PB:
Initially, I was criticizing someone who said the *only* treatment he used
was to pull a few frames from the hives and let them get better on their
own. No scientist would support this.

Response:
I guess Steve Taber is not a scientist then.  Nor is Marla Spivak.  I can
name more who have recommended exactly this (or a close variation) in
writing or a public lecture.

PB:
Well, neither Dr. Spivak, not Steve Taber are here to respond, but I will
point out that neither of them recommends harboring disease in order to
develop resistance. What they *do say* is to try to develop Hygienic Lines.
This is done by inserting frozen brood into the brood nest and breeding
from colonies which clean out dead brood quickly. This requires no diseased
hives.


from 45 YEARS OF FOULBROOD by Dr. Bill Wilson:

"The more recent development of hygienic stocks has been mainly under the
direction of Mr. Steve Taber (1992) and Dr. Marla Spivak (Spivak & Reuter
1998). Hygienic lines of bees often show resistance to more diseases than
just AFB. An outstanding review of hygienic behavior in honey bees was
published recently by Spivak and Gilliam (1998).

Long-term control strategy needs to include AFB-resistant bee stocks that
are widely available to all beekeepers. The most likely stock will come
from a hygienic-behavior breeding program. Furthermore, beekeepers should
be encouraged to inspect the health of the brood in their own colonies at
least once per year. Heavily AFB-infested colonies or those that fail to
respond to chemical treatments should be destroyed. "

Spivak, M. and G.S. Reuter. 1998. Honey bee hygienic behavior. Amer. Bee J.
138:283-286.

Spivak, M. and M. Gilliam. 1998. Hygienic behaviour of honey bees and its
application for control of brood diseases and Varroa. Parts I & II. Bee
World 79:124-134 & 169-186.

Taber, S. 1992. Resistant bees. Glean. Bee Culture 120:78-79.

Taber, S. 1998. Resistance to Disease, Amer. Bee J. 138:47-48.