Mexican Beekeeping Seminar, Part II

摘要

Last month, discussing the events of the 18th Mexican Beekeeping Seminar (Seminario Americano de Apicultura), I wrote about the relationship between Mexican honey production and the world market place. One of the major worldwide issues is the use of chemicals to treat a variety of pests and diseases and their potential to contaminate the global honey crop. A paradox in Mexico is that there exist Africanized honey bees, which appear to be tolerant to and require less treatment for many situations, especially infestation by Varroa destructor. Despite this fact, many beekeepers in that country either prefer to use strains of European bees, which require treatment, or don't know the level of tolerance to mites by the bees they keep (their level of Africanization), and so use treatments as a preventative "just in case."