On Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:13:36 -0500, Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>As far as your love of carniolans I think they are a fine bee for most
>beekeepers and the Russians are also but both lag behind the performance of
>an Italian bee. True you need to manage an Italian bee.

So it's a performance issue. Or maybe a management issue. If Italians need to be 
managed to get the best performance, perhaps the Russians need to, as well. However, 
and I believe this is a very key issue: Will I be willing to take a hit on performance in 
order to control mites without chemicals?

Suppose you get 20% less honey from resistant bees (not saying you would, but 
suppose). That might be offset by not needing to buy expensive chemicals. Then, you 
could market your honey as chem free and get a better price. Further, if it takes 100 
Italian type colonies to make 100,000 pounds but 125 Russians, you would still get the 
honey. 

My point being that honey production is not the only thing to consider. Even temperament 
may take a back seat to hygienic behavior and overall vigor. A lot of people I know are 
favoring mixed parentage, non pedigreed, outcrossed bees for these and other reasons. 
Some of these colonies are quite testy. Keeping docile bees is fun, but in the long run, 
not that important for a lot of people.

pb

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