Barry Birkey wrote: "I also find it interesting that many are jumping right in line for their SMR queens without 'critical analysis'" I'm jot jumping on Barry, as others have also questioned whether SMR is a real phenomenon or yet another hope that may end up falling apart under scrutiny. I have been following John Harbo's work since the mid-90s, because what he was doing/proposing/speculating/INVESTIGATING back then seemed to me to be quite plausible. It was an acceptable (to me) hypothesis that varroa resistance could be out there and that selective breeding could bring the resistance to the forefront. Harbo feels he has done this IN HIS AREA (Louisiana) and now he's anxious to test what has worked in his area in other geographies. Tom Glenn (in Northern California) claims that queens he's breeding and Instrumentally Inseminating in Northern California are also exhibiting the SMR trait. I don't know if Tom has collected empirical data to the extent that John has and actually I would be doubtful he has, given that he has only recently gotten involved in the SMR project. I would consider Tom's testimony to be more anecdotal than empirical, although he keeps close ties with the research community and I'm sure he's been following Harbo's work quite closely. Regardless, what Tom is doing is taking the next step in John's work, which is getting the SMR trait massively distributed to see if what has been exhibited in La. holds up in vastly different geographical areas. Barry wonders why so many are anxious to jump on the SMR band wagon unquestioningly, while the very same folks are so skeptical of 4.9 cell size. My guess is the KISS principle. Requeening with a line of bees that may prove to be up to 100% resistant to Varroa d. is far simpler than retrogressing an entire operation to 4.9 cells. I'm willing to jump right in to the SMR experiment. $50 and I'm in. I can do that. Retrogressing my entire operation? I'll wait until enough people have done that and found it to be the solution to the problem before I make the investment. And I'm not throwing stones at 4.9! I hope it's a solution and await the results of those doing the work. I'm left wondering how much testimony it will take to convince me. > Who knows. Lots of speculation but until many give it a try, we won't know. That's exactly what's going on. MANY are giving it a try to see if the claims hold up. > Too bad we can't have more of these beekeepers willing to try other methods that are working > on a much larger scale. Too bad 4.9 requires so much work to get there. Aaron Morris - thinking perhaps I'm being fat and lazy. PS: An amusing aside is the there is an effort to get people pronouncing SMR as SMaRt. I wonder if that will be successful or if SMR will forever be pronounced SMuR.