> From:    randy oliver <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: The History of Movable Combs -Gotland study

> It is a coevolution taking place.  The key requirement is a nordic climate

Hello Randy,

This is happening in other places too. In 2002 I visited Roger White 
in Cyprus that had a hive surviving without treatment. Roger said the 
small hive we were looking at didn't build up to produce much but was 
just sitting there idling. Maybe Rog would comment on what happened to 
that hive? From personal talk with Ingemar about the Gotland project, 
he leans towards the reason being lower reproduction rate with the 
surviving colonies. When bees don't produce much brood, there is not 
much mites produced either. And that's logical, bees don't need to 
produce more honey during the summer than is needed to take them 
through the next winter. Even a small colony will produce the 20-25 kg 
needed for winter in our climate. So left to natural selection the 
bees will revert back to smaller colonies that swarm every year. The 
swarming in unmanaged colonies is also a reason why they seem to 
handle the mites better. A broodless period of 3-4 weeks when the 
mites are unable to reproduce will cut back mite numbers considerably, 
and with only 1-2 brood cycles before winter with the new queen, there 
will not be so many mites going into winter.

There is a number of very large queen producers in the US, I believe 
this has affected the gene pool negatively over the years. In Europe 
we have a larger number of smaller queen producers that also work with 
a greater diversity of bee races. It could be the reason for what some 
of you see with the feral colonies. When swarms from different sources 
fly into the woods their virgins will mate with a greater diversity of 
drones. Their offspring will have more vigor, and a greater genetic 
mixture will make it easier for further selection.

-- 
Regards

P-O Gustafsson, Sweden
http://beeman.se

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