James Fischer wrote:
> I remember that Bee-L was informed of these findings by Allen Dick
> in advance of publication of the paper years and years ago.  
> http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/articles/tracheal.htm
>
> Sure, I sample for tracheal mites, and gosh it is tedious to
> peer at all those trachea. 
 From the article: "Through testing, susceptible colonies are easily 
identified and can be eliminated.  Several of the queen breeders who 
participated in this survey reported that susceptible colonies were 
removed from their breeding programs soon after they received the test 
results."

Unless the queens are tested, which means using mites, I wonder about 
the quality of queens even from a supplier who has "mite resistant queens".

Unless the supplier sells the exact same genetic stock, in essence a 
clone, every year, there will be variability in the queens as time goes 
along. Since there does not seem to be TM pressure and the bees sold 
would be unlikely to have TM, resistance can diminish naturally.

Also, each queen supplier does "improve" the stock. If there is no TM 
testing, that resistance could easily diminish with time without anyone 
seeing it, especially if the threat, Varroa, was seen as the main reason 
for the breeding program. My guess is there is no TM testing.

The supposed unimportance of TM, because we have resistant bees, is 
especially dangerous now, with Varroa and CCD always blamed for colony 
failure. Unfortunately, here in Maine, TM has bee high on the list of 
the cause of winter kill, even now. In each case, and they have been 
fairly high losses over the past winters, Varroa was blamed, but under 
the microscope, TM were present and often the real culprit. It has shown 
up in both hobby and commercial yards, including colonies overwintered 
in Florida. It showed up in some of the CCD colonies inspected by Jerry 
and Co.in California.

For a hobby beekeeper who grows their own, throwing on a patty in the 
fall is cheap insurance. It certainly removes one mite which is present 
in Maine (Cal. and Florida) from being an issue.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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