I realize I am coming from a fairly naive position, but  I have heard of the
highly antibacterial properties of several types of honey, not to mention
propolis itself--are the bee's weapons just not strong enough to fight off
these diseases and pests? If not, is the natural order of things dictating
that bees are doomed? How is it that there is a strain of bacteria so potent
that no antibiotics can kill it? (or the only ones that seemed to be working
were sterilizing the queens--is this true?) Any or all of these questions, I
guess, are fueled by my knowledge of antibiotic over/mis-use in humans and
farm animals, and prompted by the last posting about DNA swapping between
micro-organisms.  thanks--
anne