For those of us which have been looking at varroa infestation for decades the study *in my opinion* has nothing new to say.
The study describes what has been observed from the first USDa-ARS conclusions.
The problem as described by Charley is to keep the Russian line pure. Keep the Russian line away from other lines. I agree!
I doubt I need to dwell on what happens in a yard of hives when those pesky yellow drones start mating with a few of those beautiful Russian virgin queens.
What does the commercial beekeeper do? spend hours in each yard trying to find which hives to treat and which to not treat?
What of virus issues? *In my opinion* a hive (with varroa tolerance as in the study) will not perform (with as the study says a threshold load of varroa and the virus issues which accompany such a high infestation level) as the hive would which has had the mite load reduced to almost nothing (through treatments)
Some argue is so but common sense is in my corner.
The Russian bee has proven itself to be the answer for varroa tolerance. Charlie makes an excellent case for the bee. Importing the Russian bee has been shown to be one of the smartest moves the USDA-ARs ever made.
However:
I will make the same case as I did back at the start.
If you are going to control mite populations (unlike the no treatment crowd)
then why spend money on $30 queens and trying to keep lines pure.
When you control varroa through checking and treating you know you are not going to find all your hives crashing?
When the varroa tolerance issue is truly resolved for the commercial operator then those beekeepers will convert to the line.
If the USDA-ARs (Baton Rouge) has not found the truly varroa tolerant bee why would I think I would with open mated queens in my back yard. I figure my mongrel queens cost me around $5.
Thinking varroa tolerant queens & varroa treatments do not come with money back guarantees.
bob
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