Hello All,
Dr. Shiminuki (retired and living in Florida) former head 
Of the USDA-ARS was always 
looking to the future of beekeeping.
History always lets us judge
decisions made decades ago
by leaders.

"Shim" in my opinion was the right leader at
a very tough time in U.S. beekeeping .

I remember the heated discussions
of several decades ago.

Beekeepers divided in two groups.

1. Let mites kill the susceptible
and breed from survivors. 
1a. Absolutely no treatments in the beehive.

What happened with 1 & 1a?
Their hives died and many
went beekeepers went bankrupt.

The next group (myself) saw whole outfits lost by the bond method
so we felt compelled to treat
until a better solution came along.
(Still waiting?)

I admit I have let a huge number of hives die experimenting with 
the *BOND* method over the years.

I attended many presentations of "Shim" 
.Sat in the front row and asked many questions.
"Shim" told us he felt a varroa tolerant bee would be
found by researchers within 20 years

*but* maybe not so we needed a backup plan.

The backup plan was the Russian import.

Charley and the Russian queen breeders have done an
excellent job of keeping the program working but if 
not for Shim I do not believe the import would have happened.

I also do not believe converting to AHB (Through breeding ) 
Would have solved the
 Varroa issue as Mike A. Talked about.

Dr. Harbo &Dr. Harris (Baton Rouge bee lab) asked for U.S. beekeepers to send survivor queens. Many were all that were left from over a 1000 hive operations.
For around 5 years the lab used the bond method and instrumental insemination  and no progress.

The bond method was dropped and a different approach was adopted and Smr / VSH / hygienic was developed.

bob

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