AW>From: Adrian Wenner <[log in to unmask]>
  >Date:         Mon, 27 Oct 1997 14:05:29 -0700
  >Subject:      Re: Very Agressive!!
 
AW>Marlin (SCOTT) Kline wrote:
 
AW>>Hello  This the first time I have asked for someone's opinion with there
  >>experience with bees,not implying that it is not needed only that I
  >>normally just read from the list and learn.This is my first year and
  >>first and second deep supers,in removing the honey super I noticed they
  >>were very upset,I was using a smoker which only upset them more.  Etc.
 
AW>   I have had the same experience when encountering two colonies
  >(side-by-side) in the throes of death from varroa infestation.  Chalkbrood
  >prevailed, and the bees really had nothing left to defend.  Although I
  >inserted Apistan strips, both colonies were dead a month later --- still
  >full of honey.
 
AW>   Back in the 1950s we would have said those colonies had become
  >"demoralized."
 
Hello Adrian,
 
Aside from the aggressive bees something that is nothing new in
beekeeping and easily taken care of in most operations with stock
selection and a good re-queening program, but I read that this beekeeper
has selected to have his bees tested. I guess he is not aware or maybe
in his area they do not do the good old "Afro Bee Slash and Burn" on
suspected killer bee hives or maybe he is just trying to be a good
citizen and has not met his first quarantine boss with star and gun at
the ready who really does not care if he is a good citizen or not, but
maybe he will get lucky and his bees will not be positive (for what).
 
Back in the pre mite age those demoralized hives from the 1950's also
died and in large numbers from time to time in many different areas in
the US, and even good old beekeepers have had problems at different
time. All this even before the first notice of chalk brood in fact
records going back 80 or more years reflect large un-explained bee
losses both in the west and east. I say un-explained, I meant to say not
explained by the causes assigned them at the time.
 
I suspect the only difference is that today when they die they have
varroa and as the hive declines in the numbers of bees I would expect
that the varroa numbers are magnified until at the end there is one or
more varroa for each adult bee and a few left over for the queen. I
suspect that a static number of varroa in a healthy hive translates in
the same hive to a large number per bee in a declining hive populations
for what ever the reason and may have nothing to do with the dynamics
of the varroa populations but reflect the dynamics of a declining bee
or host population.
 
Changing the thread....
 
You have yet to tell us if all the feral hives on that island have
disappeared after you introduced varroa into that feral population that
never had them prior to your decision to introduce them. An interesting
scientific approach but truly sad story of the deliberate despoiling of a
clean bee environment with a know bee pest and maybe the only
healthy population of feral bees in the US that was varroa free, now
there are none according to what some would have us believe or at the
lest one less.
 
I wonder if those who want to set the clock back in the rest of the
world, thinking of those who live upside down to us and who still have a
use for honey buckets other then for honey, would consider releasing
varroa to kill the non native honey bees from their national parks and
forests. I guess they would have to change their bee importation laws
to allow bees from the US but then I have received in the mail a regular
envelope containing live varroa so I guess someone could air mail them
some to get them started and bypass any bee importation laws.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
 
(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.
 
(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
 
---
 þ QMPro 1.53 þ Tight clothes increase a woman's circulation