Do we have that time< Question is do we have the economic motivation that will impose the conditions necessary to cause the shift. Cows are easy compared to bees. AI is simpler and isolation of breeding is far easier. Bees reproduction habits seem deliberately made to select against it. There is also a great variety of "visions" of what would be the "best bee". The present economic driver of the existence of bees is is the pollination business which sees bees hauled from coast to coast and north to south, spreading disease and mooting any selective breeding program. The bee that will multiply the fastest as long as it is fed regardless of the season is emanently suited.
You can create islands of stock with heightened survival traits for local conditions but how do you prevent their contamination by the hordes; especially when their virgin queens are so avidly promiscuous. There are quite a few examples of these pockets but there are probably a thousandfold more examples of failure. The successes are well recorded but the failures for the most part not.
Well put! The project envisioned by Lowtech might have impact from migratory and commercial apiaries. Even on the 2300 acres (if I correctly recall without re-reading) they would encounter an impact of surrounding hives. A proper isolation would need at least 80,000 acres or a 5 mile wide containment. However, I am in the Northeast and perhaps a proper isolation are could be the NYC suburbs. I would suggest that there is no/extremely limited commercial agriculture, hence no migratory hives (other than on trucks passing through on the NJ Turnpike) or large bee yards within 20 or 25 miles of the City. (Ok when you done snickering think about it) Is this a better opportunity for small scale expansion of natural selection supplemented by a reasonable introduction of selectively bred bees?
If the VSH trait was bred out of bees over the last, let's say 200 years, as opposed to it being present for the rest of their time on earth, wouldn't it be reasonable to believe that this trait would be easy to restore in the presence of this incredible pressure from mites of which our bees are being subjected.
Sort of like the claim that 4.7- 4.9 mm being natural cell size.
Well , perhaps my example was not the best. It is believe that A. Cerana was able to co-exist with V. jacobsoni by adapting over thousands of years. This was a natural, Darwinian process. I would further suggest that A. mellifera either may have already dealt with V. destructor in ancient history or as a new pest, has the genetic ability's to develop naturally (in a thousands of years timeline) or quickly through selective breeding. My thoughts are that to accelerate the re-development of these traits is not by just a one and done buy a VSH queen but a repeated process of continual introduction of new queens, year after year from different breeder of, let say VSH Italian stock, or VSH Russian. In the first year of f1 queens introduced to a bee yard, how many effectively f1 drones (1005 gene from mother queen) hit the sky in 45 days or so to breed into feral and other local managed stock? In this year, any f2 generation queens would have a higher chance of hooking up (can say that?) with the f1 drones. Year 2, expansion of new VSH, preferable from a different gene pool, F2 girl meets new f1 boy-and so on. My area is at the edge of any serious commercial ag, most migratory stuff is much further south (15-20 miles) and very limited north and east. To the west (+5 miles) are some orchards and berry farms, mostly CSA's and in this area a big farm or orchard has less than 50 acres, most, much less of cultivated land. That's a far cry from thousand (think almonds) of acres in other areas of the Country.
The plan I've been working on is to have a central bee yard with, say 12-20 colonies, 4 commercial control and the balance in VSH queens. In this same first year, several satellite yards of 3 to 5 colonies within a mile and a half radius. I have a couple of commercial/Master Beeks on board to help with issues but am planning on performing all the labor myself and I'm self funded (translation Momma's thinking I should be committed and children watching their inheritances vaporize, I'm waiting for JW Palmer to call me Scoobert 2.0) I've already paid for the two pallets of hive boxes and frames and bees have been ordered. In year two, additional stock from different breeders to expand the gene pool and extend the perimeter. At least "Hey get back here" still has faith in me and hell, I've blown more on lesser projects-I got rid of the boat!
Edit note: I have pretty much identified and continue to search for an beekeepers within my project zone (there's no many) and would push, even gift some F2 queens as we get going.
