>How do you account for that since many of our hives are superceded on a
fairly regular basis??

I don't understand your question...

I know the workers don't pass on genes,  I was actually referencing all those drones that are hiding in those doomed colonies.   Those drones are the basis of the mating pool.   Most commercial operations I know of will admit a LOT of supercedure that’s just ignored and expected.   Those are going to always be mating with the "undesirable" drones from the infected hives.   Knowing weaker hives generate even more drones than healthy ones. I don't see how you can make progress when those latent Mite susceptible hives are always in the pool?

The progress in that situation would always be completely random and extremely slow to move forward.

The other huge issue I see is that a LOT of commercial guys are buying queens not raising them,  so we are left with what I see as the hope,  and that’s the Pankratz,  Oliveraz, Gardners etc,  will address.  


Trying to see how your concept would work,  the issues I see may be related to my comprehension of bee genetics and the detail I see of that gene pool being constantly polluted by the less resistant drones.

Charles

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