BEE-L Archives

Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

BEE-L@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Dave Cushman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:03:26 +0000
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (56 lines)
Hi Dee

You seem to only be concerned about the range of body sizes where
European and Africanised bees overlap and cannot be differentiated by size.

You said...
> So to keep ones own European bees, then the
> artificialy enlarged combs/foundation then become a
> detriment to keeping better European stock,

As European races, in particular Carnica, Caucasica & AMM, naturally 
exhibit larger body sizes and cell sizes than Africanised bees or 
Italian bees, then in maintaining stocks in areas that are not 
Africanised, it makes more sense to use those cell sizes that are 
relevant to the size of body of the bee concerned.

Although it can be demonstrated that bee stock can be forced over
several generations to adopt different cell sizes (both smaller and
larger) there is no evidence to show that these differently sized
specimens are advantageous in performance or disease and parasite
resistance. What studies do exist, sometimes contradict each other and 
there is no trend that occurs on a consistent and repeatable basis. You 
appear to be having some success in combating varroa mites, whether that 
success can be attributed to the cell size that you are using is a 
separate issue.

You live in an area that is ideal for Africanised bees, with the
majority of stock in the US having a strong content of Italian genes
(Italians have the smallest natural body size of all European races). 
You then go on to use a smaller cell size that this Italianised baseline 
would use if left to itself.

You cite better varroa tolerance as your reason for the smaller cell 
size, but the conclusions that many would come to is that you are 
attempting to homogenise Italian and Africanised stocks in your area to 
create a 'small body sized' gene pool, then merely selecting among the 
resulting hybrid bees, for a strain that was more manageable than those 
extremes of Africanised bee behaviour that are hyped up by the press. 
And that what losses you were having among your bees were being made up 
on a regular basis by splitting existing colonies (the vigour of the 
Africanised bees helping to rebuild colony strength more quickly).

I have no doubt of your conviction and dedication to your cause, your 
results are impressive and have impressed many of your visitors, you 
have a group of followers that subscribe to many of your practices and 
will repeat many of your dogmas, but such repetition, no matter how 
often or loudly made, can ever make up for evidence gained from 
experiments able to be replicated by others.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---

ATOM RSS1 RSS2