Aaron said; Before this blows out of proportion (again), my recollection was there were some VERY good reasons (far beyond legalities) why Apis c. is a bad idea posted by some knowledgable contributors (Blane? Jim Bach?) when the discussion took place more than a few years back. My point back then to Dr. Shiminuki (then head of Beltsville) was that would not a race of cerana which has been shown to mirror our best mellifera (they are available) have been a better choice than the Russian bee. Privately many agreed but said getting even an import of Russian bees would be a challenge let alone cerana. Today I am happy with my Russian bees I received but they do take a little getting used to after years of Italians. The Russian bees never stop amazing me. I pulled a yard of honey supers before 8 am this morning as the temperature today is 105 F. and breaks the record held from the dust bowl days. I was amazed how the Russian queens had slowed laying to conserve the avilable honey in storage. The Italian hives were still raising brood full bore and had used up a whole super of honey. Could the Italians still raising brood be a sign rain is on the way kind of like the wooly worm predicts a cold winter? Hmmm. I believe we are in now the worst drought I have ever seen in our area with no end in sight. Aaron said: I seem to recall that even Bob (who seems to be attempting to raise a dead horse) backed off his original position that importing Apis c. would be a good idea. After the USDA decided to import from Russian stock I dropped the idea. I also dropped my idea of stopping AHB dead in its tracks on the advance from Brazil after the idea was not accepted by the powers that bee. Both were in my opinion better plans than the plans chosen by the USDA. I do not see the cerana need now as we have got bees with the SMR trait and Russian bees . Several new varroa control methods are working the way to the beekeepers (Sucrose Octanote Esters and Api Life Var). The hobby beekeeper should be able with the tools available to survive varroa. but beekeeping will get harder and hobby beekeepers will again need to pay close attention to their hives to avoid losses. On the other hand when checkmite & Apistan fails to provide control the larger beekeeper is going to experience trouble. I predict the main problems will come a couple years from now when varroa infestation caused by checkmite resistant and apistan resistant varroa reach high levels in fall and none of the controls available will save a hive reaching threshold (like the strips did) or are simply to labor intensive to treat with when dealing with thousands of varroa infested hives. Bob :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::