In a message dated 8/1/01 10:21:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Just a comment on the issue of resistance to Varroa.  As Aaron points out
nicely John Harbo has shown that the SMR trait is fairly widely distributed
in Apis m populations and can be selected for.  Peter asks why and the answer
is we don't know at present but maybe the work of Anderson regarding Varroa
populations has some implications here.  He found that only very few Varroa
mite populations were able to switch from Apis cerana to A m and even those
that made the jump were not fully able to exploit A.m.  When a parasite jumps
to a new host, it is not always a good fit in either direction ( host or
parasite)  and whatever the mechanism underlying the SMR trait is it
involves a critical function needed by varroa for reproduction.  So it could
just be a case of the parasite not being fully compatible with the new host.
>>


    I'm convinced varroa resistance or weaker varroas are getting common
around coastal SC.  I'm finding more honeybees than I've seen in years.
Yesterday I discovered the source of some of these bees, when I found that a
local guy has kept bees for 40 years. I know him, and had no inkling that he
had bees. He's got five hives at the present. I asked him about varroa
treatment and he just looked totally blank. He keeps bees mostly because his
father and grandfather kept bees, and he's an avid gardener. He doesn't have
contact with other beekeepers and doesn't buy queens. Here is a survivor,
whether by luck or good beekeeping or whatever. Almost all the old time
beekeepers are gone....   Hmmm....I wonder if I should set up some bait hives
around his place next spring....

   On a recent trip thru some of the Midwest and northeast (USA and Ontario,
Canada), I did not see anywhere near the same levels of honeybees as around
here.  There were many gaps where there were basically NO honeybees, so I
think most of what I saw was kept (and probably treated) bees.  Honeybees
were really scarce in Indiana, southwestern Michigan, southwestern Ontario,
and parts of Pennsylvania. We found some honeybees in eastern Kentucky,
southeastern MI, and a lot in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, upstate NY.

   I wanted to get a feel for the overall status of honeybees in the East. I
stopped at clover patches everywhere, also checking knapweed, milkweed,
catalpa, thistle, and many other plants.  You know it is really weird to see
literally acreages of sweet clover on a beautiful day, without a single
honeybee in it! Good thing there are some other pollinators, or the plants
would not reseed at all.

    We stayed with family and friends most of the time. When we felt they
were ready to throw us out, we moved on, so the visits were mostly a day or
two...


Dave Green    SC  USA
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com