<In Gotland, an island of the Baltic Sea, Fries et al. (2006) described the 
survival of 150 honey bee colonies that were subject to the Bond test. Five 
of the colonies survived over 5 years.

Perhaps commercial beekeepers should also weigh the *cost* before using the 
bond method. I personally will wait and buy the varroa tolerant queens but 
the "Bond' method has been recommended for all beekeepers. Over and over .

Cost:
At today's (2010) prices for a package *delivered* to the Midwest of $85 
U.S. the investment in 150 hives would be around $12,750.  So the beekeeper 
would have an investment of approx $2550 U.S. in his future survivor 
breeding stock.

Sadly when the USDA Baton Rouge Bee lab used the "Bond" method the F3 
offspring rarely had the varroa tolerance of the source. untold hives were 
left to die to get enough queens for Dr. Harbo to "breed from survivors".

The reason the lab looked to science for the reason for varroa tolerance 
rather than the "bond" method.

Of course one can add some Russian queens to the "bond" method and then 
claim the "bond" method produced the result. Which is EXACTLY what many 
singing the praises of the "bond" method have done.

Back when varroa first arrived around  999 out of a 1000 hives crashed using 
the "Bond' method many times. .

As always:
If you are new to beekeeping then you should weigh the evidence before 
taking a position. The rest of us have tried and observed with interest the 
results of the "live and Let die method"

I think its a great method for my competition and  those which can afford 
the losses.

My personal recommendation would be to buy some Russian queens ( and of 
course keep buying queens each year from the Russian breeders to keep the 
stock pure) which would be a heck of a lot cheaper than the "bond" method.

I had a close friend which tried the bond method in the early 90's. After he 
had lost over 2000 colonies he bought some apistan.

bob

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm