Hello Allen & All,
Thanks to Allen for his post and shared observations. For once I seem to be
standing on the side of conventional wisdom on the subject of AFB over the
last century. Very unusual position for me. The work of Rothenbuler has been 
discussed in beekeeping
circles for decades. The issue of a bee which can tolerate a strong AFB
issue comes up often. I think all agree the bees can handle a light problem.
Still researchers I have spoke with are very divided on the subject.

Such a bee would be a boon form commercial beekeepers. get AFB riddled 
equipment free for hauling off and drop the "super AFB bee" in the boxes and 
head for the fields!

A brief look at commercial thinking:
You really do not have the time or man power to monitor all hives for
problems( and bottom line cost is always a consideration) . We always do a
frame by frame inspection in ALL hives once a year in spring. However a year
is a long time to not check again (frame by frame) for brood disease . I
personally work with the help checking all deadouts when being worked. 
before returned to the field. All deadouts are looked at to see what 
happened.
 During
the season we do random checks by taking two (and up) hives completely apart
before the supers are placed and after the supers come off to check for
problems (but not all the hives in a yard ). I
have provided pictures of this in articles and described many times. I do
not simply pull a frame or two but completely empty the boxes and count
brood, eggs, larva , stored honey and pollen. I have always been amazed that
only a handful of beekeepers I have met use the procedure. Most stop short
of getting a complete picture of the hive health. When not running behind 
( like now!) I do a higher number of these checks.

This time of year i use terms like "we are running a week behind or two 
weeks
behind" . Today June 11, 2009 we are two weeks behind. The high heat with
high heat index and rain put us behind. When happens this time of year we
will not catch up but simply finish later. I make changes daily in what we
are doing. Confuses even the long time help but they are used to me making
adjustments. They come in to pull supers and instead we feed bees in another
area. All the time in my mind (  now due to age notes) I am trying to
squeeze in getting to a location to check those bees or find time to get
another job done.
The luxury of driving around looking for problems does not exist. Careful
planning is essential and in my opinion why other commercial operations have
failed.

> As for tracheal and nosema,

These are the microscope issues. Without checks the symptoms are only seen
in the late stage. I kept nosema apis in check because the foragers died two
weeks early. Hurt my honey crop so treating made me money (plus better 
wintering in Missouri) and did not cost.
tracheal mite control cost fifty cents a hive and the bees performance was
improved ( my opinion) without a trachea full of blood suckers ( I have seen
as many as 200 in a single trachea through the scope).
Many times the hives appeared normal but were what I call "dinks". Once the
tracheal mites were cleared up and new brood was raised to replace those
with a damaged darkened trachea and new foragers free of heavy nosema apis
load the hives returned to productivity. However those hives became a
liability instead of an asset. You want all these issues solved before a
honey flow or the hives sent into pollination.

I have thoughts also on N. ceranae but my help will be here in minutes and 
need to wind this post up!

> Anyhow, if what Bob and many many others say is true, and if anyone should
> get AFB from stopping treatment, it should be me.

In the early eighties I decided to take a break from beekeeping and moved
the bees on a remote farm and did not return till late spring of the
following year. I was scared what I might find when i returned but the bees
looked great with no AFB or even problems. few deadouts. Luck was on my side
I guess but was before the current problems and only AFB & EFB were the
issues. No AFB and the boxes were old from many brands.


 Why am I not, I can only
> assume that it is the bees I have.

I believe in good stock also but I am willing to put up with the problems of
AFB and tracheal mites etc. to run what I consider are superior bees *for my
purposes.* When queen breeders are selecting for certain traits it means 
many
times the traits I demand in my bees go by the wayside! Only my opinion but
a prolific bee which flies and hour earlier and later than a hygienic bee
suits my needs better. I have Australian bees which fly in Light rain!

To find the hygienic or varroa tolerant bee I need I
would need to do the selection and breeding myself and i simply do not have
the time these days.
I really do not buy into the idea that a bee breeder in Hawaii has a better
idea of the kind of bee I need as i do.

bob

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