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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:48:12 -0600
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> Right.  In the list, I'd include the producers' reported resistance even 
> if it's just from a phone interview.  Some will not report a specific 
> degree of resistance I am sure.

There is no measure, and this line of approach is just asking people to 
create fiction.

> It would be great if some university program, or *someone*, undertook 
> evaluating 100 queens from each major producer using local beekeepers' 
> hives.  It might become someone's master's degree study. In Germany, they 
> have an effective national program for evaluating and propagating 
> desirable traits in their queens.  It's regretable the US does not have 
> something similar.

I have suggested this a number of times, but nobody wants to bell the cat. 
There are too many lawyers waiting for something like this.

> No argument here.  Independent replication of claims would clear up a lot 
> of misconceptions.  I used to order queens based on the claims of the 
> producers only to be disillusioned.  Now I raise my own.

Hard to beat home-raised queens.

> PS.  If there are breeders/producers who, indeed, have not used treatments 
> for, say, 5 years, they should be identified.

I think this is a bogus criterion, and subject to exploitation and 
misunderstanding.  It is also IMO excessively idealistic and unrealistic, 
and idealism, rather than pragmatism has polarized and clouded the whole 
issue for too long.

There are no black and whites, there are no yes and nos.  There is only 
progress or lack thereof.  IMO, anyhow. 

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