Hello Dennis and All,

> My best producer was an open mated SMR(Harbo) queen from Weavers in
Texas.

I am not surprised by this. The Weaver (All American) Italian line has been
one of the best honey producing lines I have ever come across.  If the All
American line was the line used for open mating.

SMR Hives with my own SMR reared queens really didn't have time to
> develop and test for production as most were still a healthy mix of
> Russian, Spivak, etc. by seasons end.

Ours did not either. All we could tell is they were gentle, produced
excellent brood patterns and seemed to not carry any undesirable traits.

> This experience with small cell and SMR has been very interesting. I have
> seen symptoms that I would have treated instantly with chemicals to save
> the hive.

I believe the reinfestation problem is confusing things.  Plus the hives
they were introduced into had a very high mite count.

> I do not know what the mite count would have been without SMR trait. I
> think mite reinfestation is a great problem, but mite reproduction was
> occurring.

There are three different schools of thought here. I could write a chapter
in answer to the above. We need to wait and see. All opinion at this point
in the process. Not enough time has passed to draw conclusions.

 I think some of my non SMR hives were loosing mites and my SMR
> hives were gaining mites:>). They are all in the same yard.

Drifting and reinfestation it seems to me. Might be a problem getting
accurate conclusions keeping so many untreated hives in the same yard.


> With small cells it appears that at certain times of the year higher mite
> drop reflects a process that ultimately could result in fewer mites in
> the hive. Maybe.

I have no experience with small cell so can not really comment on actual
experimentation. Maybe other 49ers will. I may try some SMR on small cell
next year for experimentation if varroa is able to reproduce in worker cells
of my SMR bees.  In my opinion we are still searching for the non chemical
answer.

> The SMR bees definitely had the highest percentage of damaged mites.

As Aaron comented this seems to indicate hygienic behavior and has little to
do with SMR. I believe the final varroa tolerant bee will be hygienic with
SMR and could possibly be on small cell. Other IPM methods such as OMF and
drone removal may also be needed.  It is simply to early in the process to
make conclusions other than state observations like those Dennis is seeing
and try to figure out what is going on. Good luck with the bees over the
winter! Thanks for sharing Dennis!
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison