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- To: csa-L@prarienet.org
- Subject: Honeybee mites
- From: Eric Belsey <egbelsey@holly.colostate.edu>
- Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 12:09:58 -0600
My entomology prof raises Buckfast Bees- a strain developed by a recently deceased monk at the Buckfast Abbey in England that are claimed to be resistant to mites. A search for Buckfast bees turns up some web resources. Here's what the ol' PhD. has to say: The Weaver Brothers out of Texas are the US producers/distributors of the Buckfast bees. They are widely recognized as being tolerant to the tracheal mite (not the varroa mite), although you don't see it in their advertising, I don't think. Their tolerance is regularly mentionned in the apiculture publications, however. (Dr Whitney S. Cranshaw, author Pests of the West, Bagging Big Bugs, and fullprofessor in the Department Formerly Known as Entomology, Coorado State University) >Dr. Cranshaw- >The other day in the garden, did you say that the Buckfast bee was >resistant to the Varroa? or the Tracheal mite? I unerstand the tracheal >mites were first detected in England in the 20's; did Brother Adam breed >resistance to these? Are they advertised as such to apiarists? >thanks >Eric Belsey
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