A key point that would-be bee breeders
must fully appreciate is that the queen is only half of the
equation. The incredibly difficult part is controlling who the
daddy is. You may buy or somehow breed the most wonderful queen in
the world, for whatever trait, but her virgin daughters are going
to mate with whoever is in the neighborhood, knocking your
genetics back to lousy. The only ways to have true control over
the drone population are to 1) use instrumental insemination (not
incredibly hard but the equipment is very expensive), 2) move to
an otherwise bee-free environment (e.g. an island, or in Seeley's
case, a remote forest), or 3) provide so many drone-mother
colonies that you overwhelm the local population (an expensive and
difficult exercise, and my guess is that it would be impractical
in Orange County).
This is why is it easy to RAISE queens but difficult to truly
BREED them, i.e. the way dog breeders can control mating in order
to shape the characteristics of a breed. Most people don't observe
this problem because they don't have anything to objectively judge
the genetics of their bees with. I see it all the time though. I
enjoy keeping Carniolan bees, which are a very pretty dark color,
gentle and thrifty with winter stores. The queens are a brownish
black. I bring them into my bee yard, and by three or so
generations down the line, my pretty Carniolans look just like
everybody else's yellow Italians. Even though I have several hives
of them, they've been mostly mating with the local playboys.
Breeding for varroa tolerance is not unlike breeding for color,
but is especially challenging because many of the anti-varroa
traits that bees possess are carried by the drone's genes. Plus we
first must uncover bees with the traits we want to breed for,
which isn't easy when we cannot readily see them.
This isn't meant as a discouragement -- I still keep trying with
my Carniolans -- but it is a reality that must be understood.
Randall Austin
On 1/21/2013 3:11 PM, Lewis Cauble wrote:
1446350974.10183.1358799104307.JavaMail.vpopmail AT mail.hivebody.com"
type="cite">
For those interested in
breeding locally adapted mite tolerant bees, I found an
article that might be very helpful. I haven't finished
reading it yet but it seems to fit very well in this
discussion. I'll just leave this here.
I will also add that Google
Scholar is an awesome resource and encourage folks to
mine it for information. If you are planning an experiment,
mine Google Scholar first as there is a good chance someone
has already done it. Interested in the latest IPM fad? See
what the egg heads discovered when they tried it. If it
didn't work for them and you still want to use the method
you can use their work as a baseline. Add or subtract
elements to/from the protocol described in their work.
Lewis
On January 21, 2013 at 12:52 PM Catherine Adamson
<cadamson AT alumni.unc.edu> wrote:
Great info, Lewis! Having tried the Bond method I am
also warning folks off it.
It's true that some colonies are weak and should not be
fed and supported in that condition. But the solution
there is combining or requeening if early enough in the
season.
The other point to keep in mind is that even if one
could select well for mite resistance this way, bees are
dealing with more than just mites around here. I had a
colony last year in third year without treatment which
did not show mite amplification (unlike most of my test
colonies).
It handled mites like they were nothing.....and fell to
the great shb plague of 2012. The fact that colonies
must handle multiple lethal threats at the same time
makes breeding for mite resistance by Bond method
implausible unless you have very deep pockets and
tolerance for annual losses in excess of 80%.
Catherine
>
> On Jan 21, 2013 12:38 PM, "Lewis Cauble" <lewis AT hivebody.com>
wrote:
>>
>> It absolutely is a warning to hobbyist trying
to breed resistant bees using the Bond method. It is
not meant to discourage hobbyist from breeding resistant
bees. It is only warning you that the Bond method is
not a suitable way to do it.
>>
>>
>>
>> Varroa resistance is a trait in our bees and
studies indicate that between 3 and 10% of our bees have
this trait. If you have a group of 100 colonies you
will likely find between 3 and 10 colonies with these
good traits. How do you identify these traits? Monitor
mite pressure in untreated colonies. Those colonies
that are keeping infestation levels below 10% without
treatment should be bred from. Those that are not
should be requeened with genetic material from those
that are. Monitoring infestation levels is required.
This was the point I was trying to convey with the ABJ
attachment the other day. I have a strong untreated
colony that had at the end of the summer 4 mites in a
sugar shake of 300 bees. This is my breeder for 2013.
Doesn't mean she is going to produce daughter queens
that lead resistant colonies, but it's a start.
>>
>>
>>
>> Tarpy's point was that watching colonies die
from varroa infestation and replacing them with package
bees is going to be a waste of resources.
>>
>>
>>
>> Why not give your breeding program a boost by
bringing in some VSH queens from a reputable breeder?
>>
>>
>>
>> I believe Seely's experiment demonstrated the
avirulence of mites in feral colonies. In this setting,
mites can ill afford to kill their host as the next host
colony is quite a distance away. He moved his feral
queens into managed yards and they did not fare any
better than other colonies in the yard. The bees were
the same in the managed and feral colonies. The mites
were different. In a managed setting, it is no big deal
if a colony of mites wipes out its host colony. They
simply hitch a ride to the colony next door and continue
their no good ways. Here's a link to his study.
>>
>>
>>
>> Lewis
>>
>>
>> On January 21, 2013 at 10:59 AM Just Bee <marty AT justbeenc.com>
wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for the links. I especially like the
Bond article. I did not however see any reference to 50
hives in Seeley's work. Seems to be warning against
hobbyist. Only point missing is if a community or group
decided to do this then the size of the "kept" bees or
number would not matter. Bees don't care if I think I
own them of 10 of us do. So I disagree with the 50 hive
threshold. Seems an easy way to discourage hobbyist or
sideliners given how far bees fly and feral colony's
there will always bee some genetic mixing.
>>>
>>> As to the "Monsanto" sponsored
conference...NO Thanks! To have such a sale out as Hayes
come and be apart of the joint conference speaks volumes
to the massive disconnect in our bee groups and to a
larger hold the big AG has over this industry. I fully
understand this is just My view but for Monsanto to be
allowed to placed a speaker at 3 different times within
the conference to promote how they are gonna "help the
bees" is not for me.
>>>
>>> They make and sell products the kill and/or
effect bees...any type of support of that by our State
Bee groups is a disappointment.
>>>
>>> So no thanks.
>>> Marty
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>> On Jan 20, 2013, at 10:36 AM, Lewis Cauble
< lewis AT hivebody.com>
wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hello Beekeepers,
>>>>
>>>> The Spring Ebuzz from NCSBA came out on
Jan 9th and has a good article on the "Live and Let Die"
method of dealing with mites. We discussed this method
at our summer field day. Dr Tarpy makes a good case
that it is not a viable method for folks with fewer than
50 colonies and urges us to monitor mite pressure. I
have attached it for folks who may not be members of
NCSBA.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Also in the EBuzz is the agenda for the
joint SCSBA/NCSBA spring meeting in York. The line up
of guest speakers and workshops looks fantastic and I
have also attached that document along with a
registration form. You may also register at the SCSBA
website or simply register at the door. Preregistration
will save you 10 bucks.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Lewis
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> <EBuzz Mites.pdf>
>>>>
>>>> <SCSBA Meeting.pdf>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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