Several mixings of fact and assumptions have been made to come 
up with a series of statements about microbes that, while 
interesting, have little or no application to beekeeping.

The ability of Dean's microbes to mutate rapidly is due to
the simple fact of their rapid reproduction rate, a feature
not shared by either honey bees or varroa.  It has been 
estimated that if microbes increased without check, the 
progeny of one microbe in forty eight hours would number 
281,500,000,000. In 72 hours the weight of that lone microbe's 
descendants would be 74,178 tons.  Pretty amazing when you
realize that the mass of a single dipio, strepto, staphylo, 
or sarcina form of bacilli or spirilla is nearly zero.

> are you claiming here that this is proof that if left to 
> their own devices, varroa would kill off all honeybees 
> in north america?

This sort of question betrays a misconception that is
common among those who have never tried to breed a
specific trait into their bees.

Before anyone goes and bets their hives and their harvests
on concepts like "breeding from the survivors" or "small-cell",
or any of the other amazingly non-technical approaches that 
are claimed to result in bees that can survive this or that,
you may want to consider asking the opinions of a few queen 
breeders who use every tool at their disposal to breed varroa 
resistance into their lines, yet still cannot assure their 
customers that the offspring of the queens they sell will 
remain varroa resistant for even a single supercedure generation.

Three of the most qualified to answer these questions would be
Tom Glenn ([log in to unmask]), Adam Finklestien ([log in to unmask])
and Sue Cobey ([log in to unmask]). All are happy to sell and 
ship breeder queens that are the result of significant work to 
test for and select for varroa resistance, and show significant 
resistance to varroa.

One could also speak with researchers in the field, such as Dr. Harris
([log in to unmask]) of the USDA, who is working on the
Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) lines [formerly called "Suppressed
Mite Reproduction" (SMR)].

One might even speak with Dr. Marla Spivak ([log in to unmask])
who developed the "Minnesota Hygienic" lines of bees.

All these very highly-qualified and credentialed people can attest
to the complexity of their own breeding programs, the illusive
nature of "varroa resistance", and explain just how unlikely it
would be for any beekeeper to stumble upon success via a
"breed from the survivors" approach, or get any tangible results
from merely forcing the bees into a smaller cell size.

Secondly, one can do some basic research on the central claim
of the small-cell beekeepers, that the smaller cell size reduces
the capped time of the brood, and thereby allows the bee
to emerge before varroa in that cell have fully matured.

First, one is not going to change a genetic feature like maturation
time with physical manipulation of cell size, and second, emergence
times fall into a traditional bell curve, some earlier, and some later.
Both points appear to be simply outside the comprehension of the 
advocates of small-cell.

The arguments by the proponents of small-cell are many, varied,
and often highly entertaining. (The ever-changing tale of "Mite
Leveling" alone has given me hours of enjoyment.)

The small-cell approach is an idea that spreads easily among novice
beekeepers, beekeepers who have limited educations, and those who
have had little success keeping their hives alive via conventional
approaches. The reason it creates so many often highly annoying
proselytizers is built into the idea itself, making it spread like
a virus among the credulous who are exposed to it by an infectecd
beekeeper:

1) This will solve all your bee's problems

2) If it doesn't, it is because your neighbor's bees are to blame,
and also need to be small-cell bees. (See "mite leveling")

3) If everyone followed these practices, no bees would need any
treatments of any type

4) You should spread the word, as the truth has been repressed by
the evil companies that sell miticides, who have bribed the
beekeeping "establishment".

So, you can see how this sort of thing can get out of hand very quickly.
Our local bee associations actually had to set up separate "deprogramming"
novice courses for disillusioned beekeepers who were ready to give up
the craft after several years of dead-out hives, no harvests, and regular
swarms from 4-comb colonies in their all-too-common Top-Bar Hives.
The reason was that instructors were being heckled and argued with
by the small-cell advocates, even though those people were attending
the classes due to admitted failures to keep their bees alive using
small-cell techniques.

The cult-like nature of the small-cell advocates include specific advice
to novices to not register one's hives with apiary inspectors, to avoid
local beekeeping associations, and to keep one's bees a secret from
other beekeepers. The excuse is that smaller bees will be mistaken for
Africanized Bees, which is utter nonsense given that several states
use DNA tests to identify Africanized Bees. It is quite a bit of trouble
to educate people who have had their heads filled with utter nonsense,
even to the point of being convinced that a widespread conspiracy
extends even to the basic beekeeping texts that they have been
advised to ignore. Needless to say, the belief system is an excellent
way to turn an enthusiastic novice into an ex-beekeeper in record
time, and that's the tragedy.

The goal of returning beekeeping to what it was in the early 1980s
before varroa started causing problems is at hand, but it will not come
from unscientific approaches like "small cell", "breeding from survivors",
or "breeding from feral colonies". It will come from hard work in
sophisticated bee breeding, where tangible success that shows up in
controlled studies can be seen.

I like to joke that small-cell beekeeping is just like Scientology,
but without the celebrities.  But I'm not really joking, now am I?

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