Breeding varroa tolerant bees in Canada

[simoncav]

Perhaps I should have ended my post with "Come on heidiherrmann and chums if you think your smart enough" But that would be a bit too provocative perhaps....???

 

[Chris B]

6/ In the scheme of things Varroa mites and European honey bees were never destined to meet. We did that and screwed things up. There is no inherent natural resistance to something these bees as a species have never encountered before. "Leaving things to nature" would probably have resulted in the wiping out of all European honey bees in a relatively short period of time biologically speaking.

That's the worst case scenario. Apis Cerana is the natural host of varroa. But the reason varroa thrives on Apis Mellifera is that it's such a close relative of Apis Cerana. It's defences include grooming and a slightly shorter pupation.

So the question is did varroa originally come into contact with Apis Cerana after Cerana and Mellifera diverged as species? It seems to me cerana met varroa very recently in evolutionary terms yet found it did have a natural resistance somewhere within it's gene pool. So why not mellifera too?

 

[domino]

So why not mellifera too?

It's a case of co-evolution, the same reason SHB isn't a huge threat in it's native environment. Left to their own devices I'm sure european bees will develop to cope with the mite unaided, however, the for the reasons given above it will be a remarkably slow process. In the meantime pest managment keeps the hives alive.

 

[Russel]

Randy Oliver is oft mentioned here, some of his findings: Choosing your troops breeding mite fighting bees and further reading varroa-management

 

[Chris Ibbo]

Any plans on how to establish such a population? Remembering also, if we're going to go down that road then the ferals had best have plenty of other good qualities apart from resistance because a resistant bee that wants to sting anything that moves, or one that simply has no 'drive' to store a harvestable surplus won't be much use to many beekeepers; and what if their resistance is heavily influenced by reliance on excessive swarming.....

Best to forget about wild pests being the 'silver bullet' and leave it to the people with the time, resources and inclination to try and create something worthwhile -while taking personal responsibility for our own colonies and zapping the mites.

I definatly agree with you on the "leave it the people with the time, resources and inclination". Who in thier right mind is going to want bees that swarm lots, don't produce stores, are really aggressive but can kick varroas ass!? It is a multiple pronged effort that is needed to sort this problem and one that needs a national program.
I think the chemical treatments are a good way to control varroa and this should be persued but surely we can't keep treating bees for ever. Which leaved us with selective breeding and spreading those genetics nationally. This is definatly not a small time operation for the people with two colonies in thier garden.

 

[pargyle]

Perhaps I should have ended my post with "Come on heidiherrmann and chums if you think your smart enough" But that would be a bit too provocative perhaps....???

What a pity ... Excellent previous post ... very sensible and appealing to the more pragmatic 'natural' beekeepers ... then you go and spoil it all !