>Another observation related to the previous string which brings it all to the more real world and practical...

Many thanks Jose for taking the time to draft such comprehensive replies.

It's good to hear there are practitioners making progress with varroa resistance.  It's not surprising that the reports vary and tend to be location/practitioner dependent.

This is more of what I expected to hear as opposed to the reference made by Humberto during the Oddie interview describing beekeeping professionals  'deligitimizing'  scientific findings relating to natural resistance.

For what it is worth, there are a number of us who have been working with resistant bees off treatments for many years in our little corner of southern appalachia.  You will have to take my word for it but our colonies do not limp along.  Very robust colonies result when swarm prevention is practiced, or two productive colonies result when a split is performed prior to swarming season.  We harvest average or better honey crops for our area.  My personal overwinter loss  average is 15% over the past 14 years, with several years having zero losses.

Our breeding selection is generally based on productivity, and deselection is accomplished via overwinter loss.  I wonder to what degree the death of the mite colonies in those overwinter losses helps to deselect the more virulent mites/viruses.

At any rate should there be any researchers reading this list having an interest resistant bees and would like to examine our local metapopulation we are happy to oblige.   Please contact me directly off list.

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