James Fischer wrote:
...
> Before anyone goes and bets their hives and their harvests
> on concepts like "breeding from the survivors" or "small-cell"...
>... you may want to consider asking the opinions of a few queen 
> breeders who use every tool at their disposal to breed varroa 
> resistance into their lines, yet still cannot assure their 
> customers that the offspring of the queens they sell will 
> remain varroa resistant for even a single supercedure generation...

I believe very few locations are isolated enough to have drone 
populations of sufficient number, diversity, and resistance for 
successful natural matings that enhance, rather than dilute, the 
multiple resistance characteristics.  I doubt one can evaluate any 
breeding/management technique without addressing drone population 
numbers, genetics, and timing.

My location in the South Carolina Western Piedmont is better than most, 
though our perpetual droughts have limited the drone populations after 
early summer so that late supercedures are often doomed.  For 11 years 
we have mostly used the Bond method (live and let die) and introduced a 
steady trickle of true ferals and many lines of bees selected for 
resistance; we are seeing improving survival with no treatment, 
including observed multi-year feral colonies.  Queens I have given other 
beekeepers for the last 5 years have mostly out-survived their 
commercial queens in minimal or no-treatment conditions. All queens are 
from natural swarm or supercession cells, naturally mated.  The first 
year that Russians were available, they became part of the mix and their 
characteristics seem to dominate throughout our association of 
like-minded beekeepers.

For several years I have been battling neurological Lyme and too much 
work time, plus the drought situation and terrible spring weather, so I 
have not built the hive numbers that I would like.  I'm hoping for a 
good spring (don't we always) to make the most of whatever useful 
genetics we may have evolved.  Of course the micro and macroscopic 
"bugs" may also have evolved to co-exist better with their hosts.

We like to say that all beekeeping is local, but we forget that may also 
apply to all bee populations that can live without chemicals. The 
restoration of a backyard and feral bee for McCormick County, SC, is my 
focus at this time. I tend to view the development of local bee 
populations from the perspective of island evolution and biogeography, 
having grown up and studied biology in the rather unique laboratory of 
the Caribbean islands.

Carolyn in Plum Branch, SC

PS  I keep my empty equipment where the bees can mine the propolis from 
it, which they do with vigor.  We also have many pine and sweetgum 
(Liquidambar styraciflua) trees and a large population of the resinous 
Baccharis halimifolia (the same genus I believe as the much-touted 
Brazilian green propolis).  I have always selected in favor of heavy 
propolis production.  It certainly helps the bees build their hive 
beetle traps (another positive selection trait).

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