Hi all

Taking the subject line as the question, I say that there is no need for 
any importation at least initially.

The concept that "populations will stabilize and adapt" may be true, but 
left to nature, will be a very slow process. I see it as the breeder's 
responsibility to make selections that are sympathetic to and reinforce 
the traits that suit local conditions, thus generating a bee that fits 
the environment it is in, once stability has been achieved then the bees 
can be further selected for more complex traits like honey gathering. 
After stability has been achieved (ten to twenty years) it may be 
prudent to look for genes from further afield in the form of eggs and/or 
semen providing suitable bio-security is applied to the process.

The trouble is that to do this selection work the breeder must 
understand what the bee he is working with actually is in racial terms, 
what its behaviours are and how to recognise and measure the purity of 
breeding achieved.

However we as beekeepers are urged to breed from our 'best' colonies and 
most people consider 'best' to equate to a high yield of honey per hive, 
so these high yielding colonies are the ones used to breed from, when in 
many cases the high honey yield will be more to do with robbing 
propensity and hybrid vigour than any genetic disposition to gather a 
large honey crop.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://melliferabees.net Email: [log in to unmask]
Short FallBack M/c, Build 7.21/2.01
Son of ORAC M/c, Build 5.o1/2.o1

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