Hello Friends,
I have been an advocate of selecting-for-resistance for many years.  I don't
treat my bees with anything now.  I quit buying queens 6 years ago and just
let the survivor hives work out the bugs, so-to-speak.  This is easy for me
to do, since I am not keeping bees for my livelihood.  I have great sympathy
for those in the commercial sector and I would probably follow the chemical
route, if I were similarly invested.  I believe feral and survivor hives are
the genetic bank for present and future beekeeping.

I have always had a keen interest in the study of genetics and I have had
experience with breeding chickens for "plague" resistance.  I have kept bees
on-and-off for 43 years.  Genetic principals follow certain patterns (or
laws) in all living organisms, whether they are plant or animal.  This is
why we are able to predict or qualify accurate percentages of results when
breeding for any given genetic trait.  Bees are going to follow the same
rules.  It only stands to reason; if certain hives survive a pest invasion,
you will breed your future generations from the survivors, assuming you
breed your own queens.  This really is a basic form of selection for a
superior trait.

My chicken breeding technique involved selection for disease resistance.  I
bred show chickens in order to study principles of genetics.  I initially
received brood stock from many different sources. All of the progeny was
kept in a large enclosure.  The first year, I lost over half of the progeny
and breeders to a variety of diseases.  Each year, there was some kind of
pestilence, sweeping through the flock.  I would not treat sick birds and I
bred from the survivors.  My friends, in the hobby, were medicating their
show birds regularly and sustaining heart breaking losses every season.
Every time they took their birds to a show, they exposed them to diseases
from all over the States.  My birds would bring back the disease organisms
and helped the flock to become resistant.  I didn't have to treat for
diseases, because my stock had to survive or die.  Eventually the flock
became virtually disease free and resistant.  I believe breeding from
survivor hives, will yield similar results.

The lesson for me is clear.  Survivability is the most important trait we
can have in our bees.  Chemical pest control is a very short term bridge to
the inevitable.  Eventually we will breed out of survivors anyway.
Secondly, we can select for production.  The superior brood stock might just
be in the yards of the folks who don't treat for pests, at this very moment.

Robert J. Bassett

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