Brian Fredericksen wrote:

> seems like ya can't have it both ways. optimal mite control or almonds. am
i missing something here?  I';m sure in CA or other warm regions the
realities are much different.

I think several key points are being missed. The idea to breed better bees
is hardly a new thing. Brother Adam spent a large part of the 20th century
on this problem and explored the concept of crossing different races to
produce hybrid vigor. 

There is a very real possibility that efforts to breed a better bee have
failed simply because a better bee in NOT one that is bred but is produced
by natural selection. And no, I don't mean so-called feral populations in
the "wilds" of America. Real feral populations exist in other countries,
however. Brazil, South Africa, Australia come to mind. 

But the key point that I would try (try!) to make is that commercial
beekeepers successfully trucked bees around this country for decades. The
problems they have are not caused by trucking bees. Honey bees are in a
weakened state and no longer hold up very well to being trucked around. 

Good healthy colonies were available right up into the 1980s. When varroa
hit, everything changed and we have not really solved that problem. Things
have simply gotten worse. It is logical that they should, after all. You
take an invasive pest, which vectors viral disease and knock it down about
90% over and over -- what do you get?

You get tough mites, weakened bees, and a whole slew of opportunistic
infections, like nosema, mutated viruses, possibly *combined* viruses. It is
known that the risk of pathogens being formed by the deliberate recombining
of genetic material (GMO) pales in comparison to the recombining that is
going on all the time among natural populations of viruses, bacteria,
microsporidians and the whole lot. 

Sure, beekeepers have contributed to the problem by abusing miticides and
leaning to hard on the bees. Hives barely get back onto their feet and they
are split repeatedly to get the numbers back. This situation was not caused
by beekeepers. 

It is an unfortunate fact of life that the world is no longer a bunch of
isolated continents and there are invasive pests everywhere. The honey bee
as WE know it may not survive. It is very easy to imagine hive bees failing
altogether in US and Europe. It won't mean the end of mankind, and yes, we
will still have fruit and vegetables. But they may come from other countries
where they have tougher bees. 

pb

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