> Personally I use miticides only if I have to

I think most of us are that way, but there may be differences in when we 
think we "have to".

 > ..I'm making a rather pathetic attempt at breeding for resistance.

It beats me why individuals think they can do that.  They can't.  All 
they can achieve is an ephemeral success before reversion cuts in. It 
can last years, but it is doomed.

The pros can't do it either, and they have education, collaboration, 
isolation, laboratories and all sorts of arcane resources available.

 > If we can't breed the bees to sufficient resistance maybe it's time
 > to start breeding mites to less virulence.

That idea has been kicked around and I am sure it has merit.  The 
problem with that is how do you know when you have achieved it enough to 
place confidence on it and how do you know when you have lost it?

 > There is a limit to conventional breeding, but there are bees that
 > live successfully with varroa so we know that it is possible.

"Possible" is not the same as probable or reliable.  This illusion is a 
prime fallacy that permeates beekeeping culture.  Just because someone 
seems to be pulling some trick off for a while with small samples in 
limited regions and it looks like success does not mean that apparent 
success is not simply the temporary and unlikely product of random 
chance -- and a flash in the pan.

This whole business is like flipping coins double or nothing.  Given 
enough players, the rules of chance tell us that someone may very well 
go 5, 10, 100 and even more flips of the coin without losing.  People, 
even educated people, love to believe that the apparent success is 
something more than mere chance in action.

It is not, and it seems most of the survivor stories out there are 
similar products of chance and either dependent on unusual circumstances 
or short-term phenomena.

I know.  I know.  Nobody is going to believe me, except some of the wise 
old men who hang around here, but it is true, like it or not.

 > It may be though that the constraints we put on them make it
 > impractical.

Exactly.  Back to the real world.

 > but I haven't given up yet.

Don't let me spoil your fun.  If you can pull it off -- or simply 
convince gullible others that you have (which is far easier) -- you'll 
be a star.

You could even start a beekeeping cult.  Others have.

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