recently,  John Day wrote -
 
> recently, joe hemmens wrote:
 
> "Also,  and I don't know about beekeepers in the US,  but in the UK
> there have certainly been quite a few beekeepers who practise
> 'let-alone'  beekeeping.  The 'let-alone'  beekeepers do not treat
> their bees against Varroa (or anything else!) and provide a reservoir
> of mites to infest other colonies whose owners take more care.  After
> a year or two the 'let-alone'  beekeepers give up beekeeping or
> decide to treat their bees - and the level of reinfestation drops."
>
> i'm not sure i totally agree with this statement.  if, as everyone suggests,
> and has been my own experience, a "let-alone" hive will die over winter due
> to not being treated, then where is the reservoir of mites coming from?  we
> know dead bees cannot support mites, and that they die off shortly after the
> colony dies.  so, i can't agree with this statement.
>
> however, if a severly weakened colony survives the winter with mites, then
> it could re-infest the locale.  but my own experience shows that an infested
> colony dies over the winter.  i lost my 3 hives last winter, altho i never
> saw a mite.
 
What I really meant was..
 
The first varroa mites were detected in the UK on 4th April 1992. In
the South (Devon).  Since then the infestation has been spreading
throughout the country.  It has not yet reached the North of the
country.  The point that I was trying to make was that when an area
becomes infested - for a year or two - beekeepers who do not treat
their infested bees sustain a reservoir of mites that will reinfest
the colonies of beekeepers who do treat their bees.  After a year of
two,  those beekeepers who do not treat their bees either give up
beekeeping because they no-longer have any bees to keep,  or treat
their bees.  I believe it is the experience of beekeepers in the UK
who kept bees in the areas that became infested first,  found that
reinfestation was less of a problem a couple of years later.  Of
course this is hard to substantiate.  I would much rather keep bees
next door to someone who treats their bees rather than someone who
does not and who maybe acquires more bees each year when theirs die of
disease.
 
> i now have 6 hives obtained from people's roofs.  all of these were at least
> 3 years old, quite strong, survived with no chemicals at all and are still
> going strong.  my hope is that they are resistant or are developing resistance.
>
> how are we to develop resistant bees if we treat all bees?  those left
> untreated, and which survive, can certainly be declared as resistant, even
> if just somewhat.  natural selection will cause some colonies to survive,
> and many to die.  the ones that survive should be split and propagated, as
> i have done, and allowed to continue to verify that the resistance is real.
>
> any thoughts?
>
I dearly hope that we will all be able to keep bees who have
developed  a resistance to Varroa.  I suppose there are two
approaches -
 
Investigate and qualify the traits and characteristics of bees who
show resistance to Varroa.  Some colonies seem to be more succesful
than others at mutilating mites (by biting their legs,  I think) for
example and then breed for this characteristic.
 
Utilise feral bees in the hope of finding a more resistant breed.  I
would love to think that this will work,  and at the end of the day
it might.  But I think that the odds are stacked against it because -
 
At least some research has shown that infested colonies are more
likely to swarm - and therefore fill the feral niche in areas where
beekeepers keep bees.
 
It is probable that because of the time it takes for Varroa to
destroy a colony (more than a season from first infestation,  I
think) there will always be swarms absconding and reverting to
feral type.  Swarms apparently often do not carry a high mite
infestation.
 
Lastly,  the Western honeybee has only in the last 50 or so years
been prey to Varroa and it is likely (in my opinion) to require a
great deal of time before resistance could develop (evolve?).
 
Indeed,  by treating bees against Varroa we may be preventing this
development of resistance.  Some beekeepers advocate the removal of
drone brood to reduce the mite population early in the year - in
evolutionary terms we may therefore be selecting mites with a
preference for worker brood.  I know that not everyone agrees with
the theory of evolution.
 
I do hope that one way or the other we can breed Varroa resistant
bees!
 
Best wishes
 
Joe Hemmens