I wrote:
> A much older study showed that there is far greater variation within populations of bees than between them, that bee stock is consistently pretty similar across regions.

This is not clear. What I meant is that the populations are similar in that they are diverse, not that they are similar with each other. 

It seems clear that maximizing diversity (at least in honey bees)  is far more important than selecting for particular traits, especially if the selection process reduces diversity. 

Of course, this depends on your criteria. If you are breeding dogs, say, and you want them to be pretty, you might ignore health issues. However, if you are breeding primarily for health and vigor, you might want to ignore what they look like.

PLB

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