Bob,

    You wrote:

>>>>>> 

 Killing off the *dinks* is the best management tool going. Everybody on the
list seems to think breeding from the best is the solution when since the
start of commercial beekeeping commercial beekeepers always eliminate the
*dinks*.

>>>>>>>>>>> 

 

How often do queen breeders go to the surviving pollination colonies to get
breeders? I know many commercial guys raise their own queens so I'd assume
they do it. I (once more) assume that the dinks get a sort of automatic
culling due to being robbed out at the first sign of a dearth in a large
yard. I've thought that there was a break-down here somewhere that prevented
what should be a natural evolution. Carrying out the logic, wouldn't the
output of this breeding from the pollinator survivors result in bees more
tolerant to chemicals, travel etc. as well as mites?

 

Dick Marron


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