Bob Harrison stated in a previous email that :

"After years of research it has been almost impossible to find varroa
tolerance to a decent degree in a prolific bee."

Bob, I would like to simply state some observations I have made:

My best producers  this spring(and it was a tough year in my  area) were mostly from Bweaver stock.. The queens and daughters from these queens seem particularly fecund and build up very rapidly.
In fact, they had to to get the April Tupelo here.

 About 30% of my hives have not been treated in 2+ years and are showing good resistance to varroa.

About 15% have not been treated in 3+ years..they seem to be no different in populations/vitality  than my other hives.

My Bweaver queens have not been treated at all for varroa and show 90% + survivability(against varroa) where there is an original queen- at 2 years  or more out.I base this observation on the total percentage loss in these yards vs. other yards of stock I treated.
 (With supercedure there seems to come a varying weakening of resistance..especially on the fringes of my saturation areas)

90% of my stock comes from the Rev Al Nortons//BWeaver. Als bees have not been treated for about 5 years. they are remarkably gentle and good honey producers..His mite levels in the hives I checked were almost nonexistent-I went through 20 or so drone brood cells-not one single mite after 5 years downline from the last chemical treatment.( Overall I would characterize my bees gentleness as  6 of 10-5 being average, 10 being meanest)
(Al  sold me his coumaphos strips a few years back)

I have bees that seem to have higher mite loads in the spring than in mid summer... i find that very very encouraging, (and I have observed it on more than one occasion/hive/year). 

I am on a the edge of a wildlife refuge and have selected from stock that showed low mite loads...I have lost a few to varroa..i am not sure how many...maybe 20%...but it seems that the percentage losses are dropping- increasing  my confidence in the existence of a  productive "zero treatment" varroa bee..

I am in a USDA program with Russians ,VSH, and Buckfast from Calvert Apiary(which I feel are good layers-I worked Andys(C. A's) yards with him this spring and his hives were absolutely bursting with bees-beautiful) . "To the best of my observations", the queens I use are competitive with these Buckfasts in fecundity and honey production in this area. I have not run side by side tests-yet.

I am not an expert, but i have a deep interest in breeding chemical free bees....these bees are a work in process, and i hope not to run into any "surprises", but I feel better about the whole process with what I have seen recently. 

My friend David Langley- a Jamaican beekeeper- came back home to Jamaica(few years back) after varroa hit and found 295 of 300 hives dead..the other 5 succumbed soon thereafter. This shows that you definitely have to have the "raw material" genetically to select from.

I have seen a hive at "meltdown varroa levels" pull through with no help from me(after I forgot to requeen or treat) and produce a fair crop of honey the following year.

I am endeavoring  to saturate my area with resistant stock.....300+ hives over a couple hundred square miles.... 



These observations stated are true to the best of my  knowledge.... I would not trumpet them as exhaustive or totally conclusive.


John Horton



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