> Natural selection in the feral (and to some 
> extent in the managed) honey bee populations 
> hasn't stopped.  

But after only 28 years, how can this be said with a straight face?
This is the essential myth of how "treatment free" is going to "save the
bees".
The practice turns enthusiastic people into ex-beekeepers more efficiently
than any other one could design.

> Bees today are more resistant to varroa 
> than when varroa first arrived (and far 
> more resistant to tracheal mite).  

And there are specific people to thank for their efforts in this work.
There was not any sort of "natural selection" at work in either achievement.

> I've visited plenty of apiaries that are 
> founded with non African feral stock 
> that have acceptable loss rates.  

If only there was a requirement that all queens be marked by the producers.
Then one could see how many "ferals" are anything but.

> We are watching an evolutionary process. 

Sorry, no, we are seeing the better stock swarm, and be mis-identified as
"feral surviors".
There are no magic beans or magic bees.
Overtly breeding both tracheal and varroa resistance is well-documented.
Marla Spivak did not win her MacArthur grant in a poker game.
The Danka/Harbo/Harris team did not get a USDA award in 2013 for failing.

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