> I could not resist throwing a small barb myself since I got such a thrashing of my intelligence. ... I am not sure that mite resistant bees would even be a goal if not for being shown the possibilities that some of the those ferals were not out there being noticed and then studied.

It isn't about intelligence, it's about being informed. The question of disease resistance in bees has been on our minds for at least 100 years. For example, this from Bee World 1924: 

> When we consider the vast amount of eggs of which a modern queen is capable, the question arises, is this at the expense of general stamina and disease resistance in the ensuing bees? If we hold fast to the three essential points: prolificacy, stamina, and disease resistance, honey production will assuredly follow. 

You wrote:
> However, when in new york, do as new york does.  It is really up to them and they can and will decide for themselves.

Again, the fact of the matter is this: the law is being snuck past the beekeeping public. We have not been consulted on this at all. The same exact scenario played out several years ago, mandatory registration was snuck into law and the state association mounted the time and labor consuming effort to have it repealed, since the majority of beekeepers did not want it. Why did they not want it? Because NYS has had a long history of heavy handed and capricious bee inspection. Neighboring Pennsylvania has the model program. Everything the NYS government gets into, turns to crap. I am a registered NYS beekeeper, have been for ten years. I have gotten nothing useful from it. They have a hundred years of data on AFB incidence in NYS, but none of this has every been shared in a useful manner. They truck out the numbers that favor their program and suppress the information that would actually be useful: where the hot spots are and how AFB moves around the state. They know this but will not divulge it. 

PLB

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