-- "Peter L. Borst" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>.. the African bees resurged due to natural selection of mite resistant bees.

so why don't we have an intensive program in the united states to select for mite resistant bees?  doesn't this sound like exactly what we need?

i live in the town where johnny appleseed was born (leominster, ma).  he made a career of planting apple seeds that would have a very, very small chance of being anything like a yummy fruit, as they were seeds from the cider mills, and apples don't breed true.  these apples were for cider, and everyone needed a cider orchard (only safe thing to drink in some places, and aside from honey, the only real sweet).  out of the hundreds of thousands of apple trees planted from seeds, a few stood out in the orchards, and grafts from these few trees are the great american apple varities...all by "rolling the genetic dice" and looking for the outstanding among the masses.

deknow

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