> There is also the consideration of the religious makeup of places like* *Utah?

I find it amusing that Grand County, Utah (where we are proposing the ordinance), in fact, has the lowest percentage of Mormons of any county in Utah (~ 29%). (We often say we should be annexed by Colorado.) I myself am a transplanted Pennsylvania Dutchman with way more interest in ("thinking deeply" about) honey bee health and ecology than religious exclusionism. So much for convenient, baseless stereotypes?

Meanwhile, it turns out SE and SC Utah has at least 10,000 square miles (yes, 10,000) of contiguous land that has no beekeepers, but does have plenty of feral honey bees.

So far, we have sampled and/or captured colonies as much as 35 desert air miles from the nearest town, sometimes with no road access. They live in rock crevices and cottonwood trees in open desert or canyons. They have tested C1, A1, A1e, and O1, so far. (Not* *all the A haplotypes have proven to be aggressive.  Apparently there is the possibility of A haplotype introduction to NA prior to the Brazilian event.) The Middle Eastern (O) colony does seem to be aggressive, which is consistent with their reputation back 100 years ago, before they disappeared from the commercial gene pool.

Regardless, these bees are surviving without the impact of antibiotics or mitacides, and historically have been recorded to have moved into these areas many decades ago. Could there be some interesting insight into honey
bee microbiomes here? Some of these populations may have never encountered Varroa and may collapse if domesticated, but it would be nice to be able to work with them and find out, without the influence of large numbers of transient colonies.

I have no idea yet if any of these strains will prove useful to beekeepers, but it is reassuring to know they are out there, surviving. (It is deeply pleasing to discover a strong healthy colony, miles from nowhere, making a living from the meagerest of vegetation, completely independent of humans.)

With no real potential for pollination services in this area, and almost no commercial scale forage to boot, it seems like a reasonable proactive move to try to avoid the incursion of overwintered, transient migratory bees. It was the possibility of exactly that which triggered the proposed ordinance. An existing refuge for feral and local bee stock seems very *different to me than a ?prison? (PLB). And, no, the ordinance does not imply the exclusion of outside bloodlines, just that it is probably more productive to do that in a controlled manner.

No offense to anyone, or their livelihood, is intended by the ordinance.

*Jerry Shue*

Jerry Shue
867 Rainbow Drive
Moab, Utah 84532
Cell - 435-260-8581

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