Hi Folk

At 12/09/01, Bob wrote:
>...My friends in South Africa with Scuts
>using a even smaller cell size than 4.9mm (Barry
>Seargent on this list) report varroa easily
>reproduces in the 4.9mm (and smaller) cell size
>on A. mellifera. Maybe Barry S. will comment.

Hmm, odd.  Odd, odd, odd.

Because around the same time, on the biobee list...

At 12/09/01 09:44:00, Barry Sergeant wrote:

>...I specialise as a scutellata queen breeder,
>and treat only my queen breeder and cell
>builder colonies... I do NOT treat other colonies...

>I am yet to see varroa causing any kind of
>trouble in either treated or untreated hives. So
>it's a bit of a puzzle. If you LOOK for varroa in
>untreated hives, you'll find them, all right. So
>they are there - but what are they DOING?

And then a couple days later, also on BioBee,
At 14/09/01 15:13:00, Barry Sergeant wrote:

>... I recently inspected, with this beekeeper,  dozens of
>his colonies, containing wild (as opposed to pedigreed)
>queens. We were specifically looking for any varroa
>DAMAGE [my emphasis -Pav], but could not find any.
>But the varroa are present in all the hives.

The foundation i have seen from South Africa measured 4.8mm, and i understand this is
a typical size for wild-drawn Scutellata worker comb too.

Barry Sergeant reported that Apis mellifera scutellata seem to manage okay, while the
Capensis bees (i ASSUME they are generally on the same foundation?) seemingly
were more vulnerable.

Perhaps the reports Bob refers too above, were in regard to Capensis?

In this ongoing sniping between SMR and 4.9 might it actually be possible that BOTH
are factors, and perhaps even that these two factors might interact - better for some
combinations than for others?

Maybe Barry S. WILL comment?

-Pav, wonders why anyone with multiple hives doesn't AT LEAST TRY ONE on 4.9
foundation?
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  (\      Pav                                          [log in to unmask]
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