Hello George,
Great to hear from you! I always value your advice and have missed your
posts on BEE-L!

 A few  years and you will be as old and have keep bees as long as my first
beekeeping mentor!

Another decade plus and you will have kept bees as long as Waldo McBurney
(subject of my article "Centurion Beekeeper" in the Sept. 2004 issue of Bee
Culture) 102 years young and will be 103 the next time we meet in two
months! I wish we lived closer as I would love to write your beekeeping
story for the bee magazines!!

George said:
Why aren't both of you "young men" in Reno, NV at the annual meeting of the
ABF and vent your feelings there so the bee scientists, bee researchers,
queen breeders, commercial and hobbyist beekeepers can "digest" your
thoughts?

As Allen D.& Jerry B. ( BEE-L list) are aware of I am very vocal and I have
tried to enlighten the above for the last few years. I am simply too busy
this year trying to make a living from honey bees to attend.

 I have got a close friend (attended AHPA meeting) and  a partner which is
attending the ABF and will report back. Many on the list have seen my
partner as he is six foot five inches tall . Please wake him up if he falls
asleep in the meetings. Especially if he is snooring! He has been putting in
long hours seven days a week working on a never done before in beekeeping
project we are working on . He is exhausted but I am sure he is in the halls
talking beekeeping instead of getting needed rest as I would be if I was at
the ABF meeting!

George said:
The vast amount of verbiage from both of you (and I admire each of you)
provides no solution to the varroa problem for the average reader of the
Bee-L.

I really can't see how you can say I provide no solution. We have got queens
which you can install in a hive crashing from varroa with PMS and the bees
will not die but start thriving again in over 50% of the cases we have
tried. The New World carniolan project is a four way closed system. The
Purvis Brothers apiaries closed system is a six way which also uses
instrumental insemination. Dann Purvis is a student of the master "Sue
Cobey" and I a student of Dann Purvis. Have you read either of my articles
in ABJ or Bee Culture this month George? Email me and tell me what you think
if you have read one or both as I value your opinion!

George asks:
How much MONEY have YOU and your followers gifted to honey bee RESEARCH over
the past 20 years?

Enough! But the money we spent on our own research produced better results!

When our group of beekeepers saw only a few researchers in a single bee lab
making varroa progress  we got on board and took their work to levels they
only dream of!

We believe we have got all the genetics from the Russian program which no
other beekeeper or researcher kept.

we believe we have got the best varroa tolerant bee on the planet.

George said:
 You have expected scientists to find a cheap, quick, cure
for varroa infestation.

I gave up on our researchers several years ago finding the solution to
varroa so we took their information and solved the problem ourselves through
countless hours of hard work.

I am surprised you hammer me as I am the profesional beekeeper here which
makes a living from honeybees. Our group has  taken the research of Harbo,
Harris, Shiminuki & Rinderer to new levels and have got results. We are
attempting to share research with Rinderer.

George asks:
 Won't you concede that it is most difficult to find
any ingredient, system, or chemical that will destroy the varroa mite, NOT
adulterate the honey, and NOT harm the bees?

Varroa tolerant queens are the answer . Our group has tested every method
talked about on the net including small cell, screened bottom boards, drone
removal  & FGMO. We ruled out all but varroa tolerant bees.

I remember  the long talks I had with commercial beekeepers years ago
telling me you could place a few Dr. Smiths menthol cough drops( had to be
Smiths they said) in a hive and control tracheal mites and could not believe
I laughed at their methods. Some people have got to learn the hard way!

Great to hear from you George old friend! Hope you are still keeping bees a
hundred years from now!

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

" I welcome all opinions on Bee-L as long as we can "agree to disagree" if
the need arises.

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