> Sorry if that came out wrong, I am hardly a fan of varroa

No worries, I was just funnin' you.  We understand what you are saying.

 > Do you have a rotation of treatments to control chalkbrood?

Do you have *any* treatment for chalkbrood?  I don't, other than 
avoiding Australian Italian bees that gave me 30% chalkbrood one year. 
I also avoid non-radiated pollen.  That gave me a major outbreak back 30 
years or so.

 > I'm not saying that miticides are bad or wrong, but I don't believe
 > that any of them, or any rotation of them will be a permanent
 > answer.

Nothing is ever permanent and thinking in those terms is limited and 
defeatist.  I'd be pleased if powerful and benign miticides are 
available and continue to work for my lifetime, and maybe a bit longer 
for the youngsters among us.

 > IMO they are a stopgap to keep the bees alive until they can evolve
 > into a balance with varroa, which of course will take longer the
 > more chemicals we dump into the hive.

I keep hearing this.  I cannot see how what I "dump into" _my_ hives has 
_any_ effect whatsoever on the bees being bred by the professionals 
miles away from me and partially in a lab.

Moreover, I am really, really doubtful that any backyard beekeeper or 
Brother Adam incarnation is going to come up with anything more than 
some unstable mongrel that is a flash in the pan and looks good under 
the local circumstances, but fails everywhere else.

Breeding varroa resistant bees is going to take more than just some 
tinkering.  Bee breeding is incredibly complex and even the people who 
have been doing it for generations are now finding out they know very 
little except to find a good bee for their purposes, propagate it, and 
then promote the heck out of it.

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