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Subject:
From:
Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 20 Aug 2003 13:40:35 -0500
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Aaron said;
Before this blows out of proportion (again), my recollection was there were
some VERY good reasons (far beyond legalities) why Apis c. is a bad idea
posted by some knowledgable contributors (Blane?  Jim Bach?) when the
discussion took place more than a few years back.

My point back then to Dr. Shiminuki (then head of Beltsville) was that would
not a race of cerana which has been shown to mirror our best mellifera (they
are available) have been a better choice than the Russian bee.

Privately many agreed but said getting even an import of Russian bees would
be a challenge let alone cerana.

Today I am happy with my Russian bees I received but they do take a little
getting used to after years of Italians.

The Russian bees never stop amazing me. I pulled a yard of honey supers
before 8 am this morning as the temperature today is 105 F. and breaks the
record held from the dust bowl days.

I was amazed how the Russian queens had slowed laying to conserve the
avilable honey in storage.

The Italian hives were still raising brood full bore and had used up a whole
super of honey. Could the Italians still raising brood be a sign rain is on
the way kind of like the wooly worm predicts a cold winter? Hmmm.

I believe we are in now the worst drought I have ever seen in our area with
no end in sight.

Aaron said:
 I seem to recall that even Bob (who seems to be attempting to raise a dead
horse) backed off his
original position that importing Apis c. would be a good idea.

After the USDA decided to import from Russian stock I dropped the idea. I
also dropped my idea of stopping AHB dead in its tracks on the advance from
Brazil after the idea was not accepted by the powers that bee.

Both were in my opinion better plans than the plans chosen by the USDA.

I do not see the cerana need now as we have got bees with the SMR trait and
Russian bees . Several new varroa control methods are working the way to the
beekeepers (Sucrose Octanote Esters and Api Life Var).

The hobby beekeeper should be able with the tools available to survive
varroa. but beekeeping will get harder and hobby beekeepers will again need
to pay close attention to their hives to avoid losses.

On the other hand when checkmite & Apistan  fails to provide control the
larger beekeeper is going to experience trouble. I predict the main problems
will come a couple years from now when varroa infestation caused by
checkmite resistant and apistan resistant varroa reach high levels in fall
and  none of the controls available will save a hive reaching threshold
(like the strips did) or are simply to labor intensive  to treat with when
dealing with thousands of varroa infested hives.

Bob

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