>even when a new (or recently imported) pathogen wipes out a noticiable 
percentage of the bee population, they keep coming back because the strong 
hives swarm and spread their genetics...while the weak die off.

In the case of varroa mites the reverse may be true, at least in one 
sense.  In other words, the "strong" may die, and the "weak" may survive.  
Everything else being equal, that's true in terms of honey production.  
You could compare varroa to a STD among other animals.  Generally 
speaking, it's the strong and vigorous that reproduce the most, which puts 
them at greatest risk of contracting the STD.  Similarly, the hives that 
raise the most drones are going to be the strongest, and all those drones -
- and all that brood, in general -- are going to mean the greatest varroa 
pressure.

Of course, the bees that survive varroa are going to tend to be the ones 
with the greatest ability to survive varroa.  In that sense, we can call 
that ability "strength," but I would like to think that we could take a 
different path to the same end, i.e. not to use traits like swarminess and 
low brood production as our primary selection criteria.  

The hands off approach, while it may sound noble, isn't all wonderful, 
especially if it's selectively applied.  For instance, I can imagine 
a "purist" insisting on letting his big honey (and varroa) producing hives 
die from varroa while propping up his poor honey (and varroa) producing 
hives with frames of honey from the good producers.  This, to me, is 
absurd, especially when there are so many 'organic' (by any definition) 
means of dealing with varroa.

If we're going to manage our hives at all, even to the extent of just 
robbing honey from them, we're affecting the varroa situation.  If we're 
going to requeen anyway, make splits, move hives, manipulate the brood 
chamber for swarm prevention, etc., it's absurd to insist that we do these 
things with willful ignorance toward the effect on varroa.  Adopting a 
system of unplanned and haphazard varroa management while letting hives 
die is just poor management, nothing more.

Eric

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