I remain troubled by the focus that has remained on finding feral honey bees and studying their genome.

Here on the ground in the clubs and on the less savoury internet boards, that search is seen as "we'll find honey bees that survive with Varroa infestation, and that will solve all our bee problems".

People persist in equating a honey bee able to survive Varroa infestation (and I have my quibbles about the definition of "survive" here), with a honey bee that is also manageable and productive (honey, new bees/increase). 

Which goes to the heart of my difficulty with Dr. Seeley's observations of the feral bee habits for "success" (frequent swarming, low population density in any given area, low productivity, isolation from other colonies) being touted as the *solution* to saving the honey bee.

Fostering the replacement of all our tender, docile, productive honey bees with low populations exhibiting the lifestyle adaptations of the scutellatas might ensure A. mellifera does not go extinct. But it won't help much with the pollination needs of our food supply system. And (she says selfishly) would spell the end of urban/backyard and most hobby beekeeping. 

I don't want to change the honey bees. I like them just the way they are. What I want is to get rid of their pests and pathogens. And for that I think there is great promise in the emerging field of gene editing/manipulation, and deeper understanding of honey bee immunologic pathways (ie the hope of vaccines against foulbrood).

             ***********************************************
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