Hi All

I might have guessed that I would run into some opposition!

I am not quite sure how far Bob's tongue is in his cheek when he says...

> I find it funny that you English are so attached to your black bee that
> Brother Adam found (in his opinion) to not be even close to being the
ideal
> bee.

I could write a book in reply to that statement, but I will restrict
myself...

First... Bro Adam's idea of an 'ideal bee' for his purpose was the Buckfast
bee as it was in about 1980. It was a brilliant bee for it's purpose
(heather honey production on Dartmoor) however it was never intended (by
him) for general purpose use. He sold it to others because they 'desired' it
and it made money for the Abbey.

I have been accused of being a 'black bee' fanatic, but I do not consider
this correct. I am in favour of bees that are easy to work, non stinging,
productive of honey, disease and pest resistant and breed true without much
human intervention.

I have only found these traits myself in dark bees from well established
lines that were not wiped out as Bro. Adam insisted. The wipe outs were
severe in the region that he was working in, but this is largly attributed,
these days, to the amount of Italian hybridisation among the bees in his
surrounding locality. Further North a great many pockets of bees were
untouched by Isle of Wight disease.

I was not commenting about any work at Baton Rouge, but that many bee types
are 'brought to market' too quickly for the amount of testing and assement
that is really required.

> Will your English bee survive varroa without help?

I doubt that a large proportion of any race or strain of bee, as it exists
at the moment, would survive unaided.


> Shouldn't you be leaving some untreated and breeding
> from varroa tolerant bees?

There are a number of groups of serious amateur breeders attempting this.

> Would not the SMR
> trait be a help to your English black bee?

The SMR trait exists in UK bees, but not at very useable levels... It may
have it's part to play, but I doubt that it is the 'magic bullet'.

I know that Bro. Adam is considered a saint by some in US and I have no wish
to blacken his character. Some documents written by Bro. Adam have recently
come into my hands and I will eventually be publishing them on my website.
It will take time to do this as they need re-typing due to being very old
Roneo copies that were poorly printed even before they faded. They do show
that he was rather biassed against 'the black bee'.

Opinions and kidding aside, we will be finding definitive answers very
shortly as DNA analysis is starting to track and identify individual alleles
and we will eventually be able to compare strains of bee in great detail.
This will enable us to work out the divergence of the geographic types over
the past few thousand years.

I don't know much about Fords and Chevies, I used to have souped up Jags and
Daimlers myself.

Best Regards & 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
Beekeeping and Bee Breeding Website
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
BEE-L subscribers are reminded to read and follow the
guidelines for posting, which are available online at:
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::