Steve Davis mentions that bees kept in gums with no frames and had never been treated for mites were still alive, then he transferred them to regular hives and treated them, wondering if they might have resistance. Two thoughts come to my mind as I read his message. One is that yes, it is possible that they could have some resistance. The other is that since they were not raised on foundation or frames and just in the natural comb, they would most likely have had a lot more drones raised than an ordinary hive. In that case, since mites reproduce predominantly on drone brood when it is available, then the drones would have been more affected by the mites than the workers and the overall hive would have been healthier. I would think, though that after the mite population got up to a certain point in density that the whole hive would be affected. But the fact that they had never been treated suggests the possibility of resistance. The thought that the reason they were "alive" was that they had a higher population of drones than a normal hive is intriguing, though. On the other hand, feral bees would also have a higher population of drones than a normal hive and they for the most part have been wiped out by the mites anyway. The conclusion I must therefore ultimately come to is that if these hives in the gums had been exposed to Varroa for several years and survived that it would most likely have to have been because of a resistance factor of some kind. That's just where my logic leads me, unless there are other things of which I am not aware that might have affected their survival. I also have a friend that has kept one or two hives year in a year out and has never treated them and one or the other has survived, just requeening themselves when they need to. Are they just escapees that have not yet been infected with the mites, or do they have resistance? I guess the only way to tell is to deliberately infect them and see what happens to them after that. Layne Westover College Station, Texas, USA