Hello Scot & All,
The subject Scot alludes to has been discussed on BEE-L from every viewpoint
and is in the archives. I will sum things up for those new to BEE-L.

What about dealing with pests and predetors, this remains the same.

About the only pest we are deeply concerned about these days is varroa so
lets single out varroa for the sake of discussion because when you paint
with a broad brush saying "pests & predetors" you are taking in a bunch of
territory.

>There is only one sure fire way to ensure that we have bees that can do the
job, that is to let the bees that are going to do so anyway, die.

The above was the method adapted by the worlds best  beekeeping minds when
first faced with varroa. Grandpa advised the younger generation to do as
Scot suggests.

DID NOT WORK WITH VARROA!

The problem was that varroa took no prisoners! Two operations I was involved
with dropped almost two thousand hives before all hives were dead and
chemical treatment was started.

Queens from those survivors were sent to baton Rouge Bee lab. Dr. Harbo set
out to breed a bee from those queens to tolerate varroa. Results were not
good and daughters of queens which the lab thought were varroa tolerant were
not always. selcting from hives with the lowest varroa counts was not
working (reported at conventions by the bee lab)

Harbo & Harris began to look deeper into varroa reproduction and
discovered the SMR trait. Only then did a varroa tolerant bee began to
surfice. I was one of the first to embrace the SMR queens and use in my
program.

The Russian bee is a product of an unknown number of years of NATURAL
SELECTION ( many place over a 100 years but we know for sure since varroa
was discovered) in dealing with varroa.

Scot gives a good presentation about natural selection. I believe natural
selection produces a dependable result (if you have got the time to wait!).

If varroa was not such a killer of bees then perhaps the beekeeping industry
could have done as Scot suggests at the end of his post.

Because of the lethal nature of varroa the huge beekeeping industry in the
U.S. had to rely on whatever means neccessary to supply the U.S. pollination
needs including use of chemicals.

Survivor research was being done but in an infantesimal way in my opinion.
Dr. Shiminuki quickly realized the method Scot suggests  ( which was
suggested exactly as Scot posts in the 80's) would simply take too long
,cost the industry dearly in dollars so was dropped as a bad idea but the
Baton Rouge Bee lab was givin the task to find a varroa tolerant bee.

 Dr. Shiminuki saw the only *logical* way to speed up natural selection was
to go to Primorsky and return with the product of 100 years of natural
selection against varroa.

OK! Now we turn back the clock 6-7 years and find beekeepers willing to take
on the survivor problem which failed at first for Harris & Harbo and many
varroa researchers.

The beekeeper took the best of survivors from around the U.S. ( a few of
these queens had been a one in two thousand survivior) , added a super
hygienic queen which was twice as hygienic as researchers consider hygienic,
used an SMR queen, Russian genes and started a six way closed breeding
program using instrumental insemination to control mating.

The first few years were disappointing but then varroa tolerance began to
show up.

Once the colonies started surviving *varroa pressure * was added to  further
speed up the process.

I at one time felt exactly as Scot suggests but after years of failure and
looking at the varroa problem came to the solution at hand.
Problem solved! Varroa tolerance is real but get in line for the finnished
product as waiting lines are already long.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

Ps. for greater detail on the new patent pending varroa tolerant bee & the
Russian bee two articles are  forth coming . One in ABJ ( varroa tolerant
patent pending bee from six way closed breeding program) & one in BeeCulture
( my personal expierience with the Russian bee). Still time to start
subscriptions!

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