> U.S. honey was put on a three year what by the FDA a few years ago and passed with flying colors.

Well, if you have been following what Juanse Barros has been going through, you will know that things can change overnight. The EU is condemning honey with traces of GM pollen in it. They allow no antibiotics. Whether they will object to oxalic acid residues at some point, I don't know. But this is all beside the point.

The point is, if nobody supports the quest for better, mite resistant bees, the folks that raise them will give up on that and go back to raising "golden italians". Whereas, if we buy queens from resistant stock and continue to select from those, we will gradually weed out the junk. I wish progress was faster, but nature has its own time scale, some things can't be forced.

I have criticized folks like Lusby and Deknow for advocating going cold turkey, as it is too radical in terms of heavy losses. I also criticize Bob's notion that if we can kill mites with poisons, who cares about breeding for resistance, especially if it is a fantasy in any case. In the end, I expect people to make up their own minds. Let us know how you do.

PLB

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm