There were some very interesting results of the 94 bee research
conference as abstracted in the Dec. Amer. Bee Journal.  Marla
Spivak's work on hygenic behavior is promising.  She uses a
simple method of determining hygenic behavior in a line by
observing their inclination to remove freeze killed brood.
Lines exhibiting this  behavior also were significnatly more
inclined to uncap and remove brood with a minor (1 mite/cell)
varroa infestation.  If this relationship exists it presents a
simple method for the selection of hygenic breeding stock.
 
Williams, Sugden and Webster's work was the most suprising for
me.  They indicate a strong correlation exists between the age
of the queen and the colonies tracheal mite infestation levels.
 They are showing dramatic differences for queens in different
age groups, young queens (less than one year) showed colony
infestation levels, CILs, of ~11%. One year old queens had CILs
of 30-40%, and queens two years and older were infested at
levels in excess of 50% (I'm working from memory so percentages
may not be accurate).  I haven't been able to speculate a
mechanism for these differences (anybody got any ideas?) but
I'd be very interested in their data and methods.  If anybody
who attended the conference can shed any light on this research
I would appreciate hearing from you.  If they are right I'm
going to be polishing up my grafting hook this winter.
 
Formic acid, formic acid, formic acid.  Well the jury seems to
be in on formic acid.  Does anybody know of any research on
honey and wax contamination as a result of formic acid
fumigation.  Data on control levels seems good, and it would
sure be nice to get two mites for less than the price of one.
I'm begining to feel sorry for my bees having to navigate their
way around the strips, over the grease patti, under the
menthol.  I was begining to wonder if there would be any room
for bees in my hives in another few years.  Then again maybe I
shouldn't get excited yet, EPA/FDA could take years to finally
register especially if there's no big chemical company greasing
their patti.
 
Well I'm getting political and that's usually a good time to
shut up so I'll close this note.