> So what do you make of the fact that our bees came from the Alps, as you say, but have more trouble with mites in the temperate climates than in tropical or sub-tropical places?  Yesterday you taught everyone at the FLBC Bee Wellness workshop (an ESHPA Bee Wellness Tier 2 workshop) that Russian bees have been plagued with mites the longest.

Not sure what the question is. Cold climate bees from the Alps or the Russian steps have abilities that tropical bees do not have and vice versa. It may be a trait of tropical bees to more aggressively groom themselves whereas cold climate bees are better at honey storage. Naturally we want both, but these traits could be mutually exclusive. 

An example I used was feral colonies have been found that survived without treatment for a decade. One of the characteristics is that the  colonies are smaller on average and produce less honey. It may be that they devote so much energy to fighting mites and keeping the house clean, they don't have as much bee power to devote to honey gathering.

So, this could be an appropriate recipe for survival, and would be well suited to the tropics where bees don't generally hoard large amounts of honey. In the tropics bees are more like gypsies moving from one are to the next when pickin's get slim. Cold climate bees need to be able to prepare themselves for long periods of confinement.

I have another theory which I can't prove but that large colonies may be  more conducive to mite build-up than average sized colonies. So, dividing colonies regularly not only would keep them from getting very large, but also could incorporate a break in the brood cycle. This is what bees do in the tropics: abandon the nest and build a new one (comb replacement).

PLB

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