James Fischer wrote:
> I remember that Bee-L was informed of these findings by Allen Dick
> in advance of publication of the paper years and years ago.
> http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/articles/tracheal.htm
>
> Sure, I sample for tracheal mites, and gosh it is tedious to
> peer at all those trachea.
From the article: "Through testing, susceptible colonies are easily
identified and can be eliminated. Several of the queen breeders who
participated in this survey reported that susceptible colonies were
removed from their breeding programs soon after they received the test
results."
Unless the queens are tested, which means using mites, I wonder about
the quality of queens even from a supplier who has "mite resistant queens".
Unless the supplier sells the exact same genetic stock, in essence a
clone, every year, there will be variability in the queens as time goes
along. Since there does not seem to be TM pressure and the bees sold
would be unlikely to have TM, resistance can diminish naturally.
Also, each queen supplier does "improve" the stock. If there is no TM
testing, that resistance could easily diminish with time without anyone
seeing it, especially if the threat, Varroa, was seen as the main reason
for the breeding program. My guess is there is no TM testing.
The supposed unimportance of TM, because we have resistant bees, is
especially dangerous now, with Varroa and CCD always blamed for colony
failure. Unfortunately, here in Maine, TM has bee high on the list of
the cause of winter kill, even now. In each case, and they have been
fairly high losses over the past winters, Varroa was blamed, but under
the microscope, TM were present and often the real culprit. It has shown
up in both hobby and commercial yards, including colonies overwintered
in Florida. It showed up in some of the CCD colonies inspected by Jerry
and Co.in California.
For a hobby beekeeper who grows their own, throwing on a patty in the
fall is cheap insurance. It certainly removes one mite which is present
in Maine (Cal. and Florida) from being an issue.
Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine
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