Stock selection, forage availability, mite treatments and supplemental food all can be challenges to an organic program. Stock selection is fundamental to any type of livestock operation, including honey bees. Beekeepers select for or against traits,including honey production, resistance to parasites and diseases, and aggressive behavior, when they manage and propagate hives. In 2007 we began an on-farm research project at Berea College to select honey bee stock that would be well suited for organicproduction. The horticultural enterprise of the farm where the apiary is located was already certified organic, but previous attempts at managing commercially-available Italian stock without the use of synthetic inputs, especially miticides for Varroa destructor, had ended in unacceptably high hive mortality. Therefore we decided to develop an organic management plan and impose it on five different stocks, four of which came with claims or evidence of Varroa resistance or tolerance. The fifth was the commercial stock we had been using previously which served as a control for comparisons. The first objective was to find out if there really were differences among the stocks and if the claims of Varroa resistance had validity. The other goal was to systematically select for breeding stock most suitable for the organic management system we planned to use.
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