>What is your current appreciation of the Gold line from Purvis
Brothers?

I started hives of both the Purvis Brothers lines late last spring (100
hives). Too early to tell a whole lot yet.

Purvis Brothers is  a work in progress. Always moving forward. The queens
released this year are not the same as last year. Next years will be
different. Be patient and appreciate the queen breeder work going into the
line.

I am bound by a non disclosure ( 7 year agreement) with Dann Purvis and a
retired USDA researcher so need to be careful what I say. I can say Dann
Purvis just returned from an 8 day trip to Australia to set up a closed
population instrumental insemination breeding program for Browns bees
Australia.

Also we have sent Dann a sample of every Australian line shipped in so far.
Dann also received a few weeks ago a shipment of queens with Australian
genetics he inseminated from Terry Browns bees while in Australia (around 44
queens I believe with genetics from bees from all around the globe including
the Buckfast line).

I looked at the queens when they arrived in KC but could not tell much
through the cages. They entered the U.S. with a lot of 500 queens we
received in KC from Australia and were then shipped on to Georgia by Glenn
Davis.

The Purvis gold line bee is the most varroa tolerant bee I ever tested. Once
varroa tolerance is set then other qualities beekeepers want in a bee can be
breed for. We need to walk before we run.

Dann Purvis met with Denis Anderson while in Australia.

Bee breeding is not an exact science. Takes time and hard work.

In the U.S. we have got mass queen producers and only about a handful of
what I would call queen breeders.

We need people like Dann Purvis, Sue Colby and Marla Spivak!

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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