ALDEN MARSHALL wrote:

>This being the case, is it not true we are continually watering down
our native stock that is trying (hopefully) to develop genetics to
cope with the mites?

As another pointed out, there is no such thing as native honey bees in
the US. And bees are not "trying" to develop genetics of any kind.
Beekeepers may be trying to get bees more suitable to their uses, but
natural selection does not work *toward* a goal -- though it may to
appear that way to the human mind.

Without complete isolation, there is little chance of any sort of
separate type of bee developing on it is own. Geographic isolation
seems to be a prerequisite of classic Darwinian evolution. In most
locations you have a continual influx of bees from a variety of
sources due to people buying queens from other areas.

For natural selection to take place, and the traits to become fixed, a
great deal of time must pass. This is the whole reason that in most
cases, when a person wants particular traits in the plant or animal
they are raising, they resort to breeding. With the breeder selecting
and isolating the traits he wants the process can be accelerated and
directed. If you are really interested in resistant bees, I would
suggest buying from queen breeders that have already made good
progress along these lines.

I mean, think about it: if you wanted to have peaches in a region
where peaches usually aren't grown, what would you do? Plant regular
peach trees and hope for the one or two out of ten thousand that might
survive in your area? Or go down to the nursery and buy hardy trees?
Plenty of people have been selecting bees locally and are raising
queens for sale. Why not try these, if you are serious about getting
resistant local bees? You can still do selection on your own.

By the way, Tom Seeley debunked the notion of finding bees in the
woods and getting varroa resistant stock that way. He found the bees
were not better than ordinary bees when he brought them back to his
apiary and tested them side by side with "regular" stock. In my
opinion the chief reason that bees may be able to survive better in
the wild is because they are usually widely separated and up high in a
tree. It is not beneficial for bees to be grouped in apiaries and
living so close to the ground.

* * *

Apidologie 38 (2007)
Honey bees of the Arnot Forest: a population of feral colonies
persisting with Varroa destructor in the northeastern United States by
Thomas D. Seeley

Abstract - Feral colonies of European honey bees living in the Arnot
Forest, a 1651-ha research preserve in New York State, were studied
over a three-year period, 2002 to 2005. This population of colonies
was previously censused in 1978. A census in 2002 revealed as many
colonies as before, even though Varroa destructor was introduced to
North America in the intervening years. Most colonies located in fall
2002 were still alive in fall 2005. The Arnot Forest colonies proved
to be infested with V. destructor, but their mite populations did not
surge to high levels in late summer. To see if Arnot Forest bees can
suppress the reproduction rate of mites, colonies of Arnot Forest bees
and New World Carniolan bees were inoculated with mites from an apiary
and the growth patterns of their mite populations were compared. No
difference was found between the two colony types. Evidently, the
stable bee-mite relationship in the Arnot Forest reflects adaptations
for parasite (mite) avirulence, not host (bee) resistance.

-- 
Peter L. Borst

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