Eric Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Joe, you said you don't select for the ability to survive bad varroa
>levels, but you're not intervening to "save" hives either, are you? 

Hi Eric,

I don’t intervene at all to save a colony, they are combined, requeened 
quickly when I see a colony that performs poorly.

> If you're letting hives die from varroa mites, I would say
>you're selecting for some combination of abilities to keep mite levels 
low
>and/or survive with higher numbers of mites.  

Numbers of colonies dying from varroa have steadily declined for me 
over the past 5 years.  I haven’t had a colony die of varroa for about two 
years now.  Could just be a good year, but this season I don’t detect 
any mite pressure what so ever, and only occasionally see a mite or two.  

All my colonies are caught from the feral population and are on natural 
cell sizing.  The problem is with catching ferals is that they need to 
be assessed before you can integrate them.  Also, the performance can vary 
widely, and it can be difficult to tell the bad from the good until 
much time has been invested in assessing them and waiting to see how they 
perform.  I have a system of assessing ferals that enables me to 
rapidly assess the colonies in order to limit the time invested in 
assessing each colony allowing me to free up needed equipment.  I place 
ferals I trap OR catch in my poorest forage location, here it becomes very 
easy to tell the best from the worst.  This first assessment phase lasts 
from colony initiation on thru till the end of the first active season (a 
total of approximately 18 weeks after the colonies are established).  
During this initial assessment period, I may eliminate an average of 40 to 
50% of these ferals due to deficiencies in colony growth or other 
reasons.  

At the initial assessment stage, I am mostly selecting for colony 
growth, fecundity and over all health.  You may recognize the 
quote “Fecundity is an essential prerequisite for any exceptional 
performance,  and adequate fecundity must be bound up with a series of 
other essential characteristics of economic value“.  So here I assess 
fecundity, and management  characteristics first, and then move on to 
include traits of economic value.  By the end of the season, it becomes 
obvious which colonies have traits essential for productivity and the out 
performers really stand out above the pac when assessing bees in such a 
poor forage location.  From here on out, colonies are moved to an out yard 
and assessed here on out for overall performance.

>What I'm trying to say is that I'm sure selecting for overall 
performance
>works, especially in the absence of intervention, but I wonder if you 
might
>not be able to make a lot more honey by making some very marginal
>sacrifices with your breeding program (if you wanted to).

That is a very good point, and you are right!  

What specific sacrifices would you be referring to?

Basically, I do select for overall performance, but…
being a collector of feral bees what I was faced with in my breeding is 
a complete rebuilding from the ground up.  And because I do not treat my 
bees for anything, I need to balance my breeding equally with traits of 
survival and traits of economic value.   At first when rebuilding, I 
had to select strictly for survival characteristics.  And when I finally 
managed to get the bees surviving varroa and thriving on their own, I 
then turned to selecting traits of fecundity with a major focus on 
hygienic behavior, brood viability, Queen performance and productivity 
etc.  I now have colonies that a very populous and with most colonies 
exhibiting brood viability above 98%, this has resulted in increased 
productivity across the board.  I’m not sure where to go from here, but I 
look at where the bees are lacking to determine this.  Now I am looking at 
focusing again toward improving traits concerning industry, spring build 
up, early comb building etc.  Some of these traits could not have been 
selected earlier due to the priority at the time in establishing traits 
fundamental to the overall health of the colonies.  

Joe Waggle ~ Derry, PA  
EcologicalBeekeeping.com
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
Feral Bee Project: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/

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