Market Farming

[Lucy Owsley <goodows AT infinet.com>]

Last year we decided to to get away from the 3 banded italian bee and
bought a russian queen, though the hive died late this winter during an
extreme cold spell in late March, they did not have mites. The Russians
seem to be a lot more hygienic than the more docile italians. We got
into the russians because the italian queens we were buying were dying
and a beekeeper told us we may have better luck with the russians as
they are not bred for quantity because there is not a big call for them.

 Russian bees are aggressive. My husband did all the hive work and yet I
still got stung many times (I will say their venom ain't in the same
league as the italians, though. much milder).

A any rate, I believe the general cause of the mite infestations of bees
is the fact we as a nation mono crop our bees. The 3 banded Italian
makes up about 98% of the domestic bee population and that leaves a wide
opening for the mite problems that we have.

Note: the "wild" honeybee population are just escaped domestic bees.
Remember honey bees are not native to the Americas. The true wild and
native bees to N America do not have a mite problem though they are
losing habitat and do get sprayed often as they are look at as stinging
pests, not pollinators.

I have seen no research in the bee mags on my observation that the
russian bees (and I assume buckfast) do not have mite problems though
someone is breeding hygienic Italian queens to combat the problem. Maybe
no one else has noticed this, I dunno.

Lucy Goodman-Owsley
Boulder Belt Organics
New Paris, OH
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/boulderbeltcsa

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It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong
                                                                        
Voltaire (1694-1778)