The honeybees might have come back a lot faster if the US had not turned to chemical miticides and selected for varroa mite resistance instead.

Instead, the vast majority of commercial beekeepers are producing chemical-dependent bees, which is not good in the long term. But chemical miticide producers are happy to make profits.

Because of the ways that honeybees mate, i.e. the virgin queen mates with several drones randomly on her mating flight, the mass of chemical-dependent genetics waters down any progress made in spreading varroa resistant genetic lines.

Modern beekeeping is a lot more complicated with beekeepers having to keep to a strict timetable of varroa treatment to keep their colonies alive.