a couple of snips....
Dave wrote: "I am buying bees and buying bees, not to make increase, just to keep the same numbers.  Not making progress or money."

and then Chris..
'Why not breed from your own bees to maintain or increase numbers?  The recent COLOSS survey over 16 countries found,without exception, that local bees did better than those brought in from elsewhere.  It probably takes a couple of generations for bees to become attuned to the local microclimate and forage and so be considered 'local'.'

and ET's response..
Some of us do seem to have a problem in NOT having more bee hives than we can deal with.  I would GUESS that certainly some of this is about geography but I have no doubt that management style is also a primary consideration.

I have never had much faith in the idea of geographical natural selection over any short period of time but I do suspect that culling can remove not adaptive individuals quite quickly as can some folks individual management styles.

It would be interesting to compare trends (number up + , or numbers down-) and then to compare management objectives and style.

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