I hesitate to sound repetitive, but I'll add my two bits' worth.

I also went down the survivor bee path, and as did Allen and Bob, found that
they couldn't support me.

So I changed my breeding strategy a few years ago--prioritizing basic health
and productivity (mainly by selecting good honey producers, and very strong
colonies with great brood patterns in almonds) and then from that limited
pool, testing them individually for mite levels--generally in mid August,
and then after almonds.

Although all my colonies get a winter oxalic dribble, the mite levels in
March vary greatly from colony to colony.  I'm heartened this year to see
levels down from those of last March.  Our selection criterion this week
(from busting colonies, after over two months of strong broodrearing, and
plenty of drone brood already emerged, was to only accept colonies that had
fewer than 1 mite per 100 bees in an alcohol wash of 300 bees from the
broodnest (a level half cup of live bees).

We found a few productive breeders that showed zero mites, even in two
washes.

After grafting from our selected mothers, I plan to place them in a survival
yard to see how they actually do without treatment for the rest of the
season (I reserve the right to treat if I feel that it is necessary, but
will remove any treated colonies from the pool).

I'm not sure how this selection process will pan out, but after a few years
now, it appears that I am making progress (I have been bringing in VSH and
other stock as drone mothers).

My point is, that I am in agreement with Allen's comment "I fully expect
that in the next decade, we will have commercially useful bees which are far
less chemically dependent."

Randy Oliver

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