Hello Clay & All,

> Aren't the Lusby's already doing this? There bees exist with mites using
no
> chemicals whatsoever.  They have shown us how to do this. All one has to
>do > is the work and they to will have this type of bees too!

Excellent point!  However when you look at the process involved in the
Lusby's methods (let alone expense) it simply is not a reasonable option on
a larger scale with most operations struggling to survive.

I agree with your  Statements about SMR bees. This type of breeding can help
but will only play  a part.  If you have come to the conclusion that
breeding will only be part  of saving your bees.  What will you do for the
other part?
I have always said and have posted in many posts that when a varroa
resistant bee is found I will simply requeen with those queens. I would have
used Russian queens if I felt those would have worked. I still might try
some if they stand the test of time. I have said before I am only a
beekeeper and  not on the level of our USDA researchers. I believe they are
doing excellent research and looking at solving our serious varroa problem.
As I posted earlier I will not sing the praises of SMR until I have left
hives untreated for two years. I plan to only use SMR queens and check mite
loads. The first queens we have already installed were mated to either a
Marla Spivak hygienic breeder queens drones or a survivor colonies drones.
We hope to get the isolated mating yards in place after the honey crop is
extracted. eggs from the yellow line and drones from the red line. Then the
opposite for Texas queen raising.  All the projects hives will not get SMR
queens until late spring in Texas. Maybe not then because of the size of the
project. Because we are raising our own queens the SMR project suits us. We
believe we can control matings up to a point. We should be hearing the final
word on if the Russian queens have been a success before the final word on
SMR. Those using the Lusby's method need to keep quiet about results until
those hives have been left untreated for at least two years.  Shaking hives
onto foundation is a form of varroa control and staring from a package from
a treated hive will usually survive for a year untreated (usually).
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa, Missouri
Ps. In defense of U.S. queen breeders the queens I bought this year from my
favorite queen breeder outperformed the queens we raised. Why do we always
get the better product as we are walking out the door!