From: Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]> 

>Frankly, I am appalled at the fact that the lines developed by Harbo, Spivak, Rinderer, etc. are not adopted by beekeepers generally and instead they keep buying Golden Italians from who knows who, because they're so purty.

perhaps it is a marketing problem?

i hear these lines touted, but i don't hear anything that would make me want to buy them.  if they are supposed to be bees that are more resistant to varroa, are they more resistant enough to eliminate varroa treatments?

if they are not, then one either has to monitor (labor intensive, especially in a big commercial operation), or continue to treat regularly (with all the comb contamination, brood killing, and microbial culture disrupting results that the purty italians have).

if they are (resitant enough to eliminate varroa treatments), then why don't we hear about it?  are there "model apiaries" that show these bees at their best?  no treatments and productive?  if i were to try to sell such a bee, i would use model apiaries to demonstrate it's lack of mites and mite treatments.  even if unusual management practices are required to maintain such stock without treatments, at least it could demonstrated outside of the producers own operation.

claiming "mite resistance" without demonstrating it is like claiming "new and improved" on a bottle of dishwashing liquid.

i have not not heard from one person who was able to eliminate mite treatments by buying such bees.  these people have been at work for a long time.

i have also spent a lot of time and money eliminating treatments in my own operation.  if there were any indication that these lines would accomplish the same, it is what i would have done, what i would do today, and what i would recommend to others.

btw, i agree with you about the work of dr. kerr...probably the most successful publicly funded bee research ever done.

deknow


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