Hello Allen & All,
Allen asked:
 Is there a general improvement in the bees' ability to resist disease and
> pests, and are you seeing longer times between treatments?

To be honest in production hives I am not. In others commercial outfits they 
are not. We used to get by with a single treatment for varroa and if needed 
tracheal mites in fall. Now we have to treat twice a year for sure for 
varroa. Some doing pollination treat four times a year for varroa.

None of us go by a Georgia researchers definition of varroa threshold. If we 
did all our hives would be dead. Hives sitting on location all year around 
usually maintain only around four frames of brood. A level which keeps 
varroa load at a minimum. Dropping hives into one pollination after another 
increases varroa load and bees have little time for grooming or performing 
hygienic behavior.  Hives in researchers back yards have time on their hands 
to do a better job of controlling varroa.

One varroa control  problem is caused in my opinion by having to use formic 
and thymol which do not always provide control. Those using strips ( apistan 
/fluvalinate and checkmite /coumaphos) are reporting poor control also .
Like with treating for roaches today the pest control people say they apply 
four different chemicals to rid a house of roaches. using all four 
treatments seems to be the best method for roach control.

Most bees as far as production follow the race lines. The Italian bee being 
the number one choice by far but today in the U.S. the only *pure* Italians 
i get come from Australia from Terry Brown. These bees are from the old 
Homer Park line ( as Homer taught Terry Brown to raise queens years ago when 
Terry started in beekeeping) .  Terry wants to provide the best queens he 
can for his customers. The reason Terry has imported varroa tolerant Italian 
stock from Italy. The reason terry brought Dann Purvis to Australia to teach 
instrumental insemination  (II) to Terry's lab people and set up a closed 
breeding II system for Terry.

My point is that I have had help which have worked for U.S. queen producers 
and if light colored the queens are caged in an Italian queen cage and if 
dark the queen goes in a carniolan cage. The Italian and carniolan lines are 
too similar in genetics in the U.S. So similar in my opinion color means 
little.

Some Italian /carniolan crosses are ok but none in my opinion display the 
well known characteristics of a pure Italian or a pure carniolan bee.

The Russian bees are similar to the Russian traits they are famous for. The 
Russian bee will shut down whenever it feels the need and will not be 
tricked easily with syrup and pollen patties to build up. These bees are 
fine for those wanting this type of bee but most commercial beeks need a bee 
they can do a management procedure and get the desired response. Every batch 
of Russian/Russian I have received had these traits.

The Caucasian bee had certain traits which is why I dropped those bees.

In my opinion some Italian/carniolan crosses do ok but many are short on 
vigor. Most queens sold as carniolan produce yellow workers and at times 
yellow drones. Sue Colbey has talked about the way the Italian and carniolan 
lines are so genetically tied together in the U.S.

The Russian/Russian bee in general has the best health untreated from  my 
observations. However this years queens had nosema ceranae spores. Why 
wouldn't they? In my opinion the Russian/Russian bee does not handle nosema 
ceranae better than any other bee.

The Marla Spivak line of bees are perhaps the best all around bee from my 
testing. Some beeks are only treating for varroa once a year with her stock.

The above are my observations. Certainly others observations may vary as all 
beekeeping is local but the traits of the various races have been written 
about for centuries.

I think my friends from across the pond working with pure A.mm might agree 
with what I have said. Mongrels can display traits of all races and lack 
uniformity.

When bees are in as close to pure form as possible all hives display similar 
traits those races are known for.

The Italian race in pure form is in my opinion very susceptible to tracheal 
mites. Easily controlled by me with a single treatment costing me around 
fifty cents a hive and described in the February 1999 ABJ.

The Russian bee from my testing never needs a tracheal mite treatment.

In cattle the registered pure Hereford always has an issue with *pink eye* 
while an angus rarely has a problem.  The black white face ( Hereford bull 
and angus cow)  calf has the tolerance to *pink eye*  as the angus does.

When the breeder cattle are mostly pure you can predict what the offspring 
will be like. The herd of mongrel cattle will contain various sizes and 
colors of cattle. Offspring are unpredictable.

bob 

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