This is my first posting so bear with me. Tom Rinderer with the USDA bee lab
has asked for any survivior queens from any abandoned or feral colony here in
the United States. He plans to use them to produce a mite resistant bee.
 
As for the project mentioned we at Hybri-Bees are doing what you have
proposed with the Starline Breeding program now. The stockholders run approx
100,000 col. of bees and they send queens that they find that may be a better
bee to Hybri-Bee in Dade City, Florida  USA for evaluation. We run the queens
in tests to determine if they are indeed better and if so we use Instrumental
Insemination to try and fix the desirable characteristic into inbreed lines
for the formation of hybrids.
 
Should anyone that finds a better bee like to send the Queen of the colony to
us at Hybri-Bee we would be happy to evaluate them along with the others. We
would even be happy to supply Breeder queens of the stock you send. We at HBI
do custom breeding and the price is reasonable.
 
Our Industry needs to support this aspect to ensure a healthy future. The
problem is a question of support of the organization's that breed and try to
maintain the stocks. At HBI we have close to 18 stocks of bees and it is
expensive in time and funds. Without  a selection program, selected
characters are quickly lost through genetic dilution in natural mating.
 
In short what you have wished for in SUPER Bee is in place, all be it in a
slightly different format. What we need is support from beekeepers to make it
work. People tend not to even try new things until they are proven. Then they
tend to bee extremlly critcal of the project. As an example, the release of
the USDA yugo mite resitant stock in the USA. If the breeding programs are
not supported at the lowest level, "the purchase of the queens", it becomes
to to expensive to make any improvement in the stock. One other question you
might ask abut the super bee is, How much are you willing to give for her.
 
It is refreshing to see that the beekeeping population is looking for a
genetic solution. We need the support at all levels educational, reasearch,
and commerical producers to overcome the trials and tribulations that we can
expect in the future with the mites, BPMS etc.
 
I applaud your intrest in the breeding of better bees.
 
Hybri-Bees, Dean M. Breaux