> Lets get on to the real work as Barry points out of selecting bees that are
> resistant to varroa so we all get on with beekeeping instead of varroa
> population management.

Hello Blaine -

This isn't exactly what I said or meant. What I said was, "Now the more
important issue is getting on with finding out why bees of this size are
able to coexist with varroa...." I'm not talking about breeding here,
although breeding is one element of the whole. Personally, I don't believe
breeding alone will ever fix the problem or be a long term solution.

Allen voiced his concern over our use of products, "Products generate cash
and advertising and 'sizzle'.  Free techniques that require no products do
not have the same flash or hype." I would suggest the same is true when it
comes to bees and breeding. The 'crutch' that is now being suggested as the
'answer' is GM bees. "Buy this breed of bee and your varroa problems end."
How is this any different than a product? It's still something that will
generate a lot of cash for someone, and you will most definitely see
advertising and sizzle. You won't see any of this surrounding the idea of
working with local stock and letting the bees figure out what works best for
them. This is what the Lusby's advocate, along with cell size and diet.

> If we have both the stocks available commercially that researchers have shown
> to be resistant to varroa and the reports from several other selection
> programs that report bees that are resistant to varroa on normal sized
> commercial foundation why are we getting hung up on cell size?

What exactly does resistant mean? The key question is, is it resistant
enough that no treatments of any kind are needed to keep the bees alive?

> Apis cerana is considerable smaller than Apis mellifera and varroa continues
> to infest cerana and is able to reproduce in cerana combs so why do we think
> it will not be able to reproduce in combs with cells that are still somewhat
> larger than cerana cells?

Good question. Research is needed. All we can say is that there are 'bees'
using 4.9 cell size that are co-existing with the mite.

> The number of feral
> colonies in Europe and in North America far exceeds the number of kept
> colonies even now after varroa.

Where is this documented?

> With the considerable numbers advantage the
> wild colonies should be exerting more influence on our kept colonies that the
> kept colonies are on the feral ones.  Just a matter of dilution.

One would think so if this is really the case.

Regards,
Barry