> It is no surprise to me that we have fragile bees.  Breeding mainly from 
> those that are kept on life support with miticides and antibiotics has 
> slowed the natural evolutionary process that would shift towards a new 
> host/parasite balance.

I hear that too often and have to wonder.  To me this has gotten to be one 
of those things people say and repeat that really needs to be questioned.  I 
don't think we have slowed it one bit and I think we have prevented 
extinctions of both bees and beekeepers over wide areas.

Have we been breeding mostly from bees "kept on life support"?  I don't 
think so.  It may be true of some breeders, but I know that many are seeking 
out stock and bringing in which has been proven to withstand the various 
problems just as quickly as real proof comes in.

Of course they then immediately get criticized for not using locally adapted 
stock, even if it so happens that there is no locally adapted stock, and no 
likelihood of a locally adapted stock having evolved in any reasonable time 
or with any reasonable probability -- or that those stocks, if they did 
somehow evolve spontaneously -- would be practical for commercial purposes!

Think Santa Cruz.  That little experiment should have smartened people up, 
but somehow it did not and we still hear this kind of talk repeated even by 
smart people who should be able to envision exactly what would have happened 
if we had not intervened.

And, no, it would not have been the wonderful world some who have been saved 
by interventions smugly speculate.

I'm not surprised that Bob has fragile bees because he has chosen to buy 
"high performance" special purpose bees.  He has said so.   On the other 
hand there are lots of bees out there which have been bred to stand up to 
the various pests.  It seems that people are not beating down doors to get 
them.

In short,. we have no assurance that a new host/parasite balance would have 
evolved any more quickly if we had just stood back and done without managed 
bees for however long it took.   Let's stop pretending that it would.  All 
we do is play into the hands of people who love to oversimplify and gamble 
with other people livelihoods and money. 

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