Some parts of your post i agree with beedeetee. However, the part that it is soley the queen breeders fault I have issues with. Chalkbrood is a management issue not only for queen breeders but also beekeepers. When we see signs of it we need to take action. Is combining sick hives a good idea, or is it just spreading the disease? Are our tools clean or are they dirty, how about our coveralls, our boots...cross contamination. There are also some precurssor steps in which we can take to prevent it. Like nutrition in our hive, adequate ventilation, and proper space for the hive. Especially in cool wet weather which can exasperate the problem. When i say ventilation, i just do not mean the hive itself, but the yard it is in. Is the air stale, not much wind to clean the air where the hive is. In the later part of spring and into the summer and early fall, good cross winds are important in the hive. Is there overcrowding in that yard?
I know the yards i am having problems with right now are either too wet, or had the wind breaks removed to late, or i gave them too much space too quickly. As well, it seems the hives with the older queens are having more trouble than the new queens installed this year. Final pressure was, the dearth that hit right at the "perfect" time. The "perfect storm" so to speak.
To lay the blame solely on a specific sector in the bee industry as a whole, we are doing ourselves a disservice and passing the buck. To much emphasis is placed solely on the breeder. We want bees that have so many traits. We want the breeders to provide queens with mite resistance, disease resistant, chalkbrood resistance, managable traits, not to hot, quick to build up in the spring, not to big of winter eaters, and good honey producers. We have queen breeders build in "bee fads". But, what are we giving up? Longevity of the queen, swarming tendancies, more disease pressure.
In the end we also need to learn from our mistakes, and change or "upgrade" some of our management issues. And take some responsibility through our hive management skills.
I have an example that is outside beekeeping. We had a cow that had lumpy jaw. She was not that bad, we kept her since she raise a healthy live, good wean weight calf. What we did not realize was, when the sores broke, she spread the illness by dropping puss or blood on the hay, or near the watering station. A few years down the road, we got another. Then another year, another...and then in one year three. By this time the original sick animal was long since gone and buried. After reading on lumpy jaw, and taking our vets advice, we increased the iodine in the mineral and shipped or SSS all sick animals. Since then, no lumpy jaw. The reason we lost so many cows to this over a few short years...management plain and simple. If we had shipped her when she was still able to be shipped, and added iodine to the mineral, we would have saved ourselves several good cows and alot of headache.
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