I was reading some research recently that showed the VSH or "hygienic" behavior wasn't a dominant gene and therefore wasn't guaranteed to pass on from hives that were surviving treatment free. In fact, the study found that 1 generation was enough to lose it in a large majority of progeny. This has been one of the issues in creating treatment free hives...and why we're still treating - how long after varroa was introduced?
If it were as simple as breeding your survivors and the survivors of those then the mite issue would no longer be an issue.
It also comes down to the diseases and virus' introduced to the bees by varroa. Research shows that eggs and larvae can be "vaccinated" by royal jelly fed to queens and larvae but the bees need to be subjected to those diseases in the first place. If the disease doesn't outright kill them, how do you know they ever had it to select for it?
So in short, you're dealing with more than one issue as a result of mites. Of course, I encourage anyone to go treatment free but also believe you need to be willing to lose a lot of hives, and have the hives to lose in the first place, in order to get anywhere with treatment free.
Further, if someone claimed they were treatment free for X amount of years and wanted to sell queens I wouldn't buy them, but I would buy a nuc from them as it's the immunity of the colony I'd be after and not jus the "genetic" aspect - as it's just not that simple.
For me, a few shots of OAV from a band vaporizer is so easy, why not at least keep on top of mites?
But this is a touchy subject and people will argue one way or the other like a left and right wings of a bee. If you haven't found the treatment free thread, with a LOT of posts, you may want to start there.
If it were as simple as breeding your survivors and the survivors of those then the mite issue would no longer be an issue.
It also comes down to the diseases and virus' introduced to the bees by varroa. Research shows that eggs and larvae can be "vaccinated" by royal jelly fed to queens and larvae but the bees need to be subjected to those diseases in the first place. If the disease doesn't outright kill them, how do you know they ever had it to select for it?
So in short, you're dealing with more than one issue as a result of mites. Of course, I encourage anyone to go treatment free but also believe you need to be willing to lose a lot of hives, and have the hives to lose in the first place, in order to get anywhere with treatment free.
Further, if someone claimed they were treatment free for X amount of years and wanted to sell queens I wouldn't buy them, but I would buy a nuc from them as it's the immunity of the colony I'd be after and not jus the "genetic" aspect - as it's just not that simple.
For me, a few shots of OAV from a band vaporizer is so easy, why not at least keep on top of mites?
But this is a touchy subject and people will argue one way or the other like a left and right wings of a bee. If you haven't found the treatment free thread, with a LOT of posts, you may want to start there.