>This contradiction, though statistically small in scale, will at least show if mite resistance trait is inherited (nature) or learned (nurture) in bees.  I am very apprehensive, indeed.   The new queens are Carnis and they will be dropped in the sea of Italians around here.  The mutt between them tends to be feisty, so I wonder being feisty has anything to do with fending off SHB as I learned to love AHB's heightened defensiveness against SHB's.

We already know that mite resistance or tolerance has a strong genetic component whether it's the behaviors of uncapping and removal or allogrooming.  It's likely that there is also an environmental component with an associated gene expression.  I don't think it's a nature versus nurture issue. That may be a little more anthropomorphizing than fact.  

We tend to speak of bees in terms of their ancestral heritage, but that's more bee lore than fact. I'll risk saying that the bees you are labeling are not Italians or Carniolans but rather a stock consisting of both and likely a few more minor subspecies mixed in. Expecting that the new queens are "Carnis" and there is an existing sea of Italians would require research and if you have some please post it. Genetically, you are likely erasing any gain you may have made toward TF.  


Grooming references ( there are plenty more ) 

>Cini, A., Bordoni, A., Cappa, F. et al. Increased immunocompetence and network centrality of allogroomer workers suggest a link between individual and social immunity in honeybees. Sci Rep 10, 8928 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65780-w
Grooming references. 

>Pettis, J. S. & Pankiw, T. Grooming behavior by Apis mellifera L. in the presence of Acarapis woodi (Rennie)(Acari: Tarsonemidae). Apidologie 29, 241–253 (1998).

> Zaitoun, S. T. & Al-Ghzawi, A. Monthly changes in the natural grooming response in workers of three honey bee subspecies against the bee parasitic mite, Varroa destructor. Jordan Journal of Agricultural Sciences 5, 207–217 (2009).On the genetic side, marker-assisted breeding seems to be promising.

Genetic references - in these cases, marker-assisted breeding but there a many more. 

>Miriam Bixby, Kathy Baylis, Shelley E. Hoover, Rob W. Currie, Andony P. Melathopoulos, Stephen F. Pernal, Leonard J. Foster, M. Marta Guarna, A Bio-Economic Case Study of Canadian Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colonies: Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) in Queen Breeding Affects Beekeeper Profits, Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 110, Issue 3, June 2017, Pages 816–825, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/tox077

> Grozinger, C.M., Zayed, A. Improving bee health through genomics. Nat Rev Genet 21, 277–291 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-020-0216-1

Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

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