From: Erik Osterlund <honeybee@elgon.se>
Date: Mon Dec 18, 2000 1:40am
Subject: Re: girls on small cells, regressing bees

Hi John

First I can see that you generally are enough experienced to be able to go
ahead in breeding and experimenting, as you have got the main lines from
Lusbys and others. Your test results will lead you ahead.

Concerning breeding Dee Lusby also have good insight how bees adapt and
react to different kinds of environment and crossings between strains and
races. The answer to what happens is not always as straightforward and easy
as one might think. If you cross very diffrent strains you get a variey of
offspring and you have to work hard in selection together with nature and
environment and it will take some time to establish the rsesult. And as
you work with a limit number of colonies you will end up loosing a lot
genetically too. But never mind you will end up with something that
eventually will work. You can put two 5-frame nucs together facing different
directions to help warm each other.

I know there are still quite pure capensis somewhere ina corner of a German
university, but awfully inbred. Carniolan-capensis cross has not given any
big solution, yet anyhow. And one of the answers to that is, I think, due
to that they insist in using some kind of drug every year "to be sure" and
try to count the mites and measure increase amount of mites. And they don't
realize that the drugs interfere with resistance, resulting in no result at
all.

If you have bees today which build that small comb you say, my belief is
that you should try to take care of the bees you have and breed from the.
Eventually you may need some refreshing "blood" though to overome
inbreeding. Inbreeding is one of the worst enemies of the bees.

No, I havn't introduced any new strain of Monticola after the initial
import. Today I would say that the bees have some 20% of African heritage,
very difficult to say actually, but I have kept track of the "pedigree"
though.

The bees have a shorter development time, the queens emerge at least one
day earlier than normal European bees. But if you treat my bees with formic
acid, they are as bad as any other bee concerning mites, almost.

>Thanks Erik,
>
>I read about early plans to cross Carniolan and Capensis as a varroa
>resistant strain, in Europe, but I haven't heard anything ever came of it. I
>am fast becoming fascinated with bee breeding, and genetic heredity in
>general, what sort of percentage of new blood did you have to introduce to
>create such a lasting effect? Or do you continually add new bloodlines?
.......
>Re 'regressing bees' I've chosen the smallest drawn comb I can find. I'm
>going to make five 5 frame nucs in early Spring,...