# Breakthrough in Varroa mite battle



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Recently read this from New Zeland,

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/413551/1506705

What do you think?


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

Mite resistant bees! Now who would have ever thought of that 

The world has been saved!!!!!!!!


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## ronzo0424 (Apr 30, 2004)

jep thats what i thought it was just that easy.... too bad we dont have anybody in this country that smart jez..... wait maybe we just dont have an island


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## Beezzzz (Feb 19, 2007)

Still....aside from the shallow press knowledge....ya gotta applaude the scientist's work. There's no doubt they are aware of their coworkers throughout the world. If we could get their Varroa resistance together with our Russians, SMT/VSH, Minn. Hygienic, etc., we would certainly continue to have V. destructor by the short and curly legs.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215473


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Let me put it another way,

Does anyone know of the reaserch being done breeding vorroa-resistant bees at Hamilton's Ruakura Research Center in Zew Zeland?
I cant find any links to this reaserch.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>If the experiment is successful the island, and possibly others like it, could become vital breeding centres for large numbers of highly resistant queens. These could then form the basis of a continuous flow of new genetics to the mainland, helping to maintain high levels of resistance in commercial hives.

Would provide an oportunity for thier queen and package industry. One benifet of breeding on an inland, is a controled gene pool.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>wait maybe we just dont have an island


Hawaii


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## JohnBeeMan (Feb 24, 2004)

Breakthrough will only come when the government tells use we have to stop treatments because varroa mites are on the endangered species list.


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

Actually we do have some people that smart in this country. I bought my bees from a person who has developed a mite resistant strain of his own. He has combined the advantages of the following races: Italian, Carniolan, Russian, Buckfast, and Minnesota hygenic into his own racial conglomerate which he has not treated for the last 10 years. He averages about a 2% loss in the winter. These bees are honey makers too. The hive I bought from him, I split this spring with 3 frames and this 3 frame nuc of these bees made a total of 13 supers of honey this year, 4 from foundation, and nine drawn comb supers during the sourwood flow. One of the swarms that came off the mother hive made 9 supers of honey total. 3 from foundation and 6 during the sourwood flow. He has really hit on something and I will continue to expand with only this superior bee.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>he has not treated for the last 10 years. He averages about a 2% loss ...These bees are honey makers too.

Their performance is something to be admired. 
Is the breeders name someone we all would recognize?


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

CS

Am I to understand that you bought a hive, split it, then it swarmed and you captured the swarm, and in all those bees made 13 + 9 = 23 supers of honey??

Dave


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

meduims perhaps,


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

Ian,

You would not recognize his name. He is a local beekeeper here in east tennessee. He is a guru when it comes to managing his bees. You may recognize however, my other mentor Odra Turner, the man here who made 18 supers 3 springs ago, within a half a super of the Guinness Book World Record. I really got lucky with my mentors as this is only my second year in the business. I did not understand what "mediums" meant.

drobbins, 

The one hive came through the winter with a massive amount of bees which decided to draw queen cells this February. Odra helped me split the bees. The split was an artificial swarm technique. However, the original hive off of which this split was made, swarmed twice. The first swarm, I hived, and it made 9 total supers this year while the afterswarm made about 6 this year.


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## drobbins (Jun 1, 2005)

wow, that's quite a story
you're not that far from me and the weather is similar
I know we had really warm weather last winter but a Feb split is quite a feat
then we had a really bad freeze at Easter that wiped out most of the Tulip Poplar
not to mention the drought which killed everything else
you need to breed those bees, me and everyone else here want some

Dave


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

Rut Roh, they seem to have forgotten to mention that small cell is required to have bees that are mite resistant. That must be planned for the addendum later??????


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

What are you talking about Bizzybee?


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## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

"I bought my bees from a person who has developed a mite resistant strain of his own. He has combined the advantages of the following races: Italian, Carniolan, Russian, Buckfast, and Minnesota hygenic into his own racial conglomerate which he has not treated for the last 10 years."

Great adverstising but who wrote it, the guy selling the bees? I used to buy the magic bullet proof Babcock-Lightner bees, virtually verbatim sales pitch! Think 10 yrs later they've pretty much all died from mites and all the the things they were immune to. Every other year we have the great new bullet proof bee somewhere and every year we find out bees are pretty much bees, some with better traits, some with worse traits depending on the quality of the breeding program and stock.

NZ is 2 years away from solving the mite problem with queens? How do they have any idea how long it will take and what obstacles they will encouter or how mites will adapt in 2 years? I'll keep buying the dependable stock I've used for years and rotate in the best qualities I can. I'll buy the new bullet proof bees after someone has acutally established such a thing can exist in nature.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Joel do you know of the reaserch being done in New Zealand, or are you speaking of personal opinion?


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

Joel,

I am not the one sellling the bees. I have only bought a split from this man. He and I went to the same sourwood location this year and did well. He has really hit in on something. I say this from my perspectives. He selects qualities and then floods the field with these drones produced by the superior queens. Over the years they have, just as in nature, with a little coaxing extirpated the weaker traits in favor of the strong survivor colony. The only disadvantage is that their swarm tendancy is very strong. However, the swarms tend to make quite a bit of honey regardless. Mr. Goodman is also brilliant in making a profit in the business. I have learned from him who averages a yearly income of $40,000 how to make a profit in this fickle business.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>> He selects qualities and then floods the field with these drones produced by the superior queens

Thats something I am going to start doing within my own operation. 
How does he manage his drone colonies?


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

He does virtually no managing other than inspections. If he finds a good queen he will simply insert 1 or 2 frames in the main brood area for her to produce enough drones to mate all the queens that he will raise during that time frame. He tries to keep his numbers around 65 hives however, he splits every year. I was fortunate to get one of these splits, a five framer for only $50. I have some other stock that do not even come close to these bees in honey production: A real phenomenon.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

ronzo0424 said:


> jep thats what i thought it was just that easy.... too bad we dont have anybody in this country that smart jez..... wait maybe we just dont have an island


I know you were kidding but we do have Grande Terre Island, Louisiana. And there the USDA is doing pretty much, as best I can tell, the same thing as the NZ folks. The biggest difference, in my opinion, is that in NZ researchers are selecting the traits and the bees in Louisiana came from eastern Russia where the selection process was natural.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>eastern Russia where the selection process was natural

What kind of results are they getting?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I posted this question on Bee-L, and have been in private conversation with a fellow from New Zealand who has been working along side this project, not on it. He has been quite helpful.

I have a question I would like to toss out to the board from our conversation, 

Quote >>Their selection 
process was along the same lines as Harbo,uncapping cells in the later 
stages of development and counting the number of cells that had no 
reproducing mites,breeding up from these until they reached about 80% non 
reproducing. 

>>they don't know what causes the mites to be 
sterile 


Does anyone have any theory on how the bees are able to supress the mites 
ability to reproduce? 

Thanks


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Ian said:


> >>eastern Russia where the selection process was natural
> 
> What kind of results are they getting?


I haven't kept up with the numbers but I understand that the pure Russians are pretty tolerant. They've gone as far as to form a Russian Bee Breeder's Assn. Getting folks to focus on Russians only. Working to manage drones in the area to help reduce the mixed genetics.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Does anyone have any theory on how the bees are able to supress the mites
ability to reproduce? 

Speculation is fun. They could make less of the pheromone that triggers the mites to infest the cell. They could have some mechanism that causes the male mites to get separated from the females so they can't reproduce well. They could produce an antibody in their hemalymph that interferes with the mite's ability to reproduce. They could produce pheromones that interfere with the mite's ability to find a mate while in the capped cell.


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## Yuleluder (Mar 2, 2005)

Isn't this what many folks in the USA have been doing for years now? I mean, I know of quite a few beekeepers who haven't treated for mites, and breed thier own queens from stock with qualities they find beneficial to thier operation. My small operation hasn't ever treated for mites, and we breed from only the best colonies each Spring. We average any where from 10-15% loss each winter. Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems like old news.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems like old news

Sorry, I guess I'm catching up.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Yuleluder said:


> Maybe I'm missing something, but this seems like old news.


Actually what you are suggesting may have been going on for quite a while. If so, it hasn't been much publicized. So, although it's old information it may still be 'new' news.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Here is some interesting research , "old news" from 2006 that provides some explination on how the bees are suppressing the mites abitity to reproduce.

http://www.beeculture.com/storycms/index.cfm?cat=Story&recordID=506


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Is there anyone here that can provide me with some links on current reaserch being done in the US on simular projects?


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

*Mite Resistance Breeding In The U.s.a.*

FYI
History 

In 1905 the trans-Siberian railroad was completed, opening eastern Russia to the rest of Europe. The European honeybee was imported into this area which had only been inhabited by the Asian honey bee Apis cerana, the natural host of Varroa mites.

The Asian honeybee and varroa mites have co-evolved into a balanced host/parasite relationship without much harm being done. Varroa only reproduces on drone pupae in these bees, and drones are only available part of the year, so high populations of mites never build up.

When the European bees encountered varroa, things were different. Varroa is able to reproduce on worker pupae which allows extremely high numbers of mites to build up. This high infestation eventually kills the colony. Beekeepers have been keeping mite populations down at great effort and expense, using miticides such as Apistan ( fluvalinate). But today, mite resistance to fluvalinate is clearly taking place, and will likely spread across the country just as rapidly as varroa did originally. 

Feral bees or bees managed without miticides have intense natural selection pressure, allowing only the most mite resistant colonies to survive. There are at least four resistance mechanisms that scientists have identified. They include, bees grooming mites off themselves and each other, hygienic behavior of removing infested pupae, acceleration of brood development, and suppression of mite reproduction. The ultimate goal of bee breeders is to produce bees with all these traits in a single stock of bees. It's hoped that the Russian bees will provide resistant genes that will let us take a giant step forward in the breeding effort. An earlier USDA introduction of bees from Yugoslavia did much in enhancing resistance to another serious pest, the tracheal mite.

Every beekeeper can help in the effort by using some of these Russian bees in their hives. Drones are produced from the queen's unfertilized eggs, so all drones from the Russian queens will be 100% Russian. This fact will greatly help in the spreading of the resistant genes, as drones fly for miles in search of queens to mate. If all goes well we may see the emergence of Varroa resistant bees across the country.

The USDA scientists, led by Dr. Thomas Rinderer, have done their part, now it's up to breeders and beekeepers to do their part in distributing these resistant bees. It may be our best option for getting off the chemical treadmill.


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

*Information On Mites & Links*

Glenn Apiaries ---Breeder Queens---Queen Rearing---Bee Breeding---Honeybee Genetics---Beekeeping Resources

Russian Breeder Queens

USDA scientists have imported a strain of honeybee from Russia which are naturally resistant to Varroa mites. The imported queens were selected from bees which had been exposed to mite infestation for nearly a century. If natural selection can produce tolerance to Varroa, then these bees may be our best bet.

The new Russian strain has gone through a quarantine and testing period since 1997, and are now being released to American beekeepers. Ongoing selection for further resistance to Varroa is being carried out by a team of top USDA scientists from the Honey Bee Breeding ,Genetics, and Physiology Laboratory in Baton Rouge, LA. 

Pure naturally mated Russian breeder queens are available for $300 each in cooperation with the USDA bee lab from: 

Harper's Honey Farm, Charlie Harper....Harper's Honey Farm....Carencro LA 70520

Ph: (337) 896-5247 [email protected] ....... http://www.russianbreeder.com

Glenn Apiaries is also now selling pure Russian queens instrumentally inseminated to pure Russian drones. Breeder queens cost $100.00 each plus $45 UPS overnight shipping.

Other queen breeders around the country will be selling Russian queens naturally mated to their own stock. See our beekeeping resource list for more information.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History 

In 1905 the trans-Siberian railroad was completed, opening eastern Russia to the rest of Europe. The European honeybee was imported into this area which had only been inhabited by the Asian honey bee Apis cerana, the natural host of Varroa mites.

The Asian honeybee and varroa mites have co-evolved into a balanced host/parasite relationship without much harm being done. Varroa only reproduces on drone pupae in these bees, and drones are only available part of the year, so high populations of mites never build up.

When the European bees encountered varroa, things were different. Varroa is able to reproduce on worker pupae which allows extremely high numbers of mites to build up. This high infestation eventually kills the colony. Beekeepers have been keeping mite populations down at great effort and expense, using miticides such as Apistan ( fluvalinate). But today, mite resistance to fluvalinate is clearly taking place, and will likely spread across the country just as rapidly as varroa did originally. 

Feral bees or bees managed without miticides have intense natural selection pressure, allowing only the most mite resistant colonies to survive. There are at least four resistance mechanisms that scientists have identified. They include, bees grooming mites off themselves and each other, hygienic behavior of removing infested pupae, acceleration of brood development, and suppression of mite reproduction. The ultimate goal of bee breeders is to produce bees with all these traits in a single stock of bees. It's hoped that the Russian bees will provide resistant genes that will let us take a giant step forward in the breeding effort. An earlier USDA introduction of bees from Yugoslavia did much in enhancing resistance to another serious pest, the tracheal mite.

Every beekeeper can help in the effort by using some of these Russian bees in their hives. Drones are produced from the queen's unfertilized eggs, so all drones from the Russian queens will be 100% Russian. This fact will greatly help in the spreading of the resistant genes, as drones fly for miles in search of queens to mate. If all goes well we may see the emergence of Varroa resistant bees across the country.

The USDA scientists, led by Dr. Thomas Rinderer, have done their part, now it's up to breeders and beekeepers to do their part in distributing these resistant bees. It may be our best option for getting off the chemical treadmill.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Russian bee Links



"Commercial Management of ARS Russian Honey Bees"

"Varroa Resistance of Hybrid ARS Russian Honey Bees" 

"Hygienic Behavior by Honey Bees from Far-Eastern Russia"

"A New Phase Begins for the USDA-ARS Russian Honey Bee Breeding Program"

"Unusual Queen Cell Construction and Destruction in Apis Mellifera from Far-Eastern Russia" 

"Russian Honey Bee Earning Its Stripes"

Best regards,
Ernie


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Ian said:


> Is there anyone here that can provide me with some links on current reaserch being done in the US on simular projects?


This was posted on Bee-L by Charlie Harper.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=171534
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=192535


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

"Every beekeeper can help in the effort by using some of these Russian bees in their hives."


mmm, imho, the only way for beekeepers to really "help the effort" towards mite (and other disease) resistance is to stop treating, and to breed their own bees from survivors. this is not to say that one should never bring in new stock (especially stock with demonstrated resistance), but there is no way to select for resistant bees while treating...and no way for the beekeeper to evaluate the resistance of a particular strain or hive if treatments are done.

remember folks, we are in a situation where 3/4 of the bees in the country are going to california for the almonds. no matter what the next pest is that shows up, it will spread very quickly via the mass migration to california. we need to have a system in place that will allow us to select for resistant bees, no matter what that resistance is for...and having the bulk of the bees and queens bred in the south en mass will not produce results as quickly as widely distributed group of beekeepers that are breeding from their own survivor stock.

deknow


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

>>resistance mechanisms that scientists have identified. They include, .... hygienic behavior of removing infested pupae, ..., and suppression of mite reproduction

>>http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=171534
>>This suggests that the SMR bees did not remove mites from brood cells if the mites did not lay eggs. By targeting the reproductive mites, bees with the SMR trait give the illusion that nearly all of the mites are non-reproductive. Therefore, our selection for a high frequency of non-reproductive mites may have produced bees that primarily remove reproductive mites from capped brood, not a condition that caused mites to be non-reproductive. 

>>http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=192535
>>We measured both the removal of infested cells and the frequency of nonreproducing mites in all colonies. An increase in the rate of removal of infested cells was strongly related to a decrease in all categories of reproductive mites, even mites that produced eggs too late to mature. However, removal rates were not related to the number of mites that produced no progeny.


Maybe its seems straight forward to everyone else here, please straighten things out for me if you please.
The way I seem to understand what is being said is first link suggest the two mechanisms are related, and the second link suggests they are not related.
Am I misunderstanding that? Can you find SMR and VHS seperate from one and another, or are they always expressed together?


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Here is some feed back I gotten privately from a question posted on Bee-L, on this same topic,


>>Hi Ian,<br>I've read everything on this, and yes, it is confusing.<br>There are multiple things going on, and the various papers are sometimes contradictory.<br>I've spoken with the major players, and no one will be able to give you a definitive answer at this time.


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

Both Dr. Harbo and Gary Reuter (among others) spoke at the Ohio queen breeders seminar last fall. Several things were agreed on. First, the VSH trait identifited by Dr. Harbo was tested by SPivak / Reuter. They found that the bees exhibiting the trait were hygenic.
Second, the VSH trait seems to be somewhat dominant.
Third, the hygenic trait isolated by Spivak / Reuter in the bees known as Minnesota Hygenic is recessive.
Fourth, there is evidence that some of the mites have been bitten. See comments of the Purdue expert (name escapes me but covered in the ABJ)

Now are you really confused? 

Just guessing too, but I think some of the earlier statements are most likely correct. The only mites that escape the VSH bees are those which are sterile. So the pheromone or whatever it is that the VSH bees smell may be the same pheremone that is related to fecundity. If they had propogated they would have been removed. So there the sterile bees survive, which is a double win for us!


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

Ian said:


> >>resistance mechanisms that scientists have identified. They include, .... hygienic behavior of removing infested pupae, ..., and suppression of mite reproduction
> 
> >>http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=171534
> >>This suggests that the SMR bees did not remove mites from brood cells if the mites did not lay eggs. By targeting the reproductive mites, bees with the SMR trait give the illusion that nearly all of the mites are non-reproductive. Therefore, our selection for a high frequency of non-reproductive mites may have produced bees that primarily remove reproductive mites from capped brood, not a condition that caused mites to be non-reproductive.
> ...


1. SMR is the old name for VSH, it is the same trait
2. The first quote describes impacts related to the genes of the bees and the second quote describes impacts related to the genes of the mites.

in other words, there is a separate gene pool battle going on between the genes of the mites and the genes of the bees. The actions of the bees causes selection on the mites. This selection process is dependent on the existence of an appropriate gene in the mites located within a particular hive. (this is all conjecture on my part based on my understanding of the research. I am not qualified to express an opinion but that doesn't stop me from doing so!


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Thanks David!
I appreciate your explinations


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

I have been talking to some very interesting fellows after posting on the fourms. Here is a snip from a conversation recently from one of them. 
This is exciting stuff, there is alot of people working on this kind of project, from what I gather from thier conversations, they are just scrapping the surface on what they actually understand how the bees and mites are interacting.



Hi Ian 
Have given some thought to your question over the last few days and have 
since contacted another beekeeper who has been selecting by the same method 
as Hort. Research.He brings frames of brood to me to comfirm that the mites 
are not reproducing.The best non- reproduction in his to date is 66%.Our 
Branch of the National Beekeepers Association brought John Harbo out to 
speak at our National conference in 2001,his talks are on tape in our 
National beekeeper Technical Library (which I can review).At that time he 
got alongside our scientists and shared his method of SMR selection,this I 
believe they adopted,with some changes to Drone mating (other than single 
drone mating) by ii to be successfull over the later stages.I spoke to Sue 
Coby about the mating of my own queens (natual) when I was transporting her 
back from Hort.Resrearch to the airport a couple of years back.Our 
Association also bought Charlie Harper out to another of our Nationl 
conferences to speak on the Russian queens (also on tape in our Library).I 
would not like to give an opinion on what is going on when Hort.Research 
themselves say they dont know the reason for the mites being sterile and 
there are several reasons for a percentage to be sterile.It's the other 
group of sterile mites I would be interested in and the reason being if one 
was to select by that method.Your question is a good one as to traits,but if 
there was brood removal of the reproductive mites (VSH) the empty cells 
would stand out as a spotty pattern on the frame being checked for 
non-reproductive mites.I have photos of A Hort Research trial hive that we 
looked through on the last visit with a group from Uraguay and Agentina.I 
will ask Fernando the leader of the Uraguay group to send me their close up 
photos of the Hort.Research hive (brood frame) we looked through for 
comparison of the brood pattern.It's early days yet and we will see what happens over 
the next couple of seasons.I am personnally revisiting cell size also as a 
seperate project,Hort research did a small trial on various cells sizes and 
published their results about 4 years ago.It was a very unfair trial as the 
various cell sizes were all on the same frame (mosaic). 
Regards


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## allrawpaul (Jun 7, 2004)

*share those queens csbees!!*

If he's got bees that are varoa proof to a 2% loss rate, that are gentle and excellent producers, shouldnt he be selling queens!? Seems like he has an obligation to sell them for the benefit of the beekeeping world. I want some!!


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Hi Ian,
Besides the russian breeders, you should also look at the work being done by Susan Colby of UC Davis.

Since Hawaii has varroa now maybe thats possible. You can't breed resistant bees on an island without the mite's



Ian said:


> >>wait maybe we just dont have an island
> 
> 
> Hawaii


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