>If anyone sees some hive that seems to perform exceptionally with regard to mites getting some of that genetics into the hands of people like Latshaw who has massive numbers of hives and who is in the business of testing resistance is important.
Is this really the right approach? I find the idea of finding a colony - or even several colonies - that have resistance and then re-stocking the entire world from that small genetic base to be a recipe for the extinction of the honey bee.
Do we not need to manage bees in such a way that resistance can be allowed to develop gradually over as wide an area as possible?
That must mean allowing bees and varroa to interact whilst keeping varroa numbers low enough to avoid catastrophic damage.
Best wishes
Peter
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W
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