-- randy oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I don't want to cause a fuss, but this will likely be a good thing.
African bees are hell on diseases, and viruses are almost nonexistant
in feral scutellata and capensis!

hi randy,

i think what you write above is important.  imho, what is special about the bees you reference (feral scutellata and capensis) is not their race, or the fact that they are feral...it is that they are not treated!

deadly diseases are scary, and the first instinct is to treat or cure the disease.  in a natural system (like in the ferals you cite), a deadly disease (or a deadly combination of disease) will kill the hive, making it difficult for the disease to spread to other colonies.  nature is culling both the overly suseptable bees, and the overly deadly pests at the same time.  even if the bee population is reduced by 99% in this process, what comes back into the now open niche is resistant bees and tolerable disease.  if this is delayed by treatements, you end up many generations down the road with greater numbers and percentages of bees/disease that will crash.

imho, it's not "african genes" per se, but genes that have not been shaped by artificially propping up weak stock and strong mites.  these don't have to be african genes (although they may be a good source), but simply breeding from bees that are not killed by whatever is making them sick.  it may be that the ehb genepool has been so thinned that ahb is the only good source.

i do understand what bob h. was saying about breeding from survivor stock and the need to build up for the almonds, etc....and i don't find his claims/observations hard to believe at all.  i don't have anything personally against anyone trying to make a living as a migratory beekeeper (and i appreciate the need for them in our current agricultural system)...but i think this whole system is likely going to break at some point, as for one reason or another, it will not be profitable to grow food the way we do (which relys on cheap transportation and processing).  i'm not trying to bring this day closer by any means, but i can't really ignore that that is how the future looks to me, and i feel the need to build my practices around it.

deknow

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