> One of the best commercial lines in the U.S. was tested this year by >
applying varroa pressure. Only one hive was still alive out of  38 in
August.

Keith asks:
Am I safe in assuming that this one colony might be a good candidate for
breeding then for varroa tolerance, I would really think so.

Yes!

There are two schools of thought.

1. put as many colonies as you can out, leave alone   and breed from the
survivors. With varroa this method did not work years ago  as varroa load
changes for many different reasons which we still do not understand.
( Grandpa and great grandpa beekeepers recommended the above method to their
offspring. Two of my close friends lost close to two thousand hives without
finding a survivor in 1990 and 1993.)
The above method is working now with new gentics added to the pot.

1a. Do the above but add  varroa pressure to speed the process up.

Only being tried over the last five years and would never have been tried in
the late 80's or 90's. Thanks to better genetics we are seeing faster and
better results.

2. Do the above and then look at the  colony and try to find the reason for
the varroa tolerance.

Researcher method. Harbo & Harris method.


For the researcher Keith the colony would be a candidate for testing using
known methods to determine (if possible) why the colony is still alive.
Then if the daughter queen is as varroa tolerant as the queen mother.
Then the colony would move into the program.

To keep balance all the above needs done until we reach our goals.

Keith said:
This would be interesting but if what she and Ed are doing is successful why
really should they waste commercial time to find this
out.

There have been many failures trying to use the principals laid out by the
Lusby's ( I can provide names of beekeepers).

How hard is a small amount of standard testing to back up claims ?
Certainly not hard or rocket science.

I can assure most on the list researchers exist which could take the mystery
out of why small cell hives are surviving as we are told through methods in
use today.

If a grant was made available the research could get done.

A recent application for varroa researched was lost because a prominent
beekeeping book  author  wrote a letter to the grant people saying varroa
tolerance  was not an inheritable trait. The grant was not given.

It is sad that precious beekeeping research money was lost by the ignorance
of a single person.

I believe within five years heritable varroa tolerance will be proven
without question.

I would entertain a discussion on BEE-L with a researcher which believes I
am wasting my time and the survivor trait is not inheritable. Join the BEE-L
list and use an alias if you like. Around 20 or so famous researchers belong
already and use an alias the moderators tell me. And yes they do keep your
secret from the members of BEE-L! I have got a few ideas of their id's . It
is my opinion they only post on rare occasions.

I admire Medhat & Zach for not being afraid to post under their real names!

I am already convinced  varroa tolerance is inheritable but I have seen the
research first hand (research not available yet to the general public).

In fact we have got queens of the bee ( which survive varroa)  for which a
patent has been applied for in our yards.

Possible Lusby partial success reason:
My personal opinion ( and several researchers) is that varroa is effected by
the high temps of the desert in Arizona. We know from research that varroa
is effected by high temperature. Research at raising hive temps to a certain
level have been successful at killing many varroa.

We know now that the small hive beetle is effected by very dry years and
less of a problem in dry years but comes back in wet years.

Many believe the spread of AHB has been halted *eastward*  on a large scale
by the difference in humidity I believe from memory (recent articles
published in the American Bee Journal).

Keith said:
Besides, doing that would go against a key element in the small cell
beekeeping method they have developed of culling any combs
with more than ten percent drone cells.

Lets put the "hammer down" and see if the small cell colony is simply
limping along or truly varroa tolerant. Try one hive with a full frame of
drone comb or at least 20 % & up drone comb.

After all a colony can slip a large number of drone cells in when you are
not looking such as when the honey flow is on when you might not be looking
in the brood chamber for weeks.

Bob

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