On Nov 15, 8:40 pm, Ann wrote:
doofy expounded:

I was reading something in one of the "Mother Country Backwoods Grit
News" magazines about, by breeding the ferocity out of bees, we've also
bred out their ability to fight back against mites, etc.

The Africanized bees deal with them well, it has to do with the length
of the brood cycle, the AFH's brood time is shorter, so the varroa
don't have time to mature before the new bee hatches. We may have
bread the ferocity out of the bees, or we may have continued lines of
bees that can't withstand and/or deal with the varroa, but that's
changing, hygenic bees are being bred that both groom the varroa off
better and that kill and remove infested pupa, thus controlling the
mites themselves. As I said in another post, another point of view is
to not treat at all, and let the susceptible bees die off, hopefully
encouraging natural selection to let the stronger bee develop (not
economically feasible if your income depends on bees). There's quite
a bit going on in the honeybee world, it's a small world, but many are
trying to make things right.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
******************************

Would it make sense to install a hive, bring in some bees, and just
leave it alone, not harvesting honey or wax -- just give them a place
to live and to pollinate the area?

cheers

oz