> It is in our interest to have a diverse population and the trait that matters is the ability to resist pests and parasites. 
> Measured by who and what yardstick???  

You're right Charles, not everyone is interested in that. Some prefer just the opposite: heavily inbred bees that fall prey to any minor pest that floats down the breeze. So long as they are golden and don't sting much. I have a few like that, want to know where I got them?

On the other hand, I would defer to Charlie Mraz:

> Without question, the queens are of of greatest importance. Without good queens, all other operations are of no avail. Queens, to produce the largest crops, must be vigorous. The bees and queens must be long lived. They must not swarm excessively. They must conserve food and not waste it on useless brood rearing. They must be resistant to disease. They must winter with no loss.

> We find it impossible to buy queens with the qualities we need in our environment, we are forced to raise our own queens. A honey producer normally does not have time to raise queens and such operations must be developed that will not interfere with normal operations for honey production or reduce the honey crop. We do not requeen normal colonies, but let each colony requeen itself. We produce queens by divisions early in the spring only to replace losses from wintering or failure of queens.

> We endeavor to keep a broad genetic foundation by maintaining as many queens as possible, not directly related to each other. Each year as we find good queens from other sources, these are introduced to add new blood as it becomes necessary. In this way we have been able to maintain our basic strain of vigorous queens over a long period of time. Over the years, our basic strain has adapted itself to our conditions and environment.

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