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology
 <[log in to unmask]>
Message-id: <001001c4f84f$550f7e00$9706f6d2@russell>

To Bob Harrison,John Horton and all

Your postings hit a nerve with me when reading them this morning on Bee-L
and I would like to respond.

Resistant bees are in the hands of the beekeeper. We in New Zealand will
have had varroa 5 years this April.  This will be year 5 of my resistant bee
project.  At the end of the day all we want is bees resistant to varroa
together with high honey yields without contamination together with
practical methods to overcome reinvasion, whether biotechnical or a soft
treatment.

Great to see Bob Harrison making mention of the short list of names. I would
like to nominate Alois Wallner to be added to that list.  There will be a
great number working towards varroa resistant bees which can be done by all
beekeepers.  All the ingredients are in the genes and in most beekeepers
yards there for the finding.  Once found and breed from it's contagious for
want of a word to describe it.

Last year I completed 3 years study of Dr.Pedro's Rodriguez's 11 years FGMO
(Food Grade Mineral Oil) research.  Why?  Because I wanted a soft treatment
that would be innocuous, that was not temperature reliant, food grade and
that would only enhance and my project with resistant bees to name a few.
This work I used to initiate the approval of FGMO to treat bees. We have a
very strict approval process for products used to treat or control pests and
diseases in New Zealand beehives.  Dr. Rodriguez was invited to New Zealand
as a guest speaker at our National Beekeepers conference in July, 2004 and
met with hundreds of beekeepers during his stay and tour of our country.

Late last year those working with resistant bees were invited to take up the
offer of Alois Wallner's (Randegg Austria ) 5 years study into resistant
bees published under the name of "VARROARESISTENT" (Written in German) now
out of print 10 years.  I have done an in-depth study of his documented
data,charts etc and find it hard to believe that many are trying to look for
a silver bullet or reinvent the wheel.

Technology has come a long way since Alois Wallner made his first discovery
in May 1989 which he called Vkf (varroa killer factor) being one of a small
number of factors in varroa resistance but a very important one.  An
observation I made in a resistant hive in October, 2004 (less than 1%)
Prompted me to revisit Alois Wallner's work with the Vkf and it's
relationship with mite reproduction.  I have permission to reproduce Alois
Wallner's work and photographs but it would not be appropriate to display
his photos on a public gallery.

Take a look at the varroa damage I have shot this year down the scope of
50+ year vintage with improvised lighting.  Sure there is room for
improvement but this microscope does the job for what I want.  If we all
want the same end result it is now the time to all work together towards
varroa resistant bees as a top priority.  Not sure as an observer of these
forums whether I have any postings in the Bee-L archives over the last five
years.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/russell_bee/album?.dir=/9b61

Bob Russell
Commercial beekeeper/engineer
New Zealand.

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