Hi Everyone,
I totally agree with Bob H that there are some very interesting and unsubstantiated claims being put forward for observing hygenic behavior in action!  This is well documented by Dr Marla Spivak and other researchers.  I have seen it in many colonies of different types.   The bees are removing pupa that are either diseased or varroa infested.  They remove diseased pupa before there are any visible symptoms present in the pupa so some of those pupa may be infected with chalkbrood or AFB for example instead of varroa.  When the bees remove diseased pupa at this stage, the disease is not to the point of producing spores and so the bees are able to remove these diseases from the colonies.  Good stock from a disease management point of view but Dr Spivak and others have clearly shown in published research that they are not resistant to varroa.  They do slow the population increase of varroa for a while but the varroa wins the fight over time - they are not resistant to varroa.  Remember also that this trait needs to be present in bees that also have all the other important good traits for the stock to be considered good and useful stock.  They have to produce good honey crops, winter well for those of us in the north, and be gentile as well as disease resistant and we also need traits like SMR that confir varroa resistance.

Finding adult mites in the brood of SMR F1 queens is not by itself evidence that they are not varroa resistant.  The critical observation is if they have successfully reproduced in those brood cells.

I fully agree with Bob and Aaron that the two year test will tell the tale on these bees.  I only have a few colonies but may have an indication by next spring ( actually during the winter ) if they survive winter since they have not been treated and they did have mites this last spring.  Right now I fully expect one of the hives be killed by varroa this winter but it is not an SMR queen.  Again time will tell and those willing to loose some colonies to varroa due to not treating.

FWIW

blane


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Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
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