> Sorry Peter,, this is politically correct <explicitive deleted>

Hi all,

My purpose for this post was to have an intelligent discussion about the relation between individual traits and groups. You certainly have introduced a dose of vitriol, oh well. Moving on, I think this ties in with what folks have been saying about A. m. m. Some Americans found the black bees to be a certain way, but people handling them in Europe find them to be quite manageable. 

By the same token, the bees in Puerto Rico are genetically "Africanized" bees, but by all accounts they are docile. A third example is Juliana Rangel's finding that feral bees in the south are varroa tolerant but not because of the genetic tie to African bees. So, there is a disconnect between "types" and behaviors. 

Just like we cannot assign intelligence to particular groups, we cannot expect types of honey bees to exhibit specific characters, unless they have been selected for those characters. Which is breeding, not evolution. Vis a vis, excessive propolis, I have seen one colony out of 12 close their entrance with propolis. Is that colony a particular type, or just an individual bent on propolizing?

Peter L Borst

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