John Edwards responded to my posting about our mailing 10 queens to Ohio
for an experiment on why our feral colonies here manage to survive with no
treatment of any kind, as follows (in part):

>I'm not trying to open yet another can of worms, but we [in and near
>Tucson] >have plenty of varroa-resistant colonies in this area, one of our
>cooperators >is presently running forty (40) beeyards with them, the
>methods to select for >them have been published several times, and yet
>this seems to be fresh news to >many beekeepers.

   Thanks to John for that clarification.  I was well aware of the fact
that they are doing well on that score but did not mention it in my
posting; it did not seem to me to be necessary.  As I understand matters,
the cooperative effort underway in the Midwest had considered getting
queens from the Tucson area but instead wanted some from an area that has
not yet had Africanized honey bees in the area.  That seems to be the case
for us.

   The queens survived the trip and are now at Michigan State under the
care of Zachary Haung.  Those queens were a motley lot, real mongrels ---
of all colors imaginable.

   I wish that team all the luck.  However, I did pose the following
question to Gard Otis:

   "As I have suggested elsewhere, I wonder whether we now have different
strains of bee pests and diseases in different parts of the country.  That
is, whereas our feral colonies here seem to thrive without treatment for
anything, will they do that well when exposed to the "same" pests and
diseases in other parts of the country?"

   He replied:  "You echo my thoughts on this too.  No one is looking!
Except for terramycin-resistant AFB which is spreading quickly around N.
America."

   [My apologies to Gard for using his sentence without permission.]

                                                Adrian


Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106  [http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm]

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*
*    "The history of science teaches us that each time we think
*  that we have it all figured out, nature has a radical surprise
*  in store for us that requires significant and sometimes drastic
*  changes in how we think the world works."
*
*                                          Brian Greene (1999:373)
*
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