Breeding better mites

[doc25]

I was watching tv yeaterday and saw something interesting. It dealt with a midge resistant grain. When seeding they also allowed 10% non resistant seed into the mix. The reasoning was that it would allow these midges to eat on that 10% and make it harder for the midges to find a mate that picked up an immunity to the seed.

Would it be of any benefit to allow say 10% of hives to go untreated so that you can keep a gene pool of mites not resistant to miticides? This could be done with the lower production hives (sacrificial lambs).

[Beeslave]

I think feral hives have that covered.

[Michael Bush]

>Would it be of any benefit to allow say 10% of hives to go untreated so that you can keep a gene pool of mites not resistant to miticides? This could be done with the lower production hives (sacrificial lambs).

How about 100% so we can get mites that live in harmony with the bees instead of mites that can only survive by outbreeding our poisons when what we need are mites that can live in balance with their host.

http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm (see wrong gene pool)
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoursim...reatmentupside

[doc25]

[QUOTE=Michael Bush;488574
How about 100% so we can get mites that live in harmony with the bees instead of mites that can only survive by outbreeding our poisons when what we need are mites that can live in balance with their host.

[/QUOTE]

I agree with you and have no intention of treating my hives. Found this interesting and decided to post it for those that do. Another interesting point is that they were expecting a 10 yr lifespan out of this resistant grain until the midges were no longer repelled.

[heaflaw]

Would it be of any benefit to allow say 10% of hives to go untreated so that you can keep a gene pool of mites not resistant to miticides? This could be done with the lower production hives (sacrificial lambs).

That wouldn't work in the case of varroa anyway would it? Varroa mites spend all their life in one hive. The only time a varroa is transferred to a different hive is when a bee drifts with one it's thorax. Leaving an individual hive untreated would have very, very little effect on the mites in the treated hives. Instead, you would have to have 10% of the bees in each hive as not varroa tolerant for a few of the mites to survive on. But that would mean about 10% decrease in productivity of each hive and the guys who make a living off of bees could not tolerate that.

[Michael Bush]

>That wouldn't work in the case of varroa anyway would it? Varroa mites spend all their life in one hive. The only time a varroa is transferred to a different hive is when a bee drifts

"The percentage of foragers originating from different colonies within the apiary ranged from 32 to 63 percent"--from a paper, published in 1991 by Walter Boylan-Pett and Roger Hoopingarner in Acta Horticulturae 288, 6th Pollination Symposium (see Jan 2010 edition of Bee Culture, 36)

I'd say few Varroa spend their entire life in the same hive if 1/3 to 2/3 of the bees in a hive originated in a different hive...

[heaflaw]

>That wouldn't work in the case of varroa anyway would it? Varroa mites spend all their life in one hive. The only time a varroa is transferred to a different hive is when a bee drifts

"The percentage of foragers originating from different colonies within the apiary ranged from 32 to 63 percent"--from a paper, published in 1991 by Walter Boylan-Pett and Roger Hoopingarner in Acta Horticulturae 288, 6th Pollination Symposium (see Jan 2010 edition of Bee Culture, 36)

I'd say few Varroa spend their entire life in the same hive if 1/3 to 2/3 of the bees in a hive originated in a different hive...

I knew foragers drifted, but I had no idea it was anywhere near that much. I've also read that they tend to drift more to hives on the ends of a row. Doesn't that have a big effect on a beekeeper analyzing which queen is most productive?

[Michael Bush]

>Doesn't that have a big effect on a beekeeper analyzing which queen is most productive?

Yes.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbetterq...0Bumper%20Crop

"The Colony That Gave a Bumper Crop

"In Indiana we had an outyard laid out in the form of a triangle as that was the shape of the plot on which we had our bees. During the sweet clover flow one colony produced three supers of honey while the others averaged about two supers. In the fall that colony produced two supers of honey from smartweed and asters while the rest produced a little less than one super. Surely that colony that so far outdistanced the others must have a queen that would make an excellent breeder. I thought I would take a look at her but alas, when I opened the hive, I found it not only had no queen but was fairly lousy with laying workers! Just why then the big yield? This colony was located at the point of the triangle to the west and the fields of nectar lay to the west. It was evident that the bees in returning from the fields-maybe the ones out for their first load-stopped at the first hive they came to and kept it packed with bees."--Jay Smith, Better Queens