a Kevin snip..
'On the question of short term genetic adaptation to novel environmental changes I believe that both Randy and Peter are correct.   Whereas the honeybee’s genome may not have changed appreciably over time as Peter would have it, the species has apparently stockpiled a nice inventory of traits that are subject to being brought to bear as needed for the current circumstance.  In this way and fortunately for the bee the turning on and off of latent traits, and to the degree that genetics (and/or epigenetics) plays a role, we observe the shorter term changes that careful breeding can bring about as per Randy.'

ET replies..
Very nicely stated.  I suspect the time required to obtain resistance is of course not always the same for each and every 'novel environmental change'.  As pointed out resistance to t. mites came about fairly quickly but it appears resistance to v. mites will take a bit longer.  Selection pressure and culling of course are not equally applied by all and across all landscapes.  I also suspect that thy to select for multiple factors (say t. mites and v. mites) at the same time may be nearly impossible. 

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