Robin said:
Prof Mark Winston, Simon Fraser University, has lectured in Uk showing he
has reserched variation in the level of varroa that kills colonies depending
on level of virus.

Old news Robin. Winston is simply repeating what was learned early on at the
start of the varroa problem.

Come up with a solution  other than a reduction in varroa load in the hive
and beekeepers might pay attention. I do not mean to be blunt but the
beekeeping industry world wide needs anwers to the varroa problem and fast.

On a positive note a bee which will tolerate varroa has been found but is
the result of a closed breeding plan from many lines. The bee is not a
product of the USDA-ARS but queens from various U.S. sources have been used.
Private beekeepers have got the bee.

The problem now is as Allen Dick said many years ago would be is that the
production queens will have to be bought every year as was the case with the
Starline & Midnight line from Dadant as the lines used to produce the line
will need to be maintained in their pure state.

Raisng queens from the daughters will not produce the same bee as the mother
queen (which I will not know go into but most should know the reasons on the
list) which those of us which have used the Starlines & Midnights will
attest  to.

The line I speak of is not (at this time) available to the general public.

I had hoped the above would not be the case but but so far looks as if will
be until a good selection program can be done with the best of the Russians
( might take a few years).

With all due respect for Tom Rinderer ( head of Russian project)I voice an
opinion:

The Russian program might have been handle differently in my opinion. The
reason being hives carry varroa loads for many reasons as shown clearly by
the Dr. Harbo & Dr. Harris  research.

 If I had been involved in the Russian program from the start I would have
taken every queen which Tom Rinderer pinched their heads off and removed to
an area for further evaluation.

Done properly I believe the Russian queen evaluation program should have
taken around 20 years as suggested to me before the program started by Dr.
Shiminki (project founder).

I realize Tom Rinderer and his people (USDA-ARS Baton Rouge , LA>) were
under tremendious pressure to come up with a Russian bee which would
tolerate varroa as fast as possible.

The bee given to us by the bee lab  in my opinion is a crude version of the
bee we wanted but I commend the USDA-ARS for at least giving us the material
to perfect!

The cost to import & run the Russian project was expensive. I wish a queen
from each line imported was still around for further evaluation. Tom
Rinderer had to make a choice as to ruthless culling or years of looking and
he decided on ruthless culling to speed up the process.

I have been asking around and I do not believe a breeder queen from each
Russian line selected  for release ( sent each year to Glenn Apiaries) over
the last six years is still around today.

Are queens from each line sent to Glenn Apiaires for Russian breeder queens
still around Charlie?

I myself hope to work a few of the *bugs* out of the Russians but I am told
by queen breeders my project will most likely fail due to a lack of alleles.
To add different alleles I may have to come up with a hybrid Russian instead
of the Russian/Russian I am working with.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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