Hello All,

Bob Harrison wrote:
 I would guess it might take five years to get a good
production SMR bee bred. In my opinion they will NEVER produce as the
current Italian line I am using does but I could be wrong."

Bob,
First I would like to thank you for the work you are doing with SMR lines.
I hope you are successful in instilling this trait into your Italians.  Your
work can benefit us all.  I started out with Italians, tried some hybrids,
Buckfasts and others.  In my area I find that Carnolians produce almost as
well (and in some cases better) as Italians, but this may be due to location
rather than race.  I switched to "mostly" Carnolians a number of years ago
for T-mite reasons.  I still run both primarily because if I purchase any
packages they have Italian queens.  My highest single colony record was with
an Italian queen from such a package.  Most "hot" colonies I have
encountered were always Italian.

My point of the post is not to compare the two races but to suggest that if
we look at over all production and viability of a colony possibly the costs
of keeping a more vulnerable, albeit better producer, may not be in our best
interest.  If I am forced to constantly treat and worry about resistance and
then stronger chemicals because of the resistance , maybe I am better off
with less production and less problems associated with it (if I don't have
to treat as often or use stronger treatments).  Last year I did not use
Checkmite and lost many colonies.  This year, as much as I detested doing
so, I used it.  I am not happy on this chemical merry go around and I am not
sure I will continue to ride.  However if I can avoid this in the future but
must sacrifice some production I am more than willing to do so.  I realize
that my livelihood does not depend on this production and my perspective may
be different if it did.

Beekeeping in the US changed dramatically with the arrival of mites.  Our
friends overseas are now just finding out how much.  I don't spend a lot of
time thinking about how things were because tomorrow they may change again.
(I won't be able to board an airplane next week as easily as last week.)  My
goal is to cope with the changes and look for the best overall solution to
the problem.  I am really hoping that SMR will play a big part in this.

On the lighter side, last week I heard a brand new reason why not to buy
honey.

        "Your honey looks so good that we would just eat it all to the
bottom of the jar."

I guess there is a place for foul tasting, poorly packaged honey.

Ron Bogansky
Kutztown, (eastern) PA, USA



+