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Date: | Tue, 24 Oct 2023 19:36:44 +0000 |
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" have not produced a varroa proof bee lies in what the limiting factors are."
The limiting factors in this case are surely not lack of effort when you think about all the highly publicized efforts that have been attempted. Yet as of today we have no source of queens that are productive at a commercial level (no matter how you define productive at a commercial level) and also mite resistant enough in US climates with a real winter to avoid the normal monitoring and treatments. So, one possible conclusion is this target is impossible. Another perfectly valid conclusion is those who have conducted such efforts did not know how to put together a breeding program.
I recently listened to a talk about a breeding program for mite resistance. Due to all the breeding errors the program is doomed to be a waste of time. Here are some of the errors being made:- The plan seems to be to bring in a rather steady stream of new blood to avoid inbreeding and also introduce new forms of possible resistance- The operator is in the active breeding stage yet has no clue about the local population of ferals or hobby beekeepers and just became aware of a commercial beekeeper well within drone flying distance of the breeding sites.
- The population of bees involved in this effort is very small at what realistically sounded like maybe 80 colonies tops and after any death's less.- No clear definition of what will be done with colonies whose mite populations go up.
Each of the above points pretty much dooms this breeding effort to fail. It is also pretty much typical of honey bee breeding programs for mite resistance. Mite resistance is a tough nut compared to lots of things which you could pick as a target to breed for. But tough does not mean impossible. People who knew nothing at all about genetics did far more difficult breeding programs hundreds of years ago. All you need to do is follow the rules they laid down. When you pick a hard target you need to do the basics right or the target will remain elusive. Things like constantly bringing in ferals and thinking one of them will prove to be magic in such a program simply means even if you found that wonderful feral you would loose the genetics in the first year and never even realize you had the solution in your hand. You also need to remember that this is biology so results are filled with noise. The best cow in your herd or the best queen in you apiary is almost always due in part to how some random non DNA stuff effected your measured results. So, you can never dump all your resources into one basket.
Dick
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