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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Allen Dick <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 16 Aug 2001 14:05:20 -0600
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> Actually (in my opinion) Steve nor any other of the researchers has proven
> that such selection alone can produce a truly varroa resistant bee...

What I was writing about was reducing varroa susceptibility and varroa
reservoirs in a bee stock and thus reducing the need for treatments, not
eliminating them in any immediate time period.  Resistance comes in various
degrees and any degree of resistance is a good thing.

Many beekeepers treat routinely all hives for varroa not because all the hives
are severely infested, but because some are and the build-up of mites in those
hives will spill over into other hives when those hives collapse.  (FWIW, SMR
will not protect a hive from being overwhelmed by an outside infestation).  It
is desirable to reduce the background level of mites in a neighbourhood, and
simple selection can do that.

> Hives carry different mite loads for many
> reasons. All bees with a low might load may not carry the SMR trait. A
> couple mistakes in the selection process and you end up with a bee with a
> certain amount of varroa resistance BUT not enough to survive without
> chemicals ( in my opinion).

The method I was suggesting really has nothing to do with SMR, although SMR is
likely a contributing cause of the lower mite levels in some cases.  There are
many reasons that hives have greater or smaller varroa loads compared to
neighbouring hives.  Other than phenomena like drifting, swarming, supercedure,
etc., many of these factors may have to do with the genetics of the bees.  This
Quick-and-Dirty method will catch them.

I think you are imagining breeding from only a very few breeder queens.  I am
suggesting that 10% of the population be involved in producing either queen
stock or drone stock without too narrow a selection.  I am also suggesting
eliminating the worst 10% or more from the breeding pool.

> The goal of the above search has always been to find the bee which will
> exist with varroa, produce like the days before varroa (U.S.) AND not need
> ANY chemical treatment.

That is perfection and not likely to happen soon.  In the meantime reducing the
treatments by half or more by simply selecting stock by Quick-and-Dirty criteria
is not an impossible goal.

allen

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