>
> >Danny Weaver has been doing such selective breeding for many years, and
> has been closely watched by the industry.
>

The Weaver selective breeding program has an enthusiastic following. But
Danny Weaver is just one small company. Where are the other breeders in the
industry? Or maybe it really should remain in the domain of university
research. From the bibliography attached to the article about gAHB in
Puerto Rico (thank you Randy) it seems there was a burst of interest in the
late 80'sand 90's, but just a smattering of studies after that, the most
recent being from 2008. These issues impact me every day in my business.
Maybe because it's not totally widespread yet, others don't really care.


> I asked Tom Rinderer about the AHB in Puerto Rico, and he stated that we
> "do not need them" as we have better bees already available. But I refer
> back to my original statement that African bee hybrids can be acceptable in
> behavior but recessive traits often reappear unexpectedly when hybrids are
> crossed with other hybrids. This is grade school genetics here.


I strongly disagree with Tom Rinderer. The AHB's resistance to varroa virus
syndrome is what keeps people seeking after such strains. Meanwhile we are
discussing varroa treatments that stay in the hive forever (shop towels);
we definitely have need for resistant bees. And if as Rinderer claims,
there are better bees than that already available, I would like to know
where they are; most beekeepers will tell you that buying queens is pretty
much a crapshoot.

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