If AHB had been shown to have some unique mechanism of resistance to 
varroa not found any other place it might be worth starting to consider 
somehow "uncoupling" the good from the bad.  But as far as I know there 
is nothing special there, and a lot of mythology.  They are amazingly 
successful and have vigorous colonies with a lot of healthy brood.  
Fascinating and eye opening stuff.  It pretty much stops there in terms 
of beekeeping use.

Another oddity- the view in Brazil is that with AHB a new kind of 
thriving beekeeping became possible.  The production figures back up 
that concept.  And yet take most of the other Latin American countries 
that had growing and successful beekeeping enterprises and very few are 
of those are left.  There is still beekeeping but it tends to be 
smaller operations gleaning whatever honey they can get.  Most 
countries have gone from being net exporters of honey to being 
importers.  Mexico appears to have fared a bit better, but I think they 
would still welcome the old days with European bees.

In the real world of larger scale beekeeping, it is just a nightmare to 
manage their high defensive and runny behavior, emphasis on brood 
production, propensity to abscond.  They may have some use in smaller 
operations in areas where European bees have a hard time, isolated 
backyard beekeeping or in areas where they are slightly Europeanized or 
less defensive.  That may explain some of the Brazilian success story, 
but it pretty much stops there.

 

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