Hello Joe & All,

My views on the SMR trait:

I have used Marla Spivak hygienic II breeder queens and Dr. Harbo's  SMR II
breeder queens.

The hygienic alone line can not handle the varroa mite. period! You can
select among the line for queens which can tolerate varroa but those queens
can (as Dr. Harbo says) be found in most lines of bees.

The most varroa tolerant bee I ever tested were  daughters raised from a
Dr.Harbo II SMR breeder queen (both red & yellow lines).

 The problem to me was that the SMR trait (whatever the list wants to say
causes those bees to handle varroa) was so pronounced the daughters had poor
brood viability regardless to the hybrid produced by us.

I can't stand "shotgun brood" in production hives!

We have used Marla Spivak hygienic drones for a cross but the hybrid did not
improve. We tried other hybrids. Still no improvement. Poor brood viability.

I do not know the methods used by Danny Weaver to create his
"smart" bee SMR line but Weavers were so impressed with the SMR queens the
SMR queen was chosen for the honey bee genome project!

 Queens with the SMR trait have been  a mystery to all of us which have come
in contact with her.

I believe she could hold the key to solving the varroa problem . I dropped
the SMR project and moved on to the Russian bee but might return to the SMR
research which is time consuming and almost overwhelming for one person.

Perhaps I will give "Igor" a call!

The test for hygienic behavior is simple and involves simply dead brood. Not
rocket science! Bees can smell dead brood. The bees have known forever  to
remove dead brood.

Killing brood by the pin prick method is not a valid method in my opinion
but can be done for a primitive test. The reason being the wound left by the
pin releases an odor /signal for removal by the bees.

Some will argue that pricking from the other side of the frame stops the
problem but I am not so sure.

According to Marla Spivak (whom I also dearly admire and even
went to Nebraska to take her queen rearing course this year to many peoples
surprise) the workers which remove the most in the shortest period of time
are the most hygienic. Also the way we do the test.

 The test is a valuable test but hardly on a level with Dr. Harbo & Dr.
Harris SMR & PMIB research (as far as time and labor involved) .

Much much more is involved in evaluating hygienic behavior in bees in my
opinion. We have only scratched the surface!

My mystery to me is simple (yet complicated).

Most bees which show SMR do not test hygienic by Marla's method. Brood I
have pulled and check for varroa reproduction in hygienic queen headed hives
have not shown the lack of varroa reproduction that the SMR breeder queen
daughter hives have.

Some SMR F1 hives don't even clean the bottom boards! Some (if not most)
were not exceptional housekeepers but terrible housekeepers!

I stand with Allen in saying Hyg = SMR is not the same.

We tested 125 colonies headed by SMR II breeder queen daughters!

I realize going on a public forum and saying "hey wait a minute" is not in
line with the bee lab release but is my opinion after three years of SMR
observations!

Come on lurkers not worried about your reputation! Speak up about your
experience!

Marla has opened the door to hygienic behavior  now we need to
provide the research necessary to solve the mystery.

I HATE WHEN THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY PAINTS A COMPLICATED ISSUE WITH A BROAD
SIMPLE BRUSH !

Bob

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