Hi all,

Allen email reads:

"It has been proven now that that (sic) proper hygienic selection does
eliminate other good properties in a strain of bees, and the time has come
to get the message across."

Interesting point Allen. I think what you are trying to get across is: To select for *strong* hygienic behavior to the exclusion of other traits, ie. honey production, may not give us prolific honey makers and/or pollinators. 

I am interested to grafting off some of the VSH queens(from Glenn's) , that I just installed yesterday, this next February and let them mate with our general production stock that leans towards a leather Italian. All the VSH queens were of very nice size and generally a leather colored Italian. 

I'll get to see how they build up (or not) this fall and again when we start feeding syrup and patties after Christmas in Florida. I hope to have at least one or two that rise to the top, like cream on milk. I like to see at least 9 frames of brood by mid January. Then I'll roll some bees off the brood and check the mite count. 

I will tell ya'll straight up that the VSH carried less mites by a long shot when I rolled my breeders last March. I had one very prolific Italian that rolled 30 mites. I treated it with a miticide to see what kind of drop I would get. Ha...about 800 mites. Two weeks later it still rolled about 25 mites. They just kept hatching out. That hive never made it to the breeder rotation.(we graft from a different queen or two every day in our busy time and keep about 15 breeders). We only raise cells for 6 weeks off 80 cell builders and then we shut it down. 

The VSH queens (next door) rolled 3 mites or so. What a difference. These were AI queens. (excuse me to repeat this story).

I really think that I can improve  the hygenic behavior in our *production* stock and still have big clusters for Cal. and make some decent honey crops. 

I am going to visit with Dr. John Kefuss when Sharon and I go to France this Sept. I think he was featured in March issue of AB Journal. He has not treated for 10 years. Very interesting. He is about two hours from the Apimondia site. We could use a little adventure. 

 

Kirk Jones

Sleeping Bear Farms   beekeepers making honey...
Benzie Playboys           cajun and zydeco band........

 

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