Waldemar, Re: This is what has been said of the so-called SMR bees - tolerant of varroa but not productive. I've tried all kinds of SMR crosses, and most have been miserable bees--weak and hard to keep alive. The problem apparently is finding the right cross. Last year I had Glenn Apiaries make me a Minnesota Hygienic x SMR cross. This was a magical combination!!!! (This individual queen, anyway--don't know if it can be replicated). I raised about a hundred daughters from her and ran them last year in alfalfa, then overwintered in snow, then to almond pollination. Her offspring show the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene by uncapping and removing infested pupae, and were by far the best bees I've seen in many years. They have negligible levels of Varroa, winter well, survive adverse conditions--my last load in almonds got stuck in the rain for a month with no bloom or weeds. Other colonies in the same orchard were on the verge of starvation, but her daughters came out looking like they came from a spring honeyflow--big brood nests, heavy with fresh honey and nectar, and thriving! They apparently can make honey from mud :) I've never been so amazed! When I return from almonds, I nuc up everything, and in the process go through every frame of every colony. After a while this spring, we could recognize daughters of this breeder by their incredible brood nests and populations before we even checked the hive label. I've been grafting this year again off the original mother (in her second year--now that she's proven herself by producing great daughters) and off her best daughters. I've sold many nucs, and the feedback is that those nucs headed by the original queen or her daughters far outperform everything else. In my operation, they are making the difference between financial profit and loss. I've been keeping bees for 40+ years, and breeding queens for 20+ years. For the past 5 years I've been breeding for Varroa resistance, and trying most of the resistant lines offered for sale. This queen line is the most exciting thing I've seen. I don't know if this cross can be replicated, and this year I'm trying the reciprocal cross (again from Glenn). But her best daughters are producing exceptional daughters of their own, the the traits are heritable. I'd like to get her genetics out to the beekeeping fraternity, but I'm too busy to produce queens for sale or shipping on large scale (I raise about 1000 a season for my own use and local sale). I'm not looking to hoard this queen line, and sure think her genes should be as widely disseminated as possible. Any queen producers out there interested??? I'm open to suggestions. Email me directly. Randy Oliver California -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---