> Am I safe in assuming that your suggesting
> that beekeepers Select for colonies that show damaged mites on bottom
> board debris and rear and mate queens from these possibly promising
> colonies?

There was a beekeeper from Eastern Europe who had discovered and was
promoting that idea with a book about ten years back.  With the right search
key, details will come up easily in the archives.

The idea is good, and mite damage is one of the chaacteristics that breeders
do look for and use in selection, but I think that selecting for mite damage
has some problems.  As I recall, the characteristic is variable in a colony
and depends on he mite load, season, and some other factors that make it a
little hard to rate.

Moreover, John Harbo presented a list of selection characteristics that can
be used in breeding for varroa resistance last year at the ABF, and I think
that this characteristic was on the list (can't find my notes off hand), but
if it was, it was near the bottom when they were ranked by heirability (and
thus usefulness).

Percentage of mites in brood was at the top of that ranking and highly
heiritable, followed by SMR, and other traits, and thus, logically these
more highly heiritable charcteristics receive much more weight.

The problem is that the greater the number of characteristics that are used
in selection, the more rapidly the  gene pool narrows, and without bringing
in new stock, the line dead ends quickly.  Of course, if too much new stock
is being brought in, how selective can that be?

There is a practical limit to how many selection criteria one can use in a
real world, in the short term at least.  So, if one is lucky and finds that
characteristic in an otherwise desirable and selected group, that is a
bonus, otherwise, it can be a distraction.

That's how I understand it, anyhow.

allen
A Beekeeper's Diary: http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::