Bill T wrote:
>>>>> 
Sort of defeats the current model of beekeeping and just what are we
breeding? What you need is the pressure of the pest not the isolation of the
bees from the pest. All you are breeding then is a susceptible bee. I asked
Seeley if the bees would survive in a normal apiary and his answer was
no.^^^^^^

Chris wrote:
>>>>> The purpose of the small scale, but hopefully wide-spread, experiment
I  
suggested would be to find out more about the bees themselves rather than
their 
commercial management, although lessons learned may pay a commercial
dividend.<<<<<<

These are two sides of an old argument.
See:
http://www.cmp.caltech.edu/~motrunch/Teaching/Phy135b_Winter07/MoreIsDiffere
nt.pdf

The principle is that you as we back out from the smallest building blocks
we can ascertain ....new properties emerge. (Let's call them emergent
properties ;)
Put nicely, "You can't tell much about a traffic jam by studying the
automobile."
Similarly, you can't tell much about a swarm by studying a honeybee. What
arbitrary
Idea makes us think that the level of the colony or small bee-yard is a
proper place to stop? In speaking to Dave Mendes I pointed out that one
could take all brand new equipment and a package of bees...and get 2 years
out of them without treatment. He said, "Try that in a commercial yard."
     Without planning an experiment I started 4 yards last spring. 2,2,2,3
and the home yard of about 12. All did well except the 12, that had mites
and other problems and will have a high mortality. What did I learn? Bigger
is different.
     I have a personal conviction that the travelling apiary is so unnatural
that the bees respond by just dying. (See Die-off, ABJ early '07). This
could be triggered by our new friend, epigenetics.
     Whatever. If the problem occurs in the commercial realm, the answer
must be found there.

Dick Marron

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