> The only way to select for survival is to allow a colony to survive or perish...and this has to be over the long term (at least as long as the beekeeper thinks their hives should survive).

Dean, I have a problem generally with any statement that begins with
"The only way..."

There are actually other ways than the Bond method, although that
method is the simplest, and the one that occurs in nature.

As I posted a couple of days ago, survival depends a great deal upon
the type of operation that we are talking about.  For those beekeepers
who restock all their equipment with packages in the spring, and
either gas or shake out all the bees at harvest, survival is only
necessary for a single season.

 On the other hand, for those who have decided not to buy either bees
or queens from outside their own apiaries, then long term survival is
much more important.

The hard part in breeding for mite resistance is how we keep
beekeepers in business as we and nature shift toward mite resistant
genetics.  The process is frustrating, since we are prolonging the
agony, but hard to get around.

On another subject that you touched upon, my remaining colonies on
HoneySuperCell simply refuse to die, and are generally good producers.
 I have no idea why, since all other researchers trials with small
cell indicate that the cell size (in wax combs) does not effect mite
resistance.

Randy Oliver

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