On 27-Dec-11, at 3:01 PM, Kristine Naess wrote:

>
>
> So given the feasibility of keeping hives free from varroa in the  
> area, is it worthwhile?  How much is varroa costing you if you add  
> up all the indirect costs as well as the direct costs? I'm an  
> outsider and have no idea but certainly from the media and the  
> literature it seems varroa is a huge problem for most considering  
> it's effects on other diseases.
>

Hi Kristine and all

Those who have varroa seem to have forgotten what it was like at the  
start.  Hive losses were high in spite of the poisons(most don't work  
any longer) that we put into the hives to fight varroa.  I'm sure  
that most beekeepers would go back to the good old days before  
varroa, if they could.  North American bees are still treated one way  
or another for varroa, for the most part.  Some have attributed CCD  
to varroa at least in part.

I believe that you could be successful with your bees from  
Newfoundland as long as all other bees brought in return home at the  
end of blueberry pollination and are never closer than 50 km from  
your bees.  Once there are established colonies (swarms from the  
migratory hives or someone local buying them), the 50 km will not be  
enough.

There are varroa free areas in northwestern Ontario and several nuc/ 
queen producers there(see ontariobee.com).  They could be a secondary  
source for you but the distance is very large (almost 1700 km from  
Thunder Bay to Montreal)

I don't move bees for pollination, have never been east of Montreal  
and am a small beekeeper but have had bees since the early 70's

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W


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