>
>
> Adam says: I don't know that there is practical method of maintaining the
> selective
> pressure without sacrificing a large portion of your bees a la Kirk
> Webster, John Kefuss, Chris Baldwin, etc.
>
> Of course there is.  I'll be detailing soon in ABJ.
>

I look forward to it.  Living in a northern climate, I have the advantage
of a long brood break, but the disadvantage of a short season.  The time of
year when mites (particularly phoretic mites) are high and when it would
seem to be the best time to evaluate colonies for general mite resistance
is also one of the most intense.  Honey has to be pulled, mites treated and
colonies fed all in just a few weeks and to quote GoT - Winter is coming.
While monitoring for mites, I too notice the colonies that have 2-3 times
the levels of their neighbours and the ones who have far fewer, but to try
to somehow fit in the task of washing several hundred colonies during this
time seems pretty tough to achieve.  I keep pretty basic notes on the top
each hive (year of queen, queen line, honey production, etc), but I don't
compile this data until the bees are wrapped, so I can't really use it to
isolate a subset of the best performers to monitor more closely.

Adam
Barrie, ON

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html