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Date: | Sun, 10 Apr 2022 13:44:51 -0400 |
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>Most, I understand, have eventually ended and the results lost when the central personality retired, died, or lost interest.
>If a strain of bees were produced that outperformed all others (by whatever metric you choose) that strain ought to be preferred by customers
I know that it is spring when we revisit the question of queen quality, selective breeding, and survivor stock. Both of the above quotes are absolutely true. The hard reality is that honey bee biology and industry practice,at least in North America conspire exquisitely to deny any stock with a special trait to remain true above the referred to "All American Mutt". And our mutts are pretty good bees. T-mite is no longer a problem, AFB is not as prevalent, (I have not seen a case in a decade or more) CCD came and went, and they are generally gentile, productive and durable. So we are down to varroa. That has proved to be a very hard nut to crack. Some halting progress is being made by a number of breeders but nothing that has a chance of enduring once let loose.
I took Sue Cobey's queen rearing class way back when she was at Ohio St. She made a point to teach that the care of the grafted larva, the quality of the cell builder, and the mating conditions were more important then the particular genetics of the breeder queen. I bought NWC breeders, tried to control mating yards but like most young fools was far to small and hopelessly naive. Even yet I was able to raise some very good queens. I still do but they are ALM's (All American Mutts). Most commercial queen producers do a very good job and you get what you pay for. A careful individual can raise queens of equal quality of any available on the market. The quest for varroa resistance is on going but now at 76 I very much doubt that I will live to see it incorporated and endure in the general population.
We have done much better in developing varroa control strategies in the last few years and for now that is what we average beekeepers should concentrate on. Buy or raise whatever brand you like, most are as good as any other but keep your varroa under control and reap the rewards.
"I'll take Mary, you take Sue, there aint no difference between the two" Jackson Browne.
Paul
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