> Breeding Commercially Viable Resistant Stock

I have been thinking about this topic a lot. In my mind, the chief pitfall is that whatever honey bee stock appears to be varroa resistant, or varroa tolerant, is generally identified in a breeding program which uses small to medium sized colonies.  In the real world, varroa is most severe in very large colonies, especially during a heavy honey flow. Any so-called varroa resistant stock may simply fail to perform under these circumstances. When the colony is engaged in a heavy honey flow, nest hygiene conceivably takes a back seat. Just like a farm where all hands are engaged in the harvest, there may be little attention given to housekeeping. At least that's what I have observed: the biggest and best colonies are the most susceptible to varroa related collapse, if not treated in a timely and adequate manner. If by breeding, we ended up with fair to middling colonies that don't succumb to varroa, we would need a lot more hives to produce the same amount of honey. 

PLB

Thinking: pleiotropy

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