FILM REVIEW


varroa’s opportunities to reproduce. Development time for the pupal stage is a fourth mechanism; a day or two shorter than the 13 days typical of European honey bee subspecies (capped on last day of larval development plus 12 days as a prepupa and pupa) doesn’t provide quite enough time for                   related to less virulent mites rather than a mite-resistant honey bee population.


All these honey bee populations have one thing in common besides resistance: they are feral or are subject to reduced management by beekeepers so that natural selection                 synthetic or organic chemical treatments against mites. Why aren’t mite-resistant honey bees commonly used for


  closer to natural beekeeping than to high-productivity beekeeping. One reason mite-resistant bees haven’t taken beekeeping by storm is that colonies selected for resistance            all characteristics useful in the wild but also reduce honey  are not particularly gentle. Resistance to varroa may work best with natural


       proponents base their beekeeping methods on observations of wild colonies subject to evolutionary natural selection rather than from today’s commonly practiced high- productivity management strategies. Darwinian beekeepers house colonies in small hives of a size and shape similar


 with swarming encouraged and copious honey production less of a goal. This genre of beekeeper keeps bees more to   American contingent. Darwinian beekeepers consider honey    to develop resistance.                                                            our fundamental attitudes around our human relationship to honey bees on the other. These divergent philosophies  production-oriented and Darwinian beekeepers. Those who value high productivity are concerned that the untreated colonies of natural beekeepers are doing nothing more than providing a reservoir of varroa to infest nearby colonies. Darwinian types object to nearby beekeepers treating           to breed resistant bees due to drones from susceptible colonies mating with the Darwinian-reared resistant queens.


Above left: A varroa mite on comb seeking to inhabit a honey bee cell containing a ready-to-cap older larva. Above right: Researchers map cells they have populated with known numbers of varroa mites, as part of a project to assess colony resistance to the mites.


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