On 13/12/2011 11:38 PM, Peter L Borst wrote:

 > This last question may be the real reason breeding plans haven't 
borne fruit: while selecting better bees, we are inadvertently selecting 
tougher mites.

That is perhaps possible, however in a breeding program for any organism 
the problem is 'what trait (s) are you breeding for and measuring?  Can 
you in fact measure it in any meaningful way?

In bees, the thing that ultimatly matters is honey production.  Luckily 
it is easily measured and a price put on it.  How do you measure and put 
a price on disease or parasite resistance?  We will no doubt agree that 
these resistances are of value, but at what levels?  If a hive, in fact 
any organism has disease but is still able to produce, does it matter.  
Of course if the organism is not challenged by the disease then we don't 
know how it will react.

In most organisms that one breeds for various traits, line breeding is 
used to set the trait.  But not in bees.  It seems to me that the main 
selection that occurs with bees is via the drones, in both commecial and 
natural and feral hives.  A sick hive does not produce drones, or at 
least very few.

Geoff Manning

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm