At 11:01 AM 12/7/1999 EST, Arburn47 wrote:

>The scientists recommend that beekeepers regularly
>inspect their colonies for mite resistance and then select queens--for
>breeding--from the colonies with the lowest mite populations. Some
>beekeepers and breeders are already doing this.

This can create a dilemma.  I have one colony from a package that arrived
with other packages infested with Apistan resistant mites.  This colony
lived all season amidst mite infested neighbors, but no matter how hard or
long I looked, there was nary a mite in that colony.  Every one of hundreds
of drone pupae was totally clean.  They made more comb sections by far than
any other colony, under the same conditions.  They are always exceedingly
populous.  They are of average gentleness.  Now the other horn of the
dilemma: Despite copious brood space and lots of supers, they made juicy
swarm cells all summer long, persisting into mid October after the leaves
had fallen, after killing frosts, etc., at which time they were found
checking out the landowner's garage.  This peskiness ceased after the last
juicy cell was cut out in late October.  As you can imagine, with cells
always in progress that colony was copiously provided with other colonies'
mite-carrying drones.  Now I'm debating with myself whether next season to
propagate this queen's stock for their good points, or to pinch the old girl
off.  I'm leaning toward preserving them and trying them in a long hive to
attempt to satisfy them.  A dilemma.

Bill Morong