Mac asked:
Bob you did not mention SMR queens, have you given up on them?

My partner and I introduced queens we raised from SMR breeder queens from
Glenn Apiaries a couple years ago.

I am still tracing the progress of a few of those queens for their varroa
tolerance (left untreated).

Although those SMR daughters do run low varroa counts (actually lower than
any other bees) I am not pleased with brood pattern, honey production and
spring buildup. So I have been content to have introduced the SMR traits
into our bees and have not ordered new SMR breeder queens to raise queens
from.

If doing the project over again I would use drones from the queens I use
from the Wootens in California as those bees possess all the qualities are
SMR daughters lacked.

You need to remember our experiment was with only two SMR breeder queens of
only two of the available lines (red & yellow). The results might be
different if done today (new lines) as the problems we had were expected and
even predicted by both Dr. Harbo & Dr. Harris.

 Interestingly Dr.Harbo & Dr. Harris predicted the exact results we had
before hand. Buying production  queens with the SMR trait from a reliable
queen breeder such as the Weavers   in Texas might be the best option as
they have already scratched bees from the program like we had and through
their breeding program have improved the areas I was disappointed in I have
been told by friends using the SMR line of bees sold by Danny Weaver.

Others sell production queens with the SMR trait but the Weaver line is sold
by Mid Con Agrimarketing which supplies most of the hobby beekeepers in our
area so their results I am most familiar with as those beekeepers  tell me
about their observations at our Midwestern Beekeepers assn. meetings.

Bob

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